Better Place demos their fancy battery swapping station

May 14th, 2009 • environmentalism
Tags: better place, electric car, ev

I just read about Better Place and their special EV cars and battery packs, along with their plans to gleefully roll out charging/swapping stations across the world (hopefully) in the latest GOOD Magazine (GOOD015). While the entire plan was very optimistic, from the article, that’s all it had going for it: optimism. And possibly butterflies. But one thing that stood out to me in the article was that they had no working prototypes at the time. That has now changed as they have a single working prototype out in the wild in Yokohama, Japan. Green Inc over at NYT (amongst places) has the newly released YouTube video from Better Place along with a nice write up about the whole process.

However, the video brought up more questions than it answered for me. Originally, I suspected that the charging stations would just do a battery pack swap, which is still what they do. But what I had not anticipated was that Better Place is essentially swapping out the entire electric drivetrain of the vehicle for one that’s fully charged. If you ask me, that’s highly inefficient and certainly lends itself to a longer swap time. What I had envisioned was simply dropping the butt out of the vehicle and replacing it since that is where the batteries resides in other EVs/hybrids (OK, they’re in the trunk but I think butt is more descriptive). This would certainly be smaller than what they’re doing now and could certainly be done more quickly. A quicker turnaround time would save everybody both time and money.

What is going to be done to keep the cost down? Currently, each station costs a cool half a million dollars. And does that price include the station, charging bays, and batteries or will extra batteries incur an extra cost? Will any of the charging technology be used to feed back into the grid in order to lower monthly utilities bills? Really, I could probably think of a dozen more questions but then my coworkers may start to wonder why I’m not working instead.

I like Better Place’s idea, it’s been bandied around for years but nothing has really come of it and with the West’s new found enthusiasm about caring about the environment, it may actually come to fruition and sweep the globe. We’ll know much more in 2012 or 2013 after their Israeli test stations work out the bugs.

Some helpful and not so helpful ‘hacks’ on saving electricity

August 13th, 2008 • 1 comment environmentalism
Tags: environmentalism

Here’s a Carnival of the Green #140 (URL lists it as #2 because it’s the second time Everyday Trash has hosted it).

However, if you read the list carefully, there are some very glaring errors:

1. Not exactly a way to save electricity but a way to identify biggest consumers of it (always these: big screen TVs, fridge, A/C, hot water heater, multiple computers).
2. If it’s off and not on standby then it’s using no electricity at all, not even phantom energy.
4. Small conventional TVs and small LCD TVs consume very little power to begin with. Better tip: watch TV on your PC as much as possible. One device, one source of consumption.
6. Use a push-reel mower instead of either. An electric mower uses…electricity and I thought this was a list on how to cut down on usage? Use a gasoline mower if you have a huge yard as you will not have an extension cord long enough and arguably less stamina to push a push-reel around.
8. Use a ceiling fan instead of A/C if possible. This is not always feasible in places with high humidity (Florida, much of the South) or people with airborne allergies.
11. Instead of turning off, set heat lower than needed and bundle up on blankets. It’s easier to take them off in the middle of the night than to add them or to jack up the thermostat.
21, Should be common sense to anyone, I don’t call common sense a ‘hack’.
23. Letting certain foods rest outside of a cold temperature can invite bacterial growth or make them spoil more quickly.
24. Defrosting isn’t about keeping foods cold, it’s about defrosting them to warm them up. If really worried, let the food sit out in the kitchen and use the microwave. 2 minutes in a microwave versus a day or two in the fridge consumes much less energy.
31. Vacuum the coils if you can, not a lot of people can — or want to — move a fridge that weighs a few hundred pounds.
33. Wash and rinse clothes in cold water. If warm or hot water is needed, use a sink. Washing for a few minutes in the sink versus a 20 to 30 minute wash cycle consumes much less electricity from the water heater.
35. Take a navy-style shower or simply fill a bucket with water instead. Both will use less water and electricity than a shower or a bath.
37. Again, common sense. I don’t know any men that shave with running water except in the shower (closer shave) and I don’t know any women that shave in a sink (they just shave in the shower/bath too).

