Did you know?  We produce enough stryofoam cups every year to circle the earth 436 times!

What is that white stuff shaped into a cup?  Styrofoam is actually polystyrene foam.  It’s made from benezene,  [...]]]> Stop!  Go Green by deciding not to purchase anymore white styrofoam cups or plates!  In 500 years they will still be in the dumping ground!

Did you know?  We produce enough stryofoam cups every year to circle the earth 436 times!

What is that white stuff shaped into a cup?  Styrofoam is actually polystyrene foam.  It’s made from benezene,  known carcinogen, converted to styrene, and then injected with gases that make it a foam product.  The gases often used are CFC’s which eat ozone molecules, depleting the Earth’s vital ozone layer.

Don’t ask me why we still make them, they should be outlawed!!  At this time, non-CFC foam only trades one kind of environmental problem for another, there are just no good substitutes. 

The Garbage: 

• Polystyrene foam is completely non-biodegradable; it just won’t go away.  Even 500 years from now, that foam just won’t go away.  Can you imagine your morning’s coffee cup still sitting on the earth’s surface hundreds of years from now?
• All styrofoam, contians large amounts of air and takes up a lot of space for its weight.  This means it wastes enormous amounts of precious space at already full landfills.
• Polystyrene foam is deadly to marine life.  It floats on ocean surfaces, breaks up into pellets resembling food, and is consumed.  When sea turtles eat styrofaom, it’s buoyancy keeps them from diving; and it clogs their systems, starving them to death.

Simple Solutions:

• Just don’t use it.
• Avoid foam packaging in egg cartons, disposable picnic goods, etc.
• Ask for paper cups and plates for your to go foods.

Source:  The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702 or go online.

What’s the temperature of your hot water tank’s water?  Go Look.  We often don’t.  Most homes water heaters are set at 140 degrees.  Was yours?  The tank is always working, and is the 2nd largest energy-user in our [...]]]> Let’s Go Green!  Check your water tank!  In our homes, water heaters use up about 20% of the energy we use.

What’s the temperature of your hot water tank’s water?  Go Look.  We often don’t.  Most homes water heaters are set at 140 degrees.  Was yours?  The tank is always working, and is the 2nd largest energy-user in our homes.

If your tank is set at 140, it’s hotter than necessary.  Not only does that waste energy by overheating water, but adds to heat loss in the tank and shortens its life.  For every 10 degrees you turn down your water heater, you save 6% of the energy used.

However, since bacteria that causes Legionnaire’s Disease can live in hot water heaters, turn your water heater down to 130.  That is hot enough to kill bacteria and still save energy.

Simple Solutions:

1. Set your water heater on 130F, hot enought to kill bacteria and still be energy-saving.  Most modern heaters have the “energy conservation” setting.  There are also the style that is no tank required, heating the water in the pipes as you use it.
2. Insulate your water heater with a pre-fb “blanket, making sure not to block off the air vents.  This step’s important if it’s in an unheated space.  You can save 7-8% of the energy you’ve been using.
3. Every 2 months, drain about 2 quarts of water from the valve faucet located at the bottom of the tank.  This helps prevent acc7umulation of sediment and improves efficiency and life of the heater.

Note:  The #1 Authority on water heaters