Eco-friendly Options Don’t End With Reusable Bags: Green Your Vehicle To Be Friendly To The Environment

You decide one hot, sunny day that your car needs a wash and wax. You hop in your vehicle and head to the local auto store to choose and purchase your supplies. As you’re checking out, you’re asking whether you want paper or plastic. Then just as you’re about to make your decision, you’re asked, “Do you want to purchase reusable shopping bags for $1.99 apiece?” You decide to go with the reusable bags. Back at home, you start to clean your car, wondering if there’s anything else you can do to be friendly to the environment.

First, consider your car and what kind it is. What was one of its biggest selling points for you? Was it the mileage and how low it was or the horsepower underneath the hood? No doubt, car manufacturers have thwarted several attempts to be eco-friendly by giving people what they want with what they don’t want. A muscle car of the 1960s was built with tons of horsepower but only got 12 to 15 miles per gallon. It wasn’t uncommon to find some of these cars with only 10 miles per gallon. In today’s society, cars can go to zero to 60 in mere seconds and give car owners at least 20 miles or more per gallon.

Of course, the condition of the car hasn’t changed. As long as you give your car a tune up and clean the filers, the vehicle will run better and cleaner, meaning it’ll be better for the environment. Make sure to check out your tires’ pressure since low pressure can reduce the gas mileage by about 15 percent. If you don’t already have a tire pressure gauge or filters, consider heading back to the store with your reusable cotton bags to purchase them.

If you do choose to go out again, perhaps you can consolidate that trip. Consider heading to the grocery store and get some food along with other car necessities you need. If you notice the place that you go to purchase your groceries doesn’t solve your auto supply needs, stop at the local auto store while you’re out.

Another way to be eco-friendly is to carpool. Many states have a rideshare program that help people to get to work but it’s a bit ineffective for a variety of reasons. First, people may have trouble getting their work schedules on the same page. Second, they may not be comfortable posting their work schedule for anyone to see. An alternative to this is to share rides with a neighbor. These are people you most likely know and often spend time with. Not only are you being eco-friendly but you’re having adult conversations.

As we can see, reusable grocery bags are just the beginning to living eco-friendly and saving the environment. When it comes to our cars, we can use our vehicles in an eco-friendly manner.

Why Don?t They Recycle?

Recently, I was invited to a party. The hosts were lovely, the home was large and beautiful in a well-to-do area. Everything about the day was fantastic, except for one thing…they didn’t recycle.

I noticed glass bottles in the trash, I thought maybe some partygoer made a mistake. Then I noticed another and another, no mistake.

Does their township not offer recycling? I can’t imagine these intelligent, well read people would have a blatant disregard for the environment. I didn’t ask. That would be poor etiquette.  I should have though, I could have at least taken those bottles with me and recycled them at my house.

It leaves me wondering, why don’t they recycle? Cans, bottles and paper are the most widely recycled products in the nation. Why not there? I am sure there are many areas of our country that are still in the dark about recycling. We are the self-proclaimed leaders of the world, yet many other countries have far surpassed us environmentally.  There are some countries, such as Sweden where composting your food scraps is mandatory.  They have been able to reduce the amount of green waste going into the landfill drastically.   Food scraps will not effectively breakdown inside a plastic bag in a landfill, in fact it contributes to the production of methane gas, one of the leading destroyers of the ozone.

It is our responsibility, to hold our government and ourselves accountable. The USA is more than capable of implementing recycling in every state, county and municipality… we should insist on it.

It is more cost effective over the long term to have these programs in place.  Recycling products, makes new products with  a smaller footprint than products using virgin materials.  Recycling saves thousands of acres of landfill space every year.  Recycling also reduces the amount of methane gas being produced in landfills and chemicals from leaching into our soils and making its way into our ground water supply.  Once the damage is done, it is difficult and costly to undo.

As my Mother always said, “Do it right the first time and you won’t have to go back and do it again.”  We only have one country, one Earth, we should honor it, revere it and take care of it.  Over the last 100 years of the world’s growth we have taken for granted that the Earth would just sustain.  It would always be here for us to manipulate it and abuse it as we chose.

