How is the "Green" Industry in your area?
- Thread starter MattinSTL
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I just wish people would stop depending on the Charleton Hestons, George Carlins, and Rush Limbaughs for information on the environment. None of them have PHD after their names and thus are offering uninformed opinion. I really wish they'd shut up and let the folks of Caltech and NASA to give us the real skinny on what's going on.
chris f
Veteran
Out here in San Diego the green thing is kind of popular and probably more mandated by the government than most places. I shop at Whole Foods because I have alot of food allergies and it's like a Green Zone in there, ha. Not a plastic bag in sight. I'm not exactly sure, but I think they've passed legislation or will be that will charge the store (and then passed on to the customer) something like 25 cents per plastic bag.
I'm all for treating the environment well, but I think the "green technologies" should come out at their own pace as technology improves, the demand rises, and it's effeciency can make it justifiable. Subsidizing or mandating anything seems to me to be a crutch and if something can't stand on it's own yet, then it's not time.
I also think a lot of people take the whole "going green" thing as a way to just brag, or feel better about themselves, or for good PR for their company. I'm not a fan of self-promotion and I think it's kind of silly. If you want to support it, I commend you for that.
Good example of an efficient "green" technology: fluorescent light bulbs
Bad example of an efficient "green" technology: ethanol
One was pushed by market demand and promotion the other by mandated subsidies.
I'm all for treating the environment well, but I think the "green technologies" should come out at their own pace as technology improves, the demand rises, and it's effeciency can make it justifiable. Subsidizing or mandating anything seems to me to be a crutch and if something can't stand on it's own yet, then it's not time.
I also think a lot of people take the whole "going green" thing as a way to just brag, or feel better about themselves, or for good PR for their company. I'm not a fan of self-promotion and I think it's kind of silly. If you want to support it, I commend you for that.
Good example of an efficient "green" technology: fluorescent light bulbs
Bad example of an efficient "green" technology: ethanol
One was pushed by market demand and promotion the other by mandated subsidies.
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JConnors
Veteran
I grew up in a place that for years from like 1986 to 2008 any carbonated beverage had to be in a glass bottle. Coke, Pepsi, Beer, you name it, the entire province had a can ban.
Now there were two reasons for it, 1) there used to be a Coke and Pepsi plant and they wanted to keep the jobs in the province (they were going to close the plants) and ship the beverages from another plant in a different province, so by implementing the can ban, the plants had to stay open as they were unique in the fact that they had to bottle in bottles.
2) The government at the time said it was environmental issues (while the real reason is listed above) and that there were too many cans not being returned as the deposit to return them wasn't worth it and they were ending up in landfills etc. So, the implented a can ban and cranked up the deposit on bottles to .20 for 350ml, .40 for 750ml and .80 for 1.5L bottles. Years later they did a study and roughly 95% of the bottles were returned for their deposit and something like the bottle could be used 20 times before it needed to be broken down and made into another bottle again. The remainder 5% were either broken or not returned.
Aluminum cans can only be used once before it needs to be recycled.
I always found it funny that when bottled water caught on, there was never a problem with that, but cans were terrible for the environment, at least Aluminum can be recycled.
For years and years it was a big deal to get Pop or Beer in a can, since the province is an Island you literally had to go to the mainland to get a beverage in a can, so whenever we'd leave the Island and went to the mainland you came back with like 200 cans of pop or a bunch of beer. Pretty funny stuff.
The province is pretty big on preserving itself, in like 1996 the implemted a waste watch program (first in the country), residents were responsibe for buying two bins, one for waste and other for recyclables, the government was responsible for the rest, pick up waste on Thursdays and recylables on Tuesday, if it's not sorted properly, they won't pick it up.
At first people complained and whined about doing it, but years later people have gotten used to it that they don't think twice about what goes in what bin or bag. It's really a fantastic idea and has definetly cut down on the garbage that goes into their landfills, it also created a bunch of jobs for an area of the country that has a high unemployment rate.
Now there were two reasons for it, 1) there used to be a Coke and Pepsi plant and they wanted to keep the jobs in the province (they were going to close the plants) and ship the beverages from another plant in a different province, so by implementing the can ban, the plants had to stay open as they were unique in the fact that they had to bottle in bottles.
2) The government at the time said it was environmental issues (while the real reason is listed above) and that there were too many cans not being returned as the deposit to return them wasn't worth it and they were ending up in landfills etc. So, the implented a can ban and cranked up the deposit on bottles to .20 for 350ml, .40 for 750ml and .80 for 1.5L bottles. Years later they did a study and roughly 95% of the bottles were returned for their deposit and something like the bottle could be used 20 times before it needed to be broken down and made into another bottle again. The remainder 5% were either broken or not returned.
Aluminum cans can only be used once before it needs to be recycled.
I always found it funny that when bottled water caught on, there was never a problem with that, but cans were terrible for the environment, at least Aluminum can be recycled.
For years and years it was a big deal to get Pop or Beer in a can, since the province is an Island you literally had to go to the mainland to get a beverage in a can, so whenever we'd leave the Island and went to the mainland you came back with like 200 cans of pop or a bunch of beer. Pretty funny stuff.
The province is pretty big on preserving itself, in like 1996 the implemted a waste watch program (first in the country), residents were responsibe for buying two bins, one for waste and other for recyclables, the government was responsible for the rest, pick up waste on Thursdays and recylables on Tuesday, if it's not sorted properly, they won't pick it up.
At first people complained and whined about doing it, but years later people have gotten used to it that they don't think twice about what goes in what bin or bag. It's really a fantastic idea and has definetly cut down on the garbage that goes into their landfills, it also created a bunch of jobs for an area of the country that has a high unemployment rate.
