Happy New Year!

I want to start 2009 with a positive thinking for American green living. After returning to Chicago from a holiday travel, I noticed that America has so many more thrift stores than at least, France, Germany and Japan.

This is so true. Thrift stores are everywhere in America from small towns in Missouri to big cities like Chicago. We don’t only save money by buying second-hand products for this bad economy, but also is a great way to help make a life greener.

I can’t wait to do some research to introduce on EcoWabi log how we can use Thrift Stores to make our lives greener!

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There was an article in New York Times about the discovery of making biodiesel with used coffee beans by the University of Nevada, Reno.

A professor of engineering realized coffee beans contained a large amount of oil in one morning, “I made a coffee one night but forgot to drink it. The next morning I saw a layer of oil floating on it.” So, he started researching and published the analysis of making biodiesel from used grounds. The article adds that the amount produced would be less than 1 percent of the diesel used in the United States annually and won’t solve the energy problem by itself.

This professor’s discovery was unique, but was not enough to save the environment by itself. What if we keep discovering such a new idea, and adding one idea to another? Can they make an impact to the earth overall? I also believe that this kind of discovery is the key of going greener. When something is so used to us, we don’t realize how a certain thing can be reused. I wish there were a public “comment box” to drop new “discoveries” like this. So that government or university labs can collect new ideas to see if they are worth further research. Or, does such a box already exist?

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I was in Paris for five days. It was a little too long for me, I remembered why I left Paris three years ago. The traffic was really bad and the smell of exhaust was so strong, I had to cover my nose a lot of times.

But, there was a big green change in Paris. There is a public rental bike system called Velib. Anyone with a credit card can rent a bike for 1 euro for 24 hours. If you return the bike to an automated bike station in 30 minutes, there is no additional charge to use the bike! I was staying in a hotel in the center of Paris, so getting by the places like Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower and many museums was in the 30 minutes bike range.

Moreover, “thanks to the bad traffic,” I enjoyed this bike ride very much - I didn’t have to follow the fast traffic, I could look around the streets to see shops and architecture. (Of course, I was watching the street too!) A lot of streets also have bus and bike lanes.

I definitely recommend people who are traveling to Paris to enjoy the city with Velib!

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As I was researching for this blog, I learned that there are a lot of articles discussing about the safety of water bottles and microwavable plastic containers.

You might have already heard about the news, how much water bottles can get dirty by reusing them. The plastic water bottles are designed for single use and extended use increase the risk of leaching and bacteria growth. So, if you are looking for a bottle to refill water, I recommend to get a water flask for your green action.

The discussion of microwaving plastic containers seems to be more complicated. One source says that they still found chemicals from ‘microwave safe’ plastic containers. On the other hand, one source says if you use it properly, it is safe. So, I came to a conclusion that ‘Don’t Use Microwave At All!’

In fact, I don’t own a microwave. But, I still freeze food and have leftover food in the refrigerator. And, in fact, I don’t feel the need to have a microwave to do defrosting and reheating jobs. If you plan your meals ahead, you take the frozen food out of freezer to put in the refrigerator to defrost. I use a frying pan and a lid to reheat leftovers. This reheating technique works quite well. Make sure to put the lid on and cook on very very low heat from the beginning, so that it naturally creates enough moisture to avoid burning inside the pan. - Using a pan may not heat the food in one minute like microwave, but it heats up in just a couple of minutes and it works!

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The 2nd lesson is about how to recycle plastic by understanding what it is made of.

The basic raw materials for plastic are petroleum and/or natural gas. These fossil fuels are sometimes combined with other elements, such as oxygen or chlorine, to make different types of plastic. That is why putting plastics into landfills is not always the best disposal method. There are two other alternatives: recycling and incineration.

Recycling:

Recycling recovers the raw material, which can then be used to make 2nd life plastic products. So, how can you recycle plastics?

We are supposed to sort plastic waste by category (we learned seven types of plastics in Plastics 101), but, it sounds too much of a hassle and we want an easy way to recycle plastic. So, here is one solution. For example, in Chicago, City of Chicago Recycling Drop-Off Center takes all seven types of household plastics. So, you can just bring all the plastic waste and dump in the drop-off bin. Easy! (Find a location that accepts every plastic waste at www.earth911.com)

Before recycling, make sure to rinse the container and squash it. You may leave the paper labels on the container, but throw away the plastic caps. Plastic caps are usually made from a different type of plastic than the container and cannot be easily recycled.

