Recycling at Home- How hard is it?

Bad habits are hard to break. Simply chucking all your garbage into one big bag and putting it out for the municipal collection is nothing more than a bad habit. But with a little bit of organisation, and very little cost, you can easily set up your home or office to start recycling.

To start with, lets look at what you can recycle (care of Clearer Conscience):

PRODUCT	CODE	EXAMPLE	NO GOOD
PLASTIC	1 PET	Bottles (e.g. soft drinks)	Any plastic labeled 3 or 7
Look for number or abbreviation by recycle logo	2 PE-HD	Household (e.g. detergents, shampoo)	Cling wrap, florist wrap
	4 PE-LD	Film (e.g. frozen veg, appliances)
	5 PP	Containers (ice cream, marg, feta, food trays)
	6	Polystyrene/Styrofoam
		Tetrapaks (long life milk cartons)
GLASS		Jars, bottles	Heavy glass, e.g. windscreens, window panes
PAPER		Newspapers, junk mail, office paper, exercise books, etc Magazines & books: please keep separate so these can be sold through charity shops	Phone directories
CARDBOARD		Boxes, toilet rolls, cereal boxes, etc	Wax lined boxes (juice, fruit, etc)
METAL		Tins, cans
OTHER - BY PRIOR ARRANGEMENT		Clothes, bric-a-brac (must be in good condition so can be donated to charity shops) Broken tiles & crockery Plants, garden accessories Computer cartridges
N.B.		Please rinse food containers. No need to rinse bottles.	No disposable nappies; no foodstuffs

In addition to the above, Urban Sprout, recently reported that now even tetra pak can be recycled in Cape Town.

Now that you know what to set aside/ separate for recycling, all you need is a couple of containers to put it in and then have it collected (or drop it off yourself). To separate the recycling, in our home we've dedicated one small cupboard and put five reasonably sized containers (a mix of simple conventional bins and/or big tupperwares) - paper; plastic; tins; glass and general un-recyclabe rubbish (we also have a another tupaware for fresh produce to go to our worm farm). It take up little space and is just as convienient as throwing away rubbish the old (bad habbit) way - no mess, no fuss.

In our storeroom, we have seperate bins (boxes) for each of the items and twice a week we take from the kitchen cupboard and into the store room - the same as you would remove your rubbish the old (bad habbit) way - no difference here.

Instead of putting our two or three bags for municple collection every week, we put out one small one. And finally, once a month, we put out our four bags for recycling collection. Its that simple, and costs very little more (approximately R80 per month for Clearer Consience to collect), but makes a huge differnce...

The City of Cape Town says waste-to-landfill amounts increase by 7% annually even though the net population increase is only 2% over the same period. They're running out of landfill space! And asside from the space issue, is the well documented need to stop deforestation, and reduce global consuption (industy generating CO2's etc).

Recycling is one of the easiest ways to contribute to the fight against global warming and the global culture of waste. DO IT TODAY!

Google "Recycling+your town or city", or look at Urban Sprout's recycling directory for more info.

Concrete / Cement - Can it be a "Green" material?

Regardless of the size and type of building, it is fairly hard to build conventionally without the use of CONCRETE or CEMENT. Unless of course you are building straw bale, adobe or similar. But even then, foundations may still be cast in concrete, or the walls plastered using a cement based product. So, it is useful to look at concrete or cement and ask – can it be a “green” material?

Its durable nature and versatile applications have made its usage ever-present throughout the world. However it is extremely energy intensive to make and transport, and produces a significant amount of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth apart from water.

“Buildings and their construction account for nearly half of all the greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumed in this country (USA) each year. Globally, the percentage is even greater.”

It is estimated that cement manufacturing produces about 5% of global CO2 emissions, and 3% of global emissions of all greenhouse gases. However, concrete manufactures say that as the cement ages, it reabsorbs all the CO2 released during the manufacturing process – but this takes hundreds of years.

So what is “the green advantage” of concrete, and is it enough to negate the CO2 emissions?

• For one, it is extremely durable. Buildings constructed of concrete last lifetimes, with just the less durable finishes and fittings having to be replaced.
• It can almost always be locally sourced. So no green house gas omissions from shipping the material around the world.
• It can be recycled. Either as fill or road base, or reused as the aggregates in new concrete. However, because its chemical properties change over time and with each processing, this is limited.
• Exterior concrete walls can be energy-efficient in climates that have daily temperature fluctuations. It creates thermal mass that can store warmth or cold, reducing indoor temperature fluctuation.
• Potential new manufacturing techniques have improved the CO2 emissions. However the cost of these techniques remain to be seen and are unlikely to be available in developing countries for some time to come.
  

Despite some advantages, at the end of the day, cement & concrete are too big a contributor to green house gas emissions to be able to argue that this material may be “green”. Maybe in the future the technology will become widely available to manufacture this incredible material in a manner that will have a negative carbon footprint. It is possible, just ask Vinod Khosla…

Going Green – where to start (part 2 of 2)

The previous post: Where to Start? – Energy! looked at the initial steps that could be taken when tackling the energy problem, as well as the use of technology to achieve the goal of reducing our reliance on coal based energy. In this post, we look at buildings becoming self sufficient through the production of renewable energy. A subject broad enough to warrant a post of its own.