Postmaster
Dark Side of the Camera
Don´t want to pop your baloon, but things like that seldom work on a large scale.
We have to buy 4 differnt bins here.
1.Yellow - plastic stuff with a recycling sticker on it
2. Green - paper
3. Brown - compostable
4. Grey - the rest
Sounds good on the first look.
Here is what happenes.
1. You not only have to buy 4 bins, they also charge you 4 times for picking it up.
2. They sell the plastic recicle material to China to fuel the chinese powerstations (without filters of course)
3. The stuff of the grey bins is not burning anymore so they have to buy coal to burn it.
4. Or they take the paper we collect in the green bin, to help burning, caus we have much more recycling paper now, than we could use in our whole life.
5. Same problem with compost/mixed manure from the brown bin- they put it in lanfills now caus they can´t sell so much.
An other example is drinking water.
In Germany the tap water has exelent quality.
There is a water saving campain since years.
Now we using only 50-60% of the water we used 20 years ago.
They have to flush the canalization and drains with tousends of gallons of drinking water now every other week or they get stuffed, caus we use not enough water.
What ever they did, it causes nothing but raised costs.
It did nothing for the enviroment, and at the end i was not green at all.
We have to buy 4 differnt bins here.
1.Yellow - plastic stuff with a recycling sticker on it
2. Green - paper
3. Brown - compostable
4. Grey - the rest
Sounds good on the first look.
Here is what happenes.
1. You not only have to buy 4 bins, they also charge you 4 times for picking it up.
2. They sell the plastic recicle material to China to fuel the chinese powerstations (without filters of course)
3. The stuff of the grey bins is not burning anymore so they have to buy coal to burn it.
4. Or they take the paper we collect in the green bin, to help burning, caus we have much more recycling paper now, than we could use in our whole life.
5. Same problem with compost/mixed manure from the brown bin- they put it in lanfills now caus they can´t sell so much.
An other example is drinking water.
In Germany the tap water has exelent quality.
There is a water saving campain since years.
Now we using only 50-60% of the water we used 20 years ago.
They have to flush the canalization and drains with tousends of gallons of drinking water now every other week or they get stuffed, caus we use not enough water.
What ever they did, it causes nothing but raised costs.
It did nothing for the enviroment, and at the end i was not green at all.
Postmaster
Dark Side of the Camera
They don´t charge you for pickup?
Lucky bastards!
Time to move to Canada
Too much is going out of controll over here.
Frank
Lucky bastards!
Time to move to Canada
Too much is going out of controll over here.
Frank
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Yup. No charge at all hear, including Health Care. :beer:They don´t charge you for pickup?
Lucky bastards!
Time to move to Canada
Too much is going out of control over here.
Frank
The selling off to China thing doesn't happen here either, as far as I know. :huh:
We (my family) have cloth bags that we re-use for our groceries, so no plastic waste there. We recycle all of our cans, bottles, papers, yard waste, etc...
We use a programmable thermostat that automatically turns down the heat at night and during the day when we are away. Our appliances are all high efficiency, as well as our furnace. We also have low-flush toilets throughout the house. We use high efficiency light bulbs, which have to be recycled as well.
It's not much but every bit counts.
Hybrid car is next. Once the prices drop a bit...
Mike
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
ugafan
Looking for a woman
here we have a trash bin and a recycling bin. we can put any recyclable material in the bin and they will collect and sort it out for us. the fee for garbage/recycling is $15 a month. most people don't recycle, they just put everything in the garbage can.
MattinSTL
Sound Modulator
I love when people pull something in one of my posts completely out of context, and then criticize it while they don't even realize the FULL message in the reply is in agreement with their own view.
I was throwing the righties a bone there... while also illustrating how dumb that speech was. I'm sorry you missed the point.
To clarify. The earth doesn't need us... and the earth doesn't really care about us, or any of the animals living on it. Eventually the earth will just be another barren rock like mars anyway... and you can check NASA on that if you don't believe me.
I was trying to illustrate that the people who discourage green practices, by saying the earth doesn't care... are pretty stupid because a house doesn't care if you fill it with carbon monoxide either... and eventually that CO will leak out to a safe level, but in the interim the inhabitants die.
So continuing to point out the longevity of the planet, and it's ability to clean itself... has nothing to do with the longevity of the current species living on it. THAT was my point... that it's really not the planet that needs saving, it's the people and all the other living things. That's the real reason for doing what you can to go green.
:beer:
Hey, calm down, my post was intended to be absolutely in agreement with yours. I agree with everything you said 100% and I sincerely hope that all your footage on green living ends up on TV.
Sorry my post wasn't more clear.
Nathyn
Low Budget Ninja
Then I'm going to just watch this conversation. Not that I'm anti green but I know my opinions on the matter are not popular. But you all know I believe science is becoming a faith and suppressing facts is the big new thing. (JR probably knows what I'm talking about). Anyway Chicago has blue bagging, other than that I don't know anything else about what they're doing and blue bagging wasn't all that successful and has ended this year: http://www.chicagorecycling.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=18&Itemid=38 but I think the green industry has legs and is needed but not for all the reasons believed.
Also everyone wants to go green but if the auto and oil industries own all the technology (which a lot of them do) it will never happen unless by some form of force. By the way have you seen Chevy's questionable excuse as to what happened to the electric car? http://www.chevrolet.com/electricca...G_Electric_|_Chevy_FS_Electric_|_electric_car and the link for the question "Are You the ones who killed the electric car?" http://www.chevrolet.com/electriccar/articles/index.jsp?id=2 but here's a taste of what they had to say "We didn't kill the electric car; electric vehicle technology is far from dead." The follow up should be, "Uh, then why haven't you been using it?" If not for the green push no one would know squat about the Volt and everyone knows it.
-Nate
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