What can one do if recycling is not offered in your area?  Take Action, write a letter to your local newspaper, the township officials and your county freeholders.  Make everyone aware of the damage that is being done.  You voice will be heard.  Get children involved in your quest for a better world.  Children are innovative thinkers and can make a real difference.

For example:  Recently a local Boy Scout Troup in our area provided a hard plastics pick up to their community. Hard plastics are items like: Plastic lawn furniture, kids molded plastic play sets, 5gal water bottles, etc. Any large hard plastic items. They sent out fliers, collected these items on a particular date and took them to the township Public Works Facility, where from there it was taken by the township to the County Recycling Facility. They collected over 500 pounds of hard plastic that would have ended up in the dump!

It does take some effort on our part to recycle hard plastics, however a quick trip to the Township Public Works Dept. will keep these items out of our landfills. They can then be recycled and turned into other useful products, like Polywood Furniture. By asking our local municipalities, maybe they will offer one or two pickups per year. By recycling these hard plastics we can save valuable space in our landfills.

These young boys made a difference in our community and our environment. We should all follow their example. If everyone nationwide would make this small extra effort to recycle, the effects would be staggering. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Vera Pappas is author of several articles on organic gardening and environmental issues and is owner of Green Nation Gardens, an online retailer of Green Living Products for the home and garden.  Visit greennationgardens.com today!

I want a hydrogen car and I want it NOW – this expensive gas is the pits. I don’t want to be supporting terro

Let’s not support terrorists any more.

Don?t Trade in That Suv Yet

          Gas prices continue to soar, your SUV gets 16 mpg, and your paycheck isn’t increasing.  Consumers feeling their pockets getting empty are starting to ask questions.  Could the high gas prices just be temporary? If not, then I guess it’s time to trade the SUV in and get a fuel efficient vehicle, right?  Actually that might not be the smartest idea.  In order to answer these questions we need to understand the current SUV situation and determine what this means financially.     

            Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV’s) have become the norm for a vehicle purchase over the last 10-15 years.  As many cars became smaller over this timeframe compared to the cars in the 1970’s, people became interested in sport utility vehicles and why wouldn’t they?  These vehicles have plenty of leg room, a large storage area, four-wheel drive, feel very safe due to their size, and are powerful.  One of the biggest selling features is they provide a higher seating position allowing the driver to view more of the road and surroundings. 

Not only did consumers have a desire for SUV’s, but they wanted larger SUV’s.  The big three U.S. vehicle manufacturers, Chrysler, Ford, and GM, were making extremely large profits on these vehicles.  The Ford Excursion, Chevy Suburban, Hummer, GMC Yukon, and Chevy Tahoe are the largest SUV’s on the market.  These vehicles were being bought by families, shuttle drivers, and small business owners.  Due to a tax break many small business owners and mostly anyone who could write off the vehicle as a work related expense became consumers for these enormous vehicles.  They were able to write off almost the entire cost.  This encouraged lawyers, doctors, accountants, and real estate agents to buy these SUV’s, when they really have no use for this type of vehicle.

            The U.S. vehicle manufacturers and consumers were both happy until the one major flaw of SUV’s was magnified.  These vehicles were gas hogs.  Hurricane Katrina started to reveal this flaw in 2005 when this hurricane caused disruption to refineries.  Gas prices soared above $3 a gallon.  Prices would start to come down as the refineries got back into full production, but not down to where they were before the hurricane.  This was due to the price of a barrel of crude oil rising to over $50.  In 2004 the average price of a barrel of crude oil was $37.  This brings us to July 4th, 2008 as the price of a barrel of crude oil is now over $145 and the price of a gallon of gas is over $4. 

            This has caused U.S. vehicles manufacturers to slow down and terminate some SUV lines which have been their most profitable over the last decade.  Consumers are now buying small fuel efficient cars and hybrid vehicles.  The problem for many consumers is they are looking to trade in or sell their SUV’s to purchase a fuel efficient vehicle, but there are not many takers for at least what the consumer feels is fair value.  Typical supply and demand has caused very fuel efficient cars and hybrid vehicles to sell for the ticket price or above.  SUV’s are selling way below ticket price since there are a lot more sellers than buyers.  Vehicle manufacturers are overloaded with SUV’s and the dealerships can’t sell the ones they already have on the lot.            

