Monday, November 29, 2010 | Posted by
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Unplug when not in use!!
Most visitors to Live Green Life come looking for ways to save energy in their homes - and many of those want to save electricity. We've had over 425 pageviews in the past one months, and more than half of those were on pages covering electricity use - from air conditioners to electric heaters to fridges to freezers to lighting.
Why are people so eager to save electricity? Is it because costs keep rising? Is it because the economic downturn is making people more focused on cutting costs? Or are people motivated by concerns over climate change, pollution, or dependence on foreign energy imports?
Save Electricity Logo
Our family wanted to switch to solar electric power, to cut the CO2 emissions and nuclear waste produced on our behalf by our utility. Since cutting use up front means you don't have to spend as much on solar panels, we cut out the fat and got our use down to half what it was before. Then we realized that we could just buy our power from a green electricity supplier, and still wind up paying less, even with the green energy premium, than we used to pay before when we used more. So we were motivated both by environmental and money concerns.
What is your motivation for wanting to save electricity? Is it:
Wanting to cut back on smog in the air you breathe?
Opposition to nuclear power?
CO2 emissions and climate change?
Struggling to make ends meet?
Let us know your motivations, and what you're doing (or planning to do) to save electricity. By filling out the form below, you'll get your own web page on our site, complete with your idea and any comments others care to add. You can also comment on other people's submissions - just click on someone else's submission below to rate it or add a comment. To backup us follow us on facebook. click on the like button right under this post !
Friday, November 19, 2010 | Posted by
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Water Management is a growing trend that enables in bringing down the water bill, saving money, water and environment. Intense competition among water users from agriculture, industry and domestic sector is pushing the ground water table deeper. Proper water management in your apartment helps to make your layout complete sustainable for water without depending on private or corporation water. The more educated you are regarding water management, the better decision you are likely to make. Water consumption in your apartment complex can be reduced by following ways.
Important Methods in Water Management
Many communities accept that there is growing demand for water and thinking ahead about water security or management. Methods of water management can be classified as Conservation, Allocation, retrofit program and Behavioral practices.
Conservation
Conservation or water conservation helps to recharge ground water by reducing consumption and using alternative source of water. This method includes rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, reuse of Greywater and recycling wastewater.
Rainwater Harvesting System: Rainwater harvesting system is collection of rainwater from the surface which directly receives rainfall. Rainwater harvesting system can be rooftop rainwater harvesting or artificial groundwater recharging. Rooftop rainwater harvesting is quite popular since it can either be stored in a tank or diverted to artificial recharge system.
Groundwater recharge: Groundwater recharge is a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge occurs both naturally and artificially. In natural groundwater recharge, groundwater is recharged naturally by rain and snow melt and to a smaller extent by surface water such as rivers and lakes. Artificial groundwater recharge is a successful method in order to purify surface water and to improve the water management. Artificial groundwater recharge is the infiltration of surface water into shallow aquifers to increase the quantity of groundwater. The volume-rate abstracted from an aquifer in the long term should be less than or equal to the volume-rate that is recharged.
Greywater System: Greywater is wastewater from non-toilet plumbing systems such as hand basins, washing machines, showers and baths. Most Greywater is easier to treat and recycle than blackwater, because of lower levels of contaminants. The method and standard of treatment in a Greywater system will vary with the size of the system. Pipes and supply points on the Greywater system must be clearly labeled in order to avoid confusion with the mains drinking water. Greywater systems can help you save 35% to 40% on your annual water bill.
Recycling wastewater/ STP system: Recycling wastewater involves Greywater system and blackwater system. Greywater is easier to treat and recycle than blackwater. Blackwater contains bacteria that can cause disease. That’s why communities build wastewater treatment plants and enforce laws against the release of raw sewage into the environment. Sewage Treatment plant system are used to recycle blackwater. In recent years, there has been growing interest in waste-water reuse as a major component of water demand management.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 | Posted by
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Most often we plant trees to provide shade and beautify our landscapes. These are great benefits but trees also provide other less obvious benefits.
Environmental Benefits
Trees reduce the urban heat island effect through evaporative cooling and reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches parking lots and buildings. This is especially true in areas with large impervious surfaces, such as parking lots of stores and industrial complexes.
