Green Living

Green Choices: Food Security vs. Industrial Tiger

Many developing countries today are in a dilemma over the direction to be taken in terms of development.  The debate is one about choosing between becoming an industrial tiger ready to take on the industrialized nations of the world or becoming a food self-sufficient powerhouse by ensuring food security.  We can name Vietnam as a good example of such a dilemma. Shrinking Farmlands and Migrating Farmers It is truly alarming that even in the United States, the number of farmers actually farming the land has seen significant declines in the past few years.  This can be attributed to many reasons like the continued losses from negative climate conditions, the increasing use for industrial purposes of farmlands and the mounting allure of life in the city. If this is true in the United States, a country that prides itself on food sufficiency, then it is all the more true in developing nations.  Furthermore, government policy has a helping hand in it because of the political thrust towards national industrialization by a certain date. Thus, the national and local governments will enforce laws reassigning farmlands to industrial uses.  You will see rice fields behind high-rise office buildings and factories in many parts of Asia as evidence ...

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Plastic Containers Helpful Buyers Guide

There are lots of different types of plastics on the market, each with their own properties.  Some plastics are a lot healthier and more environmentally friendly than others.  They're more stable and easier to recycle.  How do you tell the difference?  Each piece of plastic should come with a resin identification code.  That's the one on the bottom of most containers - a number from one to seven located inside the recycling symbol.  Here's a look at the types of plastic, and which ones are best from a green perspective. Type one is polyethylene terephtalate, also known as PETE or PET.  This is what most disposable soda and water bottles are made of, and is usually clear.  Plastic type two is high density polyethylene, or HDPE.  Many milk jugs, detergent bottles, and toiletries bottles are made of this.  It is often opaque. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is used to make meat wrap, bottles for cooking oil, and plumbing pipes, as well as garments.  It's numbers as type three.  Type four is low density polyethylene, LDPE, which is used to make grocery bags, cling wrap sandwich bags and other films.  Plastic type five is polypropylene.  Yogurt tubes and cups are often made from ...

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Earth-friendly Oven Cleaning

It's pretty easy to clean your stove top or microwave in a way that's not a health or environmental concern.  However, a regular oven can be a real problem.  Most of us have generally turned to caustic chemicals.  If you've ever used too much and spent an afternoon feeling light headed, or found that all the food baked in your oven tasted like oven cleaner, you know what a problem these products are. There are lots of harmful substances in regular cleaners.  They start out in plastic and steel cans, and contain substances like diethylener glycol monobutyl ether - a VOC that's not good for the waterways, monoethanolamine or MEA - a toxin harmful to fish, butane - yet another fossil fuel, and sodium hydroxide - lye or caustic soda.  This is a very caustic chemical that must be used with care, and is hard on the eyes and skin.  It also alters pH levels in waterways.  In small amounts and with the right usage, lye isn't so bad, but there's a lot of it in oven cleaner. Of course, if you want to avoid environmentally harmful products, you're still going to need to clean your oven.  There are a number of ...

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Ceiling Fans and Roof Turbines

Did you know that ceiling fans and roof turbines could be saving you a lot of money?  They're extremely efficient and can do a lot to improve the temperature of your home, winter or summer.  Here's a look at what you can do with your roof turbines and ceiling fans to improve energy efficiency and save money. Most of us are used to turning on the ceiling fan to cool things down in the summer, but it can also be used during the winter.  Turning the switch to make the ceiling fan run clockwise will pull warm air down from around the ceiling to lower levels.  That means less energy spend heating.  If you're going to be buying a new ceiling fan, make sure it's one that can be reversed.  These very efficient fans can cut your costs by as much as ten percent. During the summer, ceiling fans are an excellent way to cool, too.  They work extremely well in areas where the climate is dry - by moving hot air around, they encourage sweat to evaporate.  That has a cooling effect, and you'll feel significantly cooler.  Ceiling fans can be used to make areas of over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit ...

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Blackwater Recycling Systems

With water conservation becoming a concern, many people are turning to graywater recycling - the practice of reusing shower, dish, and other water for irrigation and other non-food uses.  However, did you know that you can recycle more than just graywater?  Blackwater - sewage and other contaminated water - can also be recycled.  It's becoming much more popular in areas suffering from serious drought, including Australia, and it's viable for many others.  Let's take a look at blackwater recycling and how it works. In a blackwater recycling system, all household water is routed into a tank using gravity.  Then, the blackwater is given enough time to settle and bacteria works on it for twenty-four hours.  This works in a similar way to the anaerobic environment in many septic tanks.  Once this process has finished, the blackwater is diverted into a secondary treatment tank.  This is divided up into three chambers, which are aeration, settling and irrigation. The aeration stage injects water and air into the chamber at carefully timed intervals.  This causes the tank contents to churn, encouraging the growth of bacteria.  These organisms proceed to pull nutrients from the sludge, breaking it down further.  In the settling chamber, that sludge sinks ...

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