            Just this data makes it seem foolish to trade or sell a SUV at this time, but the financial numbers is what will really influence the decision.  There are many different situations a consumer might be in.  A consumer who is not able to afford fueling their SUV might need to trade their SUV in.  Perhaps there is no loan against it and the value of the SUV is high enough to get them an equally or lower priced car.  This means they directly cut down their gas expense and haven’t changed their monthly budget. 

            Some examples using numbers can probably give everyone a general idea to help with their decision making.  $30,000 is close to an average cost of a SUV.  To set-up this example we will say John purchased a $30,000 SUV four years ago.  With zero down and a 6% interest rate his payments are $580 a month and he has a current loan balance of $6000.  Let’s also examine Joan who purchased the same year and model SUV for the same amount but her loan is paid off.  Currently, a dealership is offering $9,000 for the SUV.  Therefore each consumer has sunk costs of $21,000.  Also this means John will have to use $6000 of the $9,000 trade in to pay his existing loan.  His balance of $3000 will go towards his new purchase and all of Joan’s $9,000 will be put towards her new purchase.  We will take a look at these situations in two different ways.    

            First we will look at the situations by monthly budget.  Since car payments are monthly payments we need to determine how much money is spent on gas each month.  We will use the current average U.S. gasoline price of $4 a gallon.  Joan’s roundtrip to her full-time job each day is 30 miles.  On the weekend she drives on an average 100 miles.  Therefore, Joan drives 1,000 miles a month.  At 16 miles per gallon she pays $250 a month.  Currently she doesn’t have a monthly car payment so her monthly total for gas and car payment is $250 a month.  Joan is looking to purchase a car which is the same model year as her SUV.  The car costs $15,000, but gets 27 miles per gallon.  After her $9000 SUV trade-in her monthly car payment will be $116 (using 6% interest rate).  Her monthly gas expense will be $150.  This equates to $266 a month for gas and car payment.  Her monthly expense for a car payment and gas is actually higher now which is mainly due to her only getting $9,000 for her SUV. 

John’s roundtrip to his full-time job each day is 60 miles.  On the weekend he drives 100 miles.  Therefore, John drives 1,600 miles a month.  John pays $400 a month in gas.  If John purchases this same car, then his monthly gas expense is $237.  After the $3000 John will be able to put towards his purchase, his car payment is $232.  His total expense for gas and car payment will now be $469.  John will actually save over $100 a month.  However he was in the last year of his SUV payments and now his car payments will continue for five years.   

            The second way we will look at these situations is to determine the break even point.  We can determine how many miles it will take in order to make up for the loss on the SUV.  The loss on the SUV is not the $21,000 sunk cost, but the difference in trade-in value from the time before gas prices skyrocketed to the present time.  The sunk cost has to do with trading in a vehicle for another one.  We won’t use the $21,000 since we are strictly looking at if the SUV is worth trading in just to get better fuel efficiency.  Before there was a large increase in gas prices, a typical SUV like John’s and Joan’s would have a trade-in value around $14,000.  Now the trade-in value is $9,000 which equates to a $5,000 difference.  In using cost accounting we need to determine the sale per mile and the variable cost per mile.  The $4 per gallon gas price needs to be converted to a cost per mile since we need to get the break even point in miles.  The sale per mile is just the SUV’s fuel cost per mile.  This is $4 a gallon divided by 16 miles per gallon which equates to a cost of 25 cents a mile.  The variable cost per mile is the car’s fuel cost per mile.  This is $4 a gallon divided by 27 miles per gallon which equates to a cost of 15 cents a mile.  Next we determine our contribution margin per mile which is the sale per mile of 25 cents minus the variable cost per mile of 15 cents which results in a 10 cents per mile contribution margin.  Finally we use the $5,000 loss and divide by the contribution margin per mile of 10 cents which provides the answer of 50,000 miles.  The break even point of 50,000 miles is the amount of miles that need to be driven in the car to recover the $5,000 loss on the SUV.   To simplify the problem we simply converting both vehicles’ cost of gas per mile and took the difference.  Then we divided the loss on the SUV by this difference.  It will take Joan over 4 years of driving the car to recover the SUV loss at her current usage and it will take John over 2.5 years. 

