The Great Debate for Going Green In Small Town Maine

Why should we make small changes to our life style? Depending on the number of people that make these small changes, these small things grow into a substantial impact.

Changing Things All of us can make small changes at little to no cost within our homes and work places. Bigger changes aren’t always the best option for the community.

It can be as easy as turning off things that we aren’t currently using like the lights.

It can be as easy as turning off things that we aren’t currently using like the computer.

It can be as easy as turning off things that we aren’t currently using like the TV.

It can be as easy as turning off things that we aren’t currently using like the AC.

By turning off and unplugging non-essential lights and appliances, the electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home puts more carbon dioxide into the air than two average cars.

ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime.

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

However if Compact Florescent Light bulbs are used it is important to properly dispose of them because of the small amount of mercury in them and people need to take them to the hazardous waste collection facility.

Reduce, Reuse and RECYCLE Twenty years ago, there was only one curbside recycling program existed in the WHOLE United States. By 2005, almost 9,000 curbside programs popped up. As of 2005, around 500 materials recovery facilities had been established to process collected materials.

While recycling has grown, recycling of specific materials has grown even more drastically: 50 percent of all paper, 34 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging, and 67 percent of all major appliances are now recycled.

So what does it mean?In 1999, recycling and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. Today, this country recycles 32% of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years.

So why aren’t we stepping up our efforts if we can prevent this much waste from being placed into the environment?

The recycling of aluminum will: save 95% energy vs. virgin aluminum.

The recycling of 1 aluminum can will: Save enough energy to run a TV for 6 hours.

The recycling of aluminum will: Reduce pollution by 95%.

The recycling of glass will: Save 50% energy vs. virgin glass.

The recycling of 1 glass container will: Save enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours.

The recycling of glass will: Generate 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution.

The recycling of 1 ton of glass made from 50% recycled materials will: Save 250 lbs. of mining waste.

The glass will: Be reused an infinite number of times; there are over 41 billion glass containers made each year.

Over a ton of resources are saved for every ton of glass recycled and by using 50% recycled glass it cuts the waste generated by 75%.

One fifth of all wood harvested in the world ends up in paper. It takes 2 to 3.5 tons of trees to make one ton of paper.

The recycling of paper will: Save 60% energy vs. virgin paper

The recycling of paper will: Generate 95% less air pollution: each ton of recycled paper saves 60 lbs. of air pollution

The recycling of 1 ton paper will: Save 17 trees and 7000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil and enough electricity to power the average house for six months

If offices across the country increased the rate of two-sided photocopying from the 1991 figure of 20% to 60%, the equivalent of about 15 million trees could be saved

We use enough plastic to: Wrap all of Texas every year.

We create enough plastic water bottles to:  Use over 1.5 million barrels of oil per year. In one year, that’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.

We create enough plastic water bottles to: Give each American about 167 bottles of water each, but only recycle an average of 38 bottles per person, which equals about 50 billion plastic bottles consumed, recycling only 23% leaving 38 billion water bottles in landfills.

For one plastic bottle to START to decompose it takes:

700 YEARS

Plastic bottles are very fashionable:

It takes about 5 plastic bottles to produce enough fiber filling for a ski coat,

25 recycled bottles can make a fleece coat,

and 26 bottles to make a polyester suit.

Water, Water Every Where….

So Let’s Waste It.

Every day, Americans flush 4.8 billion gallons of water down the toilet.

Ways to reduce water consumption:

The DIY water saving toilet

Fill a half gallon container. Recycling a plastic container is ideal. Remove the label on the outside of the container. Partially fill the container with pebbles, sand, or gravel; something that has weight. Then add water to the container. If you just fill it with water the container will move around in the tank and interfere with the mechanism.

The container when placed in the reservoir tank displaces water and does not use as much per flush.

The New York Times reported that a sealed half gallon container will save half a gallon on each flush. If you, like most Americans, flush 5 times daily, your family of 3 will save 200 gallons of water every month and 2400 gallons a year

Other methods include: Take shorter showers. Try a "Navy" shower; get wet, turn off the water, soap and scrub, then turn the water on to rinse.

Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Saves three gallons each day.

Take more showers than baths. Bathing uses the most hot water in the average household. You use 15 to 25 gallons of hot water for a bath, but less than 10 gallons during a 5-minute shower.

Fix leaky faucets and plumbing joints. Saves 20 gallons per day for every leak stopped.

Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors. Saves 500 to 800 gallons per month. Replace your showerhead with an ultra low-flow version, saving up to 2.5 gallons per minute.

It’s Getting Hot in Here

So….Turn Down the Thermostat

Planning a party? Turn the thermostats down. Each guest is the equivalent of a 175-watt heater, and a large group will warm up the place without the furnace or the heating units in operation.

In the winter, turn your thermostats down to 68 degrees or below. Reduce the setting to 55 degrees before going to sleep or when leaving for the day. For each 1 degree you turn down the thermostat in the winter, you’ll save up to 5% on your heating costs.

Keep your fireplace damper closed unless a fire is going. Keeping the damper open is like keeping a 48-inch window wide open during the winter; it allows warm air to go right up the chimney.

Raise wall and attic insulation levels. Many older homes have inferior insulation installed at earlier times. There are options for adding insulation to existing homes with minimal disruption such as using recycled materials that can be blown into attics or walls, and can pay for itself in less than ten years.

You want another method to save energy and be more efficient?

It is one that can cost more…

But saves just as much energy as the rest.

Consumer Choices

Buy used

Buy local

Know where your money is going and what it is being spent on.

Know how your product is being produced.

All of these methods are low cost and extremely easy to do, so why should we spend the money to use larger methods when we are failing to do the smaller things?

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