There are some helpful hints there otherwise, despite the fact that many of them are a bit off base given both common sense and what many ecogeeks already consider ‘standard practice’. Here are some things that should’ve been on the list instead of others (like putting your computer into sleep/standby/hibernate, just turn it off):

-insulate your water heater
-get an on-demand water heater
-use a solar water heater
-insulate your fridge
-use a smaller fridge
-use a laptop instead of a desktop
-use energy efficient PC components, such as ULV (ultra low voltage) processors and EnergyStar rated components
-use smart power strips or unplug devices when not in use (or turn off existing power strips)
-use light timers
-switch as many bulbs as possible to fluorescent, CFL, or LED.
-use natural sunlight during the day to light your house/apartment/condo, this is completely free
-use window films to reflect light (summer) or hold in heat (window)
-use windows with higher R values
-use higher R value insulation in your walls and roof
-dress warmly in the winter and try to utilize space heaters
-use small area fans in the summer to cool yourself instead of the entire room
-make sure your ceiling fan is rotating the proper way during summer or winter
-instead of boiling a pot of water for a cup of tea or instant coffee (yuck!), simply microwave a cup of water;it’s faster and uses less electricity
-slow cook or smoke your foods
-contact your power company about energy saving options such as smart meters, on call boxes (to turn off idle appliances during peak usage times)
-conduct an energy audit and implement those changes; if conducted by your power company, they can sometimes give you incentives to use less energy
-use solar panels to charge/power small electronics
-use wind-up electronics such as radios

These are more tried-and-true than some of the options on the other list, put them together for more savings.

(I’m not bashing Kacper’s list entirely but much of it won’t actually save you much, if any, electricity overall hence my numbered list rebutting portions of it. Much of my list aren’t things I’ve thought of but suggestions people have been giving out for quite some time.)

Florida Governor Crist starts statewide push for alternative fuels

August 4th, 2008 • environmentalism
Tags: environmentalism

In a statement at the 3rd annual Florida Farm to Fuel conference, Crist announces enhanced support for alternative energy sources. No doubt much of his new found environmentalism enthusiasm has been spurred by his recent visit to the UK, meeting with leaders in their country’s push to energy alternatives.

I never thought much of Crist when he was elected, I knew I was just happy to have Jeb Bush no longer in office and in a position to plummet our state further away from progress. While there were some recent slip-ups with the proposed “I Believe” rights-infringing license plate and the push by legislators to “teach the controversy” in science classes — both of which failed — Charlie’s proven to be a pretty resilient guy in office. It seems not a week goes by when Gov. Crist isn’t making a statement about a support for or a push for developing alternative energy sources or trying to increase government-backed conversation efforts in the state. I applaud pushing for more alternative energy sources, especially in the way of solar and wind given that there are literally huge portions of this state completely unused. Putting up wind farms in central and coastal Florida can generate quite a bit of energy but one must be careful of ecological damage. The latter will be difficult to avoid with solar farms given how much room they need so I hope that Crist is taking it to his cabinet and underlings to vie for and research ecologically-sound and profitable solutions for us to use.

Maybe he’ll start taking hints from places like California that are offering huge incentives to install solar panels on homes and increase grants and incentives for businesses and developers to build more environmentally intelligent.

Orlando’s LYNX transport switching to biodiesel

August 3rd, 2008 • environmentalism
Tags: biodiesel, environmentalism

While there isn’t much information coming out of the 3rd annual Florida Farm to Fuel conference, it was announced last week that Orlando’s LYNX bus lines will be switching to biofuels entirely by Fall 2009. The transport authority serves much of the Central Florida region but has its highest traffic in Orlando, no doubt due to both the University of Central Florida and the numerous theme parks in the town. I see dozens of these buses when we go to Orlando so this will help their local economy quite a bit and will help cut down on their growing smog problem.

It’s reported by LYNX’s CEO that they will not only be switching their buses to biodiesel, they’ll also be building their own manufacturing and processing plant for making the fuels. This will greatly cut down on external costs for LYNX and will create a number of green jobs in the area. Movements like this will undoubtedly help convince Gov. Crist and his cabinet that we, Floridians that is, don’t need any new off shore drilling projects to more imports to sustain transportation, especially in the larger cities. If this LYNX project proves successful, I’m almost positive that transport in other cities like Tampa, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Gainesville, and Jacksonville will want to convert to similar methods if not the identical ones using the same contractors. I know Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Gainesville could see huge savings in public transportation costs since two are huge college towns (Miami and Gainesville) and two have heavily trafficked bus systems as it is now (Miami and Ft. Lauderdale).