Incineration:

Incineration recovers the chemical energy, which can be used to produce steam and electricity.

Because plastics are made from fossil fuels, plastics contain as much energy as petroleum or natural gas, and much more energy than other types of garbage. This makes plastic an ideal fuel for waste-to-energy plants. Waste-to-energy plants burn garbage and use the heat energy released during combustion to make steam or electricity. They turn garbage into useful energy.

So, should we burn plastics or recycle them? It depends. Sometimes it takes more energy to make a product from recycled plastics than it does to make it from all-new materials. If that’s the case, it makes more sense to burn the plastics at a waste-to-energy plant than to recycle them. Burning plastics can supply an abundant amount of energy, while reducing the cost of waste disposal and saving landfill space.

Source: Energy Information Administration

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For the next few EcoWabi blogs, I want to discuss about basics, recycling and safety of “Plastic.”

Plastic 101: Basics Of Plastic

In the world that we live in, plastic is all over around us. Plastic can be flexible or rigid; transparent or opaque. It can look like leather, wood, or silk. Not all plastics are the same. That’s why there’s a code on the bottom of the packaging for recycling. (Some products also put recycling symbol on the product label to ensure the package is recyclable.)

There are seven types of plastics:

Plastic 1 (PET or PETE): Soda, water and beer bottles, mouthwash bottles, boil-in-bag pouches, salad dressing, vegetable oil containers.
Plastic 2 (HDPE): Milk jugs, trash bags, detergent bottles.
Plastic 3 (PVC): Cooking oil bottles, packaging around meat.
Plastic 4 (LDPE): Grocery bags, produce bags, food wrap, bread bags.
Plastic 5 (PP): Yogurt containers, shampoo bottles, margarine tubs, diapers.
Plastic 6 (PS): Disposable plates and cups, take-home boxes, egg cartons, meat trays, cd cases, aspirin bottles.
Plastic 7 (OTHER): All other types of plastics or packaging made from more than one type of plastic.

Once you start separating plastic waste from others, you’ll know how much plastic products we are dealing with and can recycle to transform to the 2nd life products! (My 25L garbage bag for recycling plastics can fill up in just a few weeks!)

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Thanksgiving is over. I went to visit my “adopted” family in Springfield, Missouri. Because of the high gas price a few months ago when many people plan their Thanksgiving weekend trip, I neglected to buy airline tickets until last minute.

Then, the sudden gas price fall. I ended up driving eight hours to go to see my family. I knew that driving was not a most eco-friendly way to travel, but I couldn’t resist of taking an advantage of $25 per full tank. Does that mean lower gas price encourages people including myself to travel by car and not looking for an alternative way to travel???

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Duskin is a Japanese cleaning mop rental company since 1963. I saw their new TV commercials and found out that they do more than just re-using dirty mops. (Disposable floor cleaners like Swixxer are bad for the environment!) When Duskin re-produces collected dirty mops, they ‘recycle’ dust that came with the dirty mops, and the ‘recycled’ dust becomes one of the resources of cement. (Wow!)

A lot of companies are introducing new green ideas everyday. Are we as an individual progressing like companies are progressing? Individuals don’t make money by going green, but instead, we can save money by going green like re-using and choosing re-usable products.

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Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Amazon is one of the top websites for Christmas shopping. I heard that they have good deals on green products, so, I did a quick price comparison on Seventh Generation Dish Soaps. (Seventh Generation website has a list of online shopping retailers that carry its brand. I checked all 11 of them to compared the price of Dish Soap.)

I found out that Amazon sure had the best deal as of today, November 17, for $2.66 per bottle,^th, and offers “Super Saver Free Shipping”! One drawback is that Amazon only sells green products with a pack; for example, Seventh Generation Dish Soap pack comes with 12 bottles. But hey, it’s perfect if you have a big family!

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Myth: It’s important to warm up the engine with a long idle period, especially in cold weather.

Fact: Modern vehicle engines do not need to be warmed in the winter before they are driven. The best way to warm up your vehicle is by driving the vehicle. No more than about 30 seconds of idling before driving away is necessary, even on the coldest winter days.

Myth: Turn off and restarting your vehicle is hard on the engine.

Fact: Frequently restarting has little impact on engine components like the battery and the starter motor. The wear on parts that restarting the engine causes adds about $10 a year to the cost of driving – money that you’ll likely save over in fuel.

Myth: Turning off and restarting your vehicle uses more gas than if you leave it running.

Fact: Ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it. Turn off the engine if you are stopping for more than 10 seconds – except in traffic.

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