Trees improve our air quality by filtering harmful dust and pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide from the air we breathe.
Trees give off oxygen that we need to breathe.
Trees reduce the amount of storm water runoff, which reduces erosion and pollution in our waterways and may reduce the effects of flooding.
Many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat. Trees provide food, protection, and homes for many birds and mammals.
Economic Benefits
Well placed trees can reduce your cooling costs in the summer by shading the south and west sides of your home. If deciduous trees are used they will allow the sun to pass through and warm your home in the winter.
Evergreen trees on the north side of your home and shrubs around the foundation of your home can act as a windbreak to reduce the cooling effects of winter winds.
The value of a well landscaped home with mature healthy trees can be as much as 10% higher than a similar home with no or little landscaping. (Topping will reduce the value of your trees)
Some indirect economic benefits of trees are that if we reduce the energy we use then utility companies will have less demand placed on the infrastructure, thus reducing operating costs which can be passed on to the consumer.
Social Benefits
It has been shown that spending time among trees and green spaces reduces the amount of stress that we carry around with us in our daily lives. Trees make life nicer.
Hospital patients have been shown to recover from surgery more quickly when their hospital room offered a view of trees.
Children have been shown to retain more of the information taught in schools if they spend some of their time outdoors in green spaces.
Trees are often planted as living memorials or reminders of loved ones or to commemorate significant events in our lives.
Communal Benefits
Even though you may own the trees on your property your neighbors may benefit from them as well.
Tree lined streets have a traffic calming effect, traffic moves more slowly and safely.
Trees can be placed to screen unwanted views or noise from busy highways.
Trees can complement the architecture or design of buildings or entire neighborhoods.
Thursday, November 11, 2010 | Posted by
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Are you planning to change or dump your cell phone? Then i am sure you must be thinking about- Where to do with yourold mobile phone? Well, now you can do more better than throwing amobile phone. Nokia is now planting atreefor eachmobile phoneyou recycle with them. I am sure you must have seen Recycle Information on the back of yourmobile phonebattery or on themobile phonebox.
Why Recycle mobile phones? According to Nokia last survey “Only 3% of people recycle their mobile phones globally.If every Nokia user recycled just one unused phone at the end of its life, together we would save nearly 80,000 tonnes of raw materials.”
Recycling gives your phone a second life
Is your unused phone cluttering up your desk drawer? If you no longer need your mobile device, then bring it back to us for recycling and we can put it to good use - 100 percent of the materials in your phone can be recovered and used to make new products or generate energy.
We work with carefully selected companies who reclaim materials from the phones and accessories we pass on to them. These companies are assessed on a regular basis to make sure they’re doing things properly and that anything handed to them is recycled responsibly.
Nokia has always been at the forefront of environmental initiatives. With their Take-back campaign, they have proved that they do care.
With this campaign, Nokia aims to encourage handset users to dispose off their unusable or old handsets and accessories of any brand at recycle bins installed at Nokia Care Centres and Nokia Priority Dealers.
According to Nokia.com Recycling provides benefits such as:
• Efficient recycling starts by getting the products back and consolidating/sorting/pre-treating them to maximize the efficiencies of the recycling
• End-of-life handsets contain many valuable materials which can be recovered and reused in manufacturing new products
• Up to 80% of the materials in an old phone can be reused in this way
If you have a mobile phone lying in a corner of a drawer or cupboard wouldn’t you rather give it to Nokia to be successfully recycled and help a great and necessary cause?
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 | Posted by
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Historically, paper was made by recycling cotton and linen rags. The first paper mill in the U.S. colonies, built near Philadelphia in 1690, was a recycling mill. Papermakers learned how to make paper from trees in the mid-1800s, allowing a dynamic expansion in communications and business paper usage. At the time, people considered forests and energy to be unlimited, and air and water infinitely capable of cleansing and renewal. Today, we recognize the limits of resource demand and the necessity for environmentally sustainable production systems. That's why recycled paper is a critical part of our vision for a healthy global environment.