If this proves more successful than they realize, hopefully the cities can also convince their local cab companies to switch to alternative fuel sources as that would help immensely as well. With night life such a huge part in some of the larger cities in Florida, there are hundreds of cabs in use late at night and even more during the day, even here in Boca where more and more people are driving less. When I was living in Ft. Lauderdale, I would see a few dozen cabs on the way to school during the afternoon and I would only drive about 5 miles. I hope the savings accrued by LYNX will be a model to other transport systems both statewide and nationwide.

Biodegradable coffee bags

August 1st, 2008 • 7 comments coffee, environmentalism
Tags: coffee, environmentalism

Now, anyone that’s been reading this blog since some time last year, knows I like a lot. Apparently there’s this coffee place called Larry’s Coffee that now offers biodegradable bags that they ship their coffees in.

Yes, even though they’re still made from petroleum plastics, the vendor Larry’s gets these bags from say they biodegrade 100%, there’s even EPA-backed tests to prove it. This is a great change in the delivery of small batch coffee, I hope that more roasters start doing this. I really hope my current favorite roaster, Gorilla Brand Coffee (Blendimentosis is amazing), starts offering these soon. I’m always torn up about what I should do with my empty coffee bags. I can’t tell if they’re totally recyclable (foil inside, unknown ink outside) and I’ve yet to find a good use for them. Maybe I’ll start hauling out the cat poop in them like I do the paper bags we get.

I’m going to order a batch or two from Larry’s so I can fondle these fancy new bags in person. I like the sound of the Bean Martin Blend. Catchy name.

Via Treehugger

3rd annual Florida Farm to Fuel

July 30th, 2008 • environmentalism
Tags: conference, environmentalism

The 3rd annual Florida Farm to Fuel conference starts in about 9 hours in Orlando. According to Domestic Fuel it sounds like it’s going to be thoroughly interesting this year given Crist’s recent pushes for environmentalism in Florida. He and a few people from FAU recently returned from their ten day jaunt in the UK, gaining knowledge on what the Britons are doing in the fields of alternative fuel sources and how they’re working to educate consumers about eco-friendly choices.

From what I’ve found, there hasn’t been a lot of public talk about what they learned on their trip but I have a feeling that’s due to the fact that the conference was (is) right around the corner from their return date. Wouldn’t want to spoil all that green goodness before the conference! The conference lasts until August 1st at which time I’m sure Florida news websites will be clamoring to publish what happened in Orlando this week; at least I can dream that they will. No doubt Crist and Charles Bronson (not that Charles Bronson!) will be discussing FPL’s upcoming solar farm plans. I hope they’ll also be discussing some options regarding offshore wind turbine generator farms, rumors that have been floating around for about a year now. I know they’d probably get demolished by even light Category 2 hurricanes, it’d be nice if they were an option for us.

With all of the sugar cane production and waste produced from it, this will hopefully be discussed in a way to use that waste as biofuel, either through syngas or other means. There will be a panel discussing a number of different feedstocks for biofuels but I hope this is a discussion of feedstock waste for biofuel and not food-from-the-food-stream for biofuels. Unfortunately, these feedstock panels seem to constitute a huge portion of the panel time which can only mean the latter will more than likely be the topic of focus. Why can’t someone from Maker’s Mark be there to discuss how they’re turning biowaste into biofuel to fuel their distilleries? I know that’d be a lot more interesting than “oil feedstocks for biofuel” (whatever those would be).

I’m looking forward to it to say the least.

Arctic Circle full of gas, running low on oil

July 25th, 2008 • environmentalism
Tags: environmetalism, oil

In a short but sweet post on the NY Times Dot Earth (free!), it’s revealed that according to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic is literally chock full of uncharted natural gas but rides low on oil. The area above the Arctic Circle holds up to a third of the world’s uncharted gas which is as much as Russia? That’s mind boggling. But it is good to hear that it holds so little oil. The depth that most of that stuff lies will definitely quell many drilling prospects until we’re at the end of raping the Earth for oil but hopefully by that time, governments around the world — especially the US — will have already “seen the light” and have viable alternative energy sources in full production or near the end of the testing phase.

Granted, this will not stop people from using this area for gas extraction and given the huge amount that’s there, companies would be foolish not to try and get it. I imagine the harsh conditions and tough drilling will deter all but the hardiest, and greediest, companies from going there and risking huge sums of money to extract the gas. I’m going to applaud anyone willing to go there and drill or do just about anything.