          The future of the gas prices is unknown which makes the future value of the SUV unknown also.  However, we know the value of an SUV has dropped significantly.  If we could have predicted this drop, then trading in the SUV before this occurrence would have avoided the $5,000 decline in value.  The problem is most SUV owners couldn’t make this prediction so they are presented with the situations we have examined.  In these examples we only looked at the financial numbers which alone didn’t strongly favor trading the SUV in for a car.  Also, like in the stock market, it doesn’t make sense to sell low and buy high which is currently happening when SUV’s are traded in for fuel efficient cars.  When we consider the advantages of a SUV which have led them to their popularity over the years it doesn’t make much sense to give these advantages up.  Perhaps the next time a consumer is ready to buy a new vehicle they won’t purchase a gas guzzling SUV, but for current SUV owners it makes sense to continue to enjoy the great features of these vehicles. 

Why don’t environmentalists tell people that they save money by living Green?

Why don’t Green people say that living green can be cheaper way of life rather than calling someone an idiot for ignoring or not believing in global warming?

We have the technology, why dont we use it?

and by this i mean alternative energy sources for vehicles. If we have the technology to make cars that run on BioFuel and Hydrogen (http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/) This is Honda’s Hydrogen Car, and E85, FlexFuel all those things, then why do we not start mass producing these? Gas prices are going up, and not coming down anytime soon. The technology is there, USE IT !!

I dont udnerstand to go about ansewring the following question ….?

Automobile batteries are sealed. When lead storage batteries discharge, they produce hydrogen. Suppose the void volume in the battery is 100 mL at 25 degrees Celsius. What would be the pressure increase if .05 grams H 2 gas were produced by the discharge of the battery? Does this present a problem if the atmospheric pressure is 1 atm? Why?

“green Energy Source” System ? – Don’t Wait, Try it Now!

Technology keeps bringing surprising solutions – “Green Energy Source” System truly enables you to construct an independent in-house power-supply with your own hands. It may be surprising, but this technique doesn’t require any special tools/materials. Take two minutes of your time in order to know more about this creative technology.

Short overview

If you want to have such “Green Energy Source” System all you need to do is following one of these ‘secret’ guides available on the Web that can teach you how to professionally assemble Solar-Panels. The most recommended guides are those that are written for the average user; make sure it provides detailed descriptions, diagrams, and support so you’ll never get lost. This way or another, here are several tips & benefits that can help you out.

Main advantages

Let’s quickly see what is in it for us:

* Enables us to make a 220V-240V elec. sys.
* Requires no more than a weekend to be installed.
* Helps on reducing the amounts of carbon dioxide in the air.
* Enables us to get an extra income by quickly providing such sys. for others.
* Rely only on your own energy-resources and not the ones supplied by governments or corporations.

Advice

In many states you can sell your unused energy, give it a quick search on the Web to verify that you can benefit from that.

Summary

Thanks to “Green Energy Source” System we can dramatically ‘cut’ our monthly and annual elect. expenses to almost zero. One thing is clear – there are many other great benefits provided by this exceptional invention, simply because it brings a real change to this industry. It is highly recommended to simply try it in order to explore and see how it’ll affect your monthly/annual budget.

Dont you think there is a positive side in the sudden hike in oil prices?

because now suddenly there is a frantic search for comming out with an alternative fuel. In India the automobile giant Tata is planning to bring out a car that will run on compressed air.Hydrogen gars are becomming more feasible and electric and hybrids already out.Now the guys hoarding oil will have a tough time selling it once there are alternatives! what do you think?

Don’t Throw It Out: Recycle, Renew and Reuse to Make Things Last

• ISBN13: 9781594865770
• Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
• Notes:

Product Description

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