Dumb questions about being Eco-friendly & Green (10)

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Q19: Will washing my clothes at 30 degree C really get them clean?

A: If the reaction of consumers is anything to go by, washing powders formulated for use at lower temperatures do work. In a 2006 study by the UK's Energy Saving Trust, 89% of families who had been asked to test Ariel at 30 degree C said they would continue using it that way. Likewise, while only 2% of UK households were washing at 30 degree C in 2002, five years later that figure was 17%. Meanwhile in Germany, where people have traditionally used lower washing settings than in the UK, they are turning down to 20 degree C, and in North America growing numbers are doing their laundry in cold water. Unfortunately, there are some nasties that low temperatures may not remove. Researchers from the University of Seoul, South Korea, found that washing with biological detergent at 30 degree C only killed 6% of dust mites, compared with 100% at 60 degree C, and leaves traces of other allergens, including pollen grains and dog skin cells. The global detergent manufacturer Unilever, which has been keen to promote the eco-message, still advises customers to run one wash per week at 40 degree C to ensure bacteria don't have a chance to grow in the machine and cause unpleasant smells.

Q20: What is the single most effective thing I can do for the environment?

A: Over a 75-year lifespan, the average European will be responsible for about 900 tonnes of CO2 emissions. For Americans and Australians, the figure is more, like 1500 tonnes. Add to that all of humanity's other environmentally damaging activities, and draconian as it may sound, the answer must surely be to avoid reproducing!

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Q17: Is it better to buy an eco-friendly car, with all the energy that is needed to produce it, or just run my old one into the ground?

A: According to the ETA, when the average new car leaves the showrrom, its manufacture, design and marketing have accounted for up to 6 tonnes of CO2 emissions! Nevertheless, swapping a thirsty and polluting old car for a lighter and more fuel-efficient model does make a good environmental sense. But the gains made from exchanging five year old family car, for example, with a similar sized brand new model are likely to be negligible!

Q18: What's the best way to charge my laptop - little and often or let the battery run down completely?

A: In energy terms, you use the same amount of electricity either way. However, charging a battety little and often reduces its capacity to hold charge, and eventually it will lose its capacity to charge altogether! If you kill your battery like this, you'll need a new one - and batteries take a lot of energy and materials to produce. So charge your battery fully and then let it run down completely (or till 85% of its capacity if not 100%) and then recharge. This will ensure the longest possible life out of your battery!

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Q15: If I'm stuck in a stop-start traffic jam, do I use more petrol turning my car on and off repeatedly, or leaving it running?

A: Unless you are certain you won't have to pull away at short notice, the inconvenience and tiny amounts of fuel involved make stopping and restarting the engine hardly worthwhile. The UK Automobile Association recommends switching off engines if you're likely to be stopped more than 3 minutes. Technology is already providing a better solution, though. Recognising that many hours of urban driving are spent at a standstill, several car manufacturers have started to introduce so-called "stop-start" technology. In fact, Volkswagen recently mothballed plans for a hybrid car, preferring to invest in stop-start technology on its standard models to achieve fuel efficiency savings of between 10 and 15% in urban traffic.

Q16: Does it really take more energy to recycle an aluminium can than to make a new one?

A: NO, absolutely not. According to Alcoa, the world's third largest aluminium producer, manufacturing a can from recycled aluminium uses only 5% of the energy required to make one from scratch - an energ saving that could power a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours!!

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Q13: What's greener, paper / cardboard or plastic packaging?

A: Many people choose paper over plastic, figuring that being renewable and recyclable, it is probably the greener option. In reality, it is not quite that simple. Paper is heavier and bulkier to ship than plastic, takes more energy to produce and uses damaging chemicals in its manufacture. Overall, the best packaging choice is the one that has tha least total impact over its life - from raw materials and shipping emissions to toxicity and waste - and that depends on where it comes from and what you plan to do with it. consumers often don't have the required information to work out this trade-off but there are some things to keep in mind. Check whether the paper / plastic has already been recycled, and whether you can reuse or recycle it further. Also, if you need to avoid packaging altogether, consider this: if it reduces the chances of a product perishing or breaking before it can be used then it is almost always better to have packing than not. Just choose products with the smallest amount possible and as per need.