The real part of this story that caught me was the elucidating comments especially the information from NASA’s Dr. James Hansen. He’s been a vocal proponent of seeking viable alternative energy sources and fast. He’s also a big proponent of the 350 Project(sometimes referred to as “Back to 350″) and he recently co-authored a worthwhile paper from Columbia about where we need to aim for belching carbon emissions, numerically (linked to climateprogress.org because the author also explains much of what’s discussed in laymen’s terms, the link to the paper is in the first paragraph). But back to the NT Times comments. Granted, theirs is a blog that’s frequented by people of environmentally-grounded mindsets but they still show a good cross section of what Americans think and know, much to the dismay of the ever-disconnected politicians.

Americans, for the most part, know what Americans want and even though we ‘treehuggers’ are always harbinging doom, we too know what America wants. And these comments really show that many of us know our stuff and want change. Someone with Dr. Hansen’s credentials chiming in ring true that scientists aren’t making this stuff up much to the chagrin of deniers and decriers (and probably waify Creationists too). We want something different and we want it soon so having President Bush and nominee McCain pushing for more drilling only makes sense to people with stock in oil companies and you can be assured that their push for off shore drilling will soon change to a push for Arctic drilling where the land is “untapped and raw” (my words, not theirs for now). This is why things like the Prius have huge waiting lists and people are guffawing over new hybrids and the Chevy Volt. Although the latter by new technology standards, gets great mileage but realistically after all the hype, is going to be the first major falter in fuel cell cars, it’s all pretty looks and no substance. I admit it’s a decent first mass marketed push but it’s not nearly enough. As the noose tightens slowly around the neck of oil usage and our purse strings too, we all want something different, some real, measurable, viable change. And with this new data, given what politicians and companies are going to push for, we’re going to want change even more.

Sometimes, solar charging isn’t worth it

July 21st, 2008 • 4 comments environmentalism
Tags: freeloader, solar charging

Last week I received my Solar Technology Freeloader (I actually bought mine at Firebox.com) in hopes of eschewing my Sidekick’s charger for a solar-powered charger. Well, it got charged but it was because I used the included USB cable to charge the Freeloader’s battery not from solar charging. I’ve charged the Freeloader in the extremely abundant Florida sun twice and twice has my phone completely drained the battery in less than 15 minutes. Could this be a defective battery? Quite possibly. Do I believe it’s a defective battery? Not at all. Before I bought the Freeloader, I looked for reviews and very few actual reviews were found and those there were found were either from England OR they were reviewing the press release for the device from 2005. I should have taken this as a warning that it may not work or at least, not work so well.

This is pretty much the wrong product for someone that’s environmentally-minded. The packaging isn’t recyclable at all except for the inside box that holds the charger and cables. It’s regular paperboard without any finish. The charger itself is a mix of small photovoltaic panels (2 of them), aluminum, and plastic (whose number is not defined in the manual) and the Li-ion battery. I know the aluminum can be recycled but the rest of the device body itself is questionable. The battery is replaceable but according to the manual and agreement, an end user cannot replace the battery themselves but they can buy as many replacement batteries as they want to. Why would I buy a replacement battery that I can’t replace? It’s different if I have to take the device to the company to replace the battery a la iPhone. This really hinders any widespread adoption for the product especially since they only ship inside the UK and nowhere else for consumers. Solar Technologies may not want to pay for shipping to other countries but it seriously will limit the use of their device.

There are three LEDs on one side to show charging/discharging status and two ports on the other side for charging by USB or discharging with one of the 18 included charging tips. As instructed in the manual, my first time charging the device was using the supplied mini-USB cable to charge via my computer’s USB ports. OK, fine, I did that. It charged up in about 3 hours and then I then used the Freeloader to charge my phone. It did so for a little under 2 hours which is what the packaging materials claim. Great, I thought I’d found a reason to no longer use my wall charger. I was wrong. Since I fully discharged the Freeloader in the middle of the day, I stuck it outside to charge in direct sunlight for at least 5 hours. I had no way to tell if it was fully charged up or not since the device only uses two of the LEDs to show ‘solar charge’ status although, one of the LEDs is used for showing the device charging by USB *and* it will shut off once fully charged by USB. This cannot be done via solar charging at all and is a bad product design. The LEDs never shut off when solar charging but they do with USB charging, why would it only work for one function? This confusing design aside, I still decided to use it.

