Plastic Power!

Okay, everyone's been on a major "Go Green" kick this week on the blog and for the past few years in the rest of the world. That's great. No, seriously it's GREAT!

The only thing is- what can one person do all by themselves? What can you accomplish by putting your empty soda can or water bottle in that special green container? What's the power of your plastic?
RECYCLING:
1 aluminum can will save enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a tv for 2 hours. That same can might return to the grocer's as a new and filled can in 90 days or less after the recycling process.
1 1-Liter soda bottle is enough plastic to make a ruler for next school year.
5 to 11 1-Gallon milk jugs is enough to make a frisbee.
14 20-ounce greens soda bottles can make an extra-large t-shirt.
85 20-ounce soda bottles will make enough material to fill a sleeping bag.
96 1-Gallon milk jugs can make a 6 ft long piece of 2x4 lumber.
125 aluminum cans will save enough energy to power the average home for an entire day!
1000 1-Gallon milk jugs is enough material for a park bench.
1200 plastic bottles is enough for a 200 lb. railroad tie.
12000 plastic bottles is enough for a boat! See below...
1 ton of plastic can save 1-2 thousand gallons of gas and 7.4 cubic yards in a landfill!

What else can your plastic do for you? A Mr. De Rothschild is building an entire boat out of empty bottles! This year, he is going to try and sail it from California to Australia. Check out the Plastiki here!

What's the value of your glass and your paper? Visit the Bergen County (NJ) Utility Authority.
And just where does that bottle go to be made into all this cool stuff?
For more statistics check out Earth911.

Iris
enter Sam's Space now!
Read Just One of the Guys and find out how the band uses its water! On sale now!

Going Green: Recycle and Reuse

A visit to a school got me thinking unexpectedly about recycling and waste.

The kids were cleaning out their desks as school ended the next day. Besides, the papers and assorted junk kids collect all year, they had a number of unwanted pens and pencils. They, too, went in the garbage.

I watched this and something didn't feel right. Most of the pens and pencils were in good shape, maybe they needed a little sharpening. Most weren't chewed up; the erasers were barely used. So, why throw them away?

No, big deal, right? A few cents each. No need for them in the summer. New items will be bought in the fall.

But those unwanted pens and pencils would mean a lot to some other kids who can't readily get them or don't have the money to buy them.

I remembered seeing something on TV about African schools. Many students there rely on outside organizations to pay the fees they need to attend school. Getting supplies is another matter.

So, when it comes to recycling, why not collect still good supplies to send to African schools? This could be a great school project and something that would help others. I hope to suggest this to some teachers for the next school year and see what happens.

Postage is of course costly, but maybe there can be a penny drive to help. Or some organization would cover the costs or ship the items with their goods?

Maybe there are similar programs in the US, too, where new and slightly used supplies can be donated to poverty-stricken schools. Either way, this can be another way to recycle and help those in need.

Thoughts for the Day

Union Square Farmers Market, New York, Public Domain Photograph.

Good afternoon. I have finished reading The Djinn in The Nightingale's Eye by A.S. Byatt. I have to sit down and go back through it to make some notes on what I read. Sometimes memory is not perfect and you interpret things differently while you are reading and have to check your own thoughts to make sure they are accurate. Everyone has different perceptions on what is being written. It is very easy for people to give very different accounts of the same event.

Today, I was cutting up scrap paper for the reference desk. We cut up old flyers, leftover printouts from the cybercorner, and other scrap paper into small squares to take notes at the reference desk. We of course check to make sure we aren't cutting up salacious printouts before we hand them to patrons. We also reuse scrap paper for the printer. If only one side is used, we use the other side. The amount of paper which goes through the library is truly amazing. In addition we have a scrap box to give out paper to patrons. We don't give out clean paper.

There is a famous story of an investor who visits two different railroad offices. In the first office, the man takes notes on monogrammed paper with a fine fountain pen and is dressed in a very nice silk suit. He tosses the paper which he makes mistakes on into the garbage without a thought. In the second office, the manager is dressed in a conservative, but inexpensive blue suit, the manager takes notes on pieces of carefully cut scrap paper, using as few pieces of possible and uses an old pen to take the notes. Immediately after visiting, the investor buys stock in the company from the second office without looking at the financials of either company.

People ask for whiteout, pens, envelopes, rulers, calculators, and various office supplies from the reference desk. We try to limit the amount of office supplies we give to patrons sticking to tape, use of the stapler, and golf pencils. If they insist on borrowing a pen, we ask them to bring it back. We put a piece of green tape around our pens to indicate they are library pens. We keep a magnifying glass in the drawer along with a ruler and a calculator for people to use. We have big steel scissors, but we ask for people to not sit too far from the desk with scissors and bring them back immediately when they are done.

Another thought which comes to mind about my earlier hobbies. Many of them were focused on avoiding spending money for things which I wanted. I didn't really understand then that investing is often a better vehicle for some than saving. I've never been particularly good at saving money. I have always been good at avoiding debt. I think many people who scout books for bookstores or sell books on the internet are preserving income not making money. They have a habit of collecting books or comic books that they really can't afford with their salaries.

So, they end up going to garage sales, estate sales, goodwill stores, thrift stores, library booksales, church sales, and book fairs to look for books which they want. They are never going to make enough money for a living, but they will be able to support their habit of filling their house top to bottom with old paper and books. For the few extra dollars they get in trade at their local store or on ebay, they support a book habit.

I still have five long boxes of comic books which I traded for where I live. Not a huge amount. Mostly ground level comic books, things like Den, Quack, Cobalt 60, Vaughn Bode, and Alien Worlds. Ground level is an odd term which is not quite alternative and not quite mainstream. It is bringing material in at the "ground level" to the comic book seller. There is not a huge amount of value in this, but most of the material is fairly rare.

I used to go to the big open air flea markets in Manhattan. Some of them have shutdown because the real estate values rocketed to the point where it was worth more to build skyscrapers in the open parking lots where they were than keep them as parking lots. There are still some indoor flea markets like http://www.greenfleamarkets.com/ in Manhattan. There is also the Chelsea Antiques Fair which is going the way of the dinosaurs or the old book shops.
http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/news_article_main.aspx?id=6537&pt=nb&cp=1&keywords=&phrase=no

It seems many of my old hobbies are becoming part of the musty old dust bin of history. I no longer have time for these things, but it is interesting and sad to see them go.

____________________________________________________________________

The first few ads from Project Wonderful are up. Three are comic strips. One is from a site which I happen to enjoy reading on occassion, Environmentastic. The cinemacomics site looks interesting, it has a whole set of different free downloadable comics.