Q14: What is recycled organic waste used for?

A: There are 2 main uses: Treated aerobically, organic waste is composted to produce soil conditioner or landscaping mulch, returning carbon to the soil. Under anaerobic conditions, it can be digested by bacteria to produce methane which is used to generate electricity. Through a combination of biological and mechanical processes, it is also turned into fuel that can then substitue coal or coke in power stations or cement kilns.

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Q11: What's worse: CO2 emitted by a gas-fuelled car or the environmental effects of hybrid car batteries?

A: According to te UK-based Environmental Transport Association (ETA), the most efficient conventionally powered cars are slightly less detrimental to the environment than their hybrid counterparts. However, it points out that the current crop of hybrids won't evolve without customers willing to invest in what is still frontier technology!

Q12: If I turn my appliances off but don't unplug them, will they still use up some electricity?

A: NO. And that applies even if the plug is switched on or if the socket has no on/off switch. The exceptions are appliances with a standby mode, which include most battery chargers. As a rule of thumb, if there is a light on, a clock ticking, or the transformer feels warm, it means it is eating up energy. And that can be a substantial proportion of the amount of electricity consumed by that appliance when in use. A television set-top box, for example, uses around 18 watts while it is on and almost 17 watts on standby!

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Q9: Does switching from bus to cycle really have any effect? Afterall cycling is also not competely carbon-neutral as I have to eat a lot to fuel cycling!
A: Relax, you're much better off cycling. A 12 km round commute on a bus or a train is reckoned to generate 160 kg of carbom/commuter/year. Somebody cycling that distance would burn about 50,000 calories a year - roughtly the amount of energy in 22 kg of brown bread. A kilo of brown bread has a carbon footprint of about 1.1 kg, So switching from public transprot to a cycle does save almost 140 kg of carbon emissions/commuter/year. Although these calculations would really work if enough people cycle to allow public transport providers to reduce the number of buses and trains they run. All said and done, you can enjoy a fit body after cycling!

Q10: Is a full commercial plane more fuel-efficient over long distances than a car?

A: Not if the car is also full. For example, EasyJet, which claims to be 30% more fuel efficient than other carriers, alrgely because it packs in more people, calculates that on an average flight per passenger accounts for 95.7 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre, compared with 164 grams for someone travelling by car. That flight will be around 80% full, so the figure would fall to 76 grams per person if every seat were taken. What's more, most EasyJet flights are either short or medium haul, making them one-third less efficient than long-haul flights (that travel more than 4000 km in one go). Long-haul flights could bring the figure down to around 50 grams per passenger. However, using EasyJet's own figures, a full car would produce just 41 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre for each of its 4 passengers. So cars win no matter what the distance it - although clearly planes have the edge when travelling over water!

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Q7: When and how is the most energy efficient way to defrost fridge-freezer? Is a self-defrosting fridge more eco-friendly?
A: The frost in a freezer forms when warm air condenses and freezes on the cooling coils. Self-defrosting fridges generally use more energy than manual models because their coils are automatically heated every few hours to melt any frost that has formed on the coils. But a manual defrosting fridge is only better if you defrost it before the frost starts to take over. This is because the coils have to now work harder to cool the air if they are covered by ice. How often do you need to defrost depends upon how often you open the door and the humidity of the air. As a rule of thumb, you should defrost when the ice gets to 5 mm thick. The best way to do this is to turn off the freezer, put pans of hot water inside to speed up melting, and then remove big bits of ice with a plastic scraper. This would ensure that less energy is consumed during defrosting.