The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) environmental labeling guidelines require only "recovered materials" for papers labeled as "recycled." There is no postconsumer content required, so papers containing only mill scraps could qualify. Any paper labeled with the chasing arrows symbol is required to both have 100% recycled content as well as be recyclable in a reasonably available collection system. If the paper does not meet one or both criteria, text must accompany the chasing arrows symbol explaining what qualifications the product does meet. If the label does not indicate postconsumer content, you should assume there is none until investigating further.
You can get just about every kind of paper now with recycled content, providing high quality papers for businesses, billing, magazines, catalogs, books, advertising, direct mail and many other uses. Grades available include:
letterhead, stationery and envelopes
business cards
brochure papers
high quality copy paper
offset
text and cover
book printing papers
opaques
all grades of coated papers
bristols, index, translucent, tag and board, drawing, and specialty papers
Aren't Recycled Papers More Expensive?
In the past, recycled papers often cost considerably more than virgin papers. Today, many grades such as text and cover (often used for letterhead, brochures and publications) and some coated papers are cost-competitive with virgin papers or even cost less. Copier and offset papers still tend to cost somewhat more, but the price differentials are smaller than ever, usually only a few percent.
When there are cost differences, they are primarily caused by many recycled papers being made on smaller paper machines than virgin papers (creating a difference in economies of scale), by virgin paper mills dropping their prices because of vagaries in the market, and by imbalances caused by a newly capitalized and still-developing recycling system vs. a well-established and industrially integrated tree-pulping production system. Additionally, recycled paper incorporates all its costs into the product, including providing an alternative to disposal, and is not rewarded for its significantly lower energy and water use. Virgin paper costs, on the other hand, are masked by generous government timber, energy and water subsidies and do not incorporate responsibility or costs for the product's eventual disposal.
Friday, November 05, 2010 | Posted by
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The word eco means environment. The upcoming Diwali is termed as Kali Diwali. The reason is the excessive use of crackers. There was the recent news of Mumbai spenting Rs 6
00 crores on crackers. That is only Mumbai, think of the rest of India. For the enjoyment of a few
people and for few hours is it worth wasting so much money? When many poor people sleep with empty stomachs, many are dying without medicine, many are sleeping in the cold on the footpath, I do not understand the logic behind spending so much money on crackers.
The whole world is concerned about pollution and global warming. Crackers increase pollution and increase the temperature as well. The poor are the biggest sufferers. Rich people enjoy and poor people suffer as they do not have a roof above their heads and poor nourishment, thus making them suffer more. The administration also banned the sale of crackers in congested markets, narrow lanes and crowded areas. Even licensed fire cracker sellers would not be allowed to sell cra
ckers in public places. They have been restricted from storing crackers in residential areas or private houses, failing which action would be taken against them.
Crackers are an essential part of Diwali. However, pollution level in the air shoots up drastically during Diwali. Instead of selecting traditional chemical cracker this Diwali go for eco-friendly crackers. Eco-friendly crackers are made up of recycled paper and the sound produced by these crackers is under the decibel limit defined by the Pollution Board. These crackers produce paper fluffers and different color lights instead of sound on bursting. There are a number of grounds designated for sale of crackers, to buy Eco-friendly firecrackers.
Monday, November 01, 2010 | Posted by
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Original article written for : www.inspringindianism.blogspot.com
Being in the second largest country, many people in India takes it as a privilege to do small small mistakes. As you all know this website aims at turning those irresponsible citizens into perfect Indians. The small mistakes that you do in public places (such as splitting in public places, throwing wastes on roads, etc) accumulate into a big mistake. The people those who so these sorts of mistakes only blame that India is not neat and compare India with foreign countries. Instead, they can aim at making India cleaner and they can influence people who do those activities not to do them.
Next, think within yourself, list out the things that you have done for your country. Could you think of 10 items that you have done to your country, being a citizen? If you have not, here is a turn for you to do a huge contribution to our country. The major problem in our country is power production. Imagine a day in your life without electricity? It is every citizens’ duty to conserve power in their country. Because you are over using electricity, someone else would be definitely suffer without power. Use only eco-friendly products. You may think, me being a single person may not do a huge make over to this, but think a 1 million people going eco-friendly, it would definitely do a huge change to the society.
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