On-site renewable energy options include photovoltaic systems, cogeneration (used in larger buildings), wind power, geothermal electric systems (using the Earth’s steam to make electricity), low-impact hydroelectric power systems and biofuel-based electrical systems (not easily applicable to buildings - more suitable to farms etc.) Of the above options, 3 are most easily applicable to residential projects:

1. The most commonly known of the above options is photovoltaic (solar power) systems which use the suns rays to generate energy. Photovoltaic is also the most user friendly / cost effective application for home use. Currently, solar power systems still require a fairly large initial investment (approximately R250 – R300,000 for an average size home to be independent of the grid) and the systems are not that efficient. But, the science is quickly improving and costs are continuing to come down. Conversely as electricity prices continue to increase, the pay-back period will get better. In warmer climates, where the highest demand usually occurs when the sun is at its hottest (airconditioning etc.), photovoltaics are helpful in reducing power usage.
2. Co-generation uses one fuel (gas, oil, or diesel) to produce two outputs—electricity and heat. But the plant costs make this feasible for large buildings only, and therefore not in keeping with this blogs target audience.
3. Wind power generates large amounts of electricity at low cost and with zero emissions. Wind turbines can be used alone (with their own battery storage system), or as part of a combination system, in which their output is combined with that of solar panels etc. Combining systems is useful for winter backup where cloudy weather and windy conditions occur simultaneously. Most importantly, before purchasing a wind power system it must be established whether or not your site has enough wind to generate the power to warrant the cost – as with solar power, the technology is improving rapidly, but can still be costly.
   

Generally speaking, each project is unique in terms of location, budget and design etc. and if you are serious about reducing your reliance on coal based (grid supplied) energy , then you need to consider which options will best suit your specific requirements. For this, it is worth getting professional advice and assistance.

It is also worth bearing in mind that like many European cities, Cape Town will soon be offering "Green Electricity" as an alterantive source for your energy supply. We'll bring you more details on this soon.

A little humor care of earthfirst.com

A little humor in difficult times - maybe the world economic collapse is happening for a reason?
Care of earthfirst.com

Where to Start? – Energy!

Energy!
Particularly in SA, due to our dependence on coal fired electricity generation, and rapidly rising energy costs. Fast evolving "green" technologies offer plenty of sustainable solutions to help building owners and the environment. Added to this, carbon caps (mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions)which are not in effect yet, will in all likelihood be imposed upon business and industry in the near future.

So, where to start?
With an Energy Analysis: Before considering costly exercise of generating your own energy on site, optimize energy usage to reduce consumption and costs. A preliminary energy audit are cheap or free, and can even be done online at the Energy Star Web site. While this is a US based website, it will give you some ideas as to how to reduce your energy consumption. A more detailed analysis might cost a little, but is necessary to determine the cost benefit and payback time of various options.

Next step?
Having established where your building is using energy, you can look for solutions to reduce consumption. This is particularly true for heating and cooling, which can be done at a minimal cost. If you are running under-floor heating (or any other types of heating) or air-conditioning, consider just turning the thermostat up or down (as the case may be) by just a couple of degrees. The change to the feel of the room will be negligible, but the savings considerable. Taking things further, turn off systems when you leave a room and make sure they are room specific (not serving an entire building at once). New technology includes motion control sensors, which sense when people are in a room and adjust lighting and air systems accordingly. The other common issue is lighting - older light fittings produces more heat and use more energy. By changing lights, building owners can save money on cooling and general energy consumption.

New buildings - Energy efficient technologies.
In new buildings, installing new technology usually costs more (at least initially – depending on how quickly our electricity prices increase), but it is easier to install when a building is under construction, rather than as a retro-fit (in an existing building). Included in this, is building automation. Although relatively costly, a fully automated building is able to run very efficiently, by turning lights, heating, cooling on and off when specific areas are occupied or when temperatures do not meet the required levels. Further to this, technology such as “energy recovery systems”, “thermal storage” and “geothermal heat pumps” are continuing to improve to offer efficient alternatives to heating and cooling for all building types and sizes.

This post: Where to Start? – Energy! Will be continued in part two, where we look at buildings becoming self sufficient through the production of renewable energy.

welcome to econic's blog

this blog is an extension of our business :







a way for us to communicate what we are thinking, keep ourselves and our clients up to date with the rapidly growing environmental industry.

econic is passionate about the environment. We aim to offer both private & corporate clients advice, design and management services that will reduce your impact on the environment. Our services include, but are not limited to:

residential
commercial /corporate
events / functions

econic offers a number of service package options, but in general, these include:
- consultation regarding all "green" aspects possible/required by client for an existing / new building or event;
- design for new or renovated buildings incorporating green aspects as required
- project management of implementation of "green" aspects during the building process
- Green Star Rating service (where applicable)