Q8: Can I save my beautiful planet by staying slim?
A: It is unlikely to benefit the planet much. In May 2008, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine did link obesity and global warming. They argued that obese people consume around 18% more calories than the average and their greater mass means their vehicles require more fuel. So policies to encourage walking and cycling would not only improve people's health but also be good for the planet. Perhaps such policies would provide short-term benefits but in the long term they would be more than offset by the fact that people in shape are likely stay longer than obese and thus emitting tonnes of CO2 for the extra years they live. So being slim may be good for you but it is unlikely to be equally good for the planet.

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Q5: What is the most fuel-efficient way to drive?
A: Smoothly, of course. You should avoid dramatic braking & acceleration and should use cruise control if you've got it. Move through the gears as softly & quickly as possible. When possible, drive at a steady speed of 55 miles per hour (~ 90 kmph) on highways. It is proven to be upto 20% more fuel efficient than driving at 75 mph (~ 120 kmph). Check your tyre pressure frequently in order to ensure that tyres are not underinflated or overinflated - it may increase fuel consumption by as much as 6%. As far as possible, don't carry excess baggage. Studies have shown that each extra 25 kg of weight decreases fuel efficiency by 1%. And avoid short trips - a cold engine consumes twice as much fuel as a warm engine.

Q6: How environmentally damaging is barbecuing?
A: On July 4, when over half of all America fire up their barbies, the grills release 225,000 tonnes of CO2. The emissions from these estimated 60 million barbecues would still be less than 1.5% of the nation's daily output. You may be tempted to think that this is not too high a price to pay for a whole lot of fun. Remember that this is equivalent to burning almost 2300 acres of forest! If you do choose to barbecue, the most eco-friendly method is to use charcoal as against the propane burners (currently favored by most Americans). Food grilled over charcoal made from locally grown coppiced wood may actually leave a smaller carbon footprint than if it were cooked on propane.

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Q3: How clean does the pizza box have to be for it to be recycled? Likewise for cans &
bottles.

Ans: According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, Banbury, UK, pizza boxes are often not recyclable. That's because grease from the toppings contaminates the cardboard, making it useless to paper mills, though it can still be composted. Such impregnation is not a problem when it comes to cans and bottles. They should, still, be thoroughly rinsed to remove food remnants so as not to attract vermin. Plastic should also be clean and lids removed from bottles, so that they can be squashed flat. One can rinse waste items in old washing-up water in order to save energy.

Q4: Are laminated juice cartons recyclable?

Ans: Yes, but only if one separates them out. Placing cartons lines with polyethelene or aluminium foil into ordinary paper recycling devalues the load. Depending upon the mill it reaches, it may finally end up in a landfill. However, the drinks carton industry has taken steps to recover their product for recycling. In the UK, manufacturers have funded a local collection scheme.

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Dumb questions about being Eco-friendly & Green (1)

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Q1: Ehy can't the machines in my gym be used to generate electricity?

Ans: Yes, they can. The Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon, which opened in August 2008, is the first gym in the US to convert the efforts of gym bunnies into electricity. Its three specially adapted bikes and the four-person "Team Dynamo", which combines cycles with hand cranks, can generate upto 1000 watts. What's more, you can emulate this concept in your own home by investing in a Pedal-A-Watt. When hooked up to a normal bicycle on a stand, this device allows a cyclist to generate upto 200 watts of electricity. That's enough to power a large TV, or store the energy in a battery for future use. An hour's worth of cycling would be sufficient to power a low-energy light bulb for around 8 hours!

Q2: If I switch the light on and off every time I enter and leave a room, does this use more energy than leaving it on all the evening?

Ans: Switching the light on and off does save energy, but there is a catch. Everytime you switch on the light, the bulb draws lot of electricity and then consumes little. But this initial jolt tend to reduce its life. Studies by the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, found that turning low-energy CFL bulbs on and off frequently can shorten their lifespan by as much as 75%! The institute suggets leaving CFL bulbs on if you will be out of the room for less than 15 minutes. This would actually reduce energy consumption and in turn, increase lifespan of the bulbs.

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