After it had charged for 4-5 hours and I figured it was fully charged, I slapped on the mini-USB connector tip and plugged the charger into my phone. 10 minutes later I got a call from my dad so I unplugged the charger but once I was done I plugged it back up. Well, it was dead. Completely. No juice left at all. This was after 10 minutes of use and 4-5 hours of charging. If that length of time — which is specified in the manual to be the required solar charging time — is not sufficient then what is? I live in Florida so we get tons of strong daylight year round but am I supposed to believe that I need to leave this outside for 8+ hours to charge when the manual does state that’s not needed? There’s an “add on” called the Supercharger however I’m not sure what its purpose is at all. Solar Technologies claims it can charger the Freeloader in as little as 4 hours — the manual states it can charge itself in as little as 5 hours — and their other promo material states it can charge the Freeloader in “half the time”. Half of what? 4 hours is not half of 5 hours by any math I know of. Overall, the Freeloader doesn’t meet expectations or even what’s in the manual.

The build quality isn’t all that great either. The device is comprised of plastic clamshelled inside thin aluminum which should add at least some structural rigidity and protection. While I don’t plan on dropping this to find out the latter part, I know that the product feels very cheap overall. The solar panel portions of the device can easily torsion from side-to-side which means you could very simply snap them if you accidentally sat on them. Yes, I know they’re glass but I’m talking about when the solar panel halves are put together! Overall build quality simply feels cheap and does not give the end user a great deal of insurance that their Freeloader won’t simply fall to bits if it’s dropped from small heights.

Friday, the 18th, I left my charger in the car all day charging. To my surprise one of the solar panel’s plastics had warped in the sun. It warped in such a way to actually push part of the panel out of the battery compartment (they’re push-connected like pushing a phone charger tip into a cell phone) and so it wasn’t charging properly. I did not know when this had happened or if it was affecting the ability to charge. So when I plugged my Freeloader into my phone, I gave it a 15 minute time limit before I would check it again. Sadly, it didn’t last 12 minutes. And this was after charging in direct sunlight for over 6 hours — remember, 5 is all that’s required according to the manual. So either I’ve gotten a defective unit or this just doesn’t work in the first place. The device manual says it supports iPods (up to 18 hours) and PSPs (up to 2.5 hours) but I can’t get it to charge my cell phone for more than 15 minutes, how it will do anything more demanding like a PSP is completely beyond me.

I was extremely disappointed by this solar charger. I haven’t been this letdown by a product in a long time. I should have known from the very small number of in-person product reviews that either it was a bum product or a gimmick or simply no one bought it. Now I know that it was both the former and the latter. With seemingly poor quality control done on these, I can’t feel comfortable charging my device in the sun any longer for fear or warping one of the other connections and it no longer charging at all or simply short circuiting completely. I am not going to request an exchange from Firebox because I don’t want to wait another week for the device that may or may not work; a refund will suffice. I will then use this money towards another solar charger such as the Solio or Solio Hybrid 1000HD.

Would I ever buy a product from Solar Technology again? Not if my life depended on it. If I’m going to use a product such as the Freeloader to charge my electronic devices, well, it better do just that.

Pope preaches environmental stewardship

July 15th, 2008 • environmentalism
Tags: catholicism, environmentalism

This is something I can finally agree on, without issue, with Catholics: the Pope preaches to Australian Catholics about climate change (WSJ, sub. not required!). I’m fairly certain this will be the only time I agree with Catholics, or even the Pope, on an issue that’s actually important.

Thankfully this isn’t one of those brain-dead “God did/said it” speeches and makes humans solely responsible for their actions, Pope Benedict XVI uses Biblical messages to promote stewardship and engender care for the environment. I can’t find any specifics on exactly what he said just yet (I haven’t found an online transcript) but I’m sure he used things such as tithing in part of planning for his speech itself. See, tithing isn’t just about giving money to the church/clergy but also about community. The men who wrote the Bible understood that the message of sharing and donation were important which is why they stated all men who are able, should leave a portion of their crops for harvest by those who are needy or cannot afford to buy food stuffs (see Deut. 26:10-13). This was especially important in regards to Levites and Levite Priests but applies just as aptly to the poor, widowed, homeless, and outcasts.

Of course, this doesn’t mean much today as I doubt Catholics want to tithe to Jewish priests but the point is still the same: help people. The Pope was preaching his message heaviest to those who will make the most difference long term, young Catholics. Other leaders and companies need to take a lesson from this as for many products and issues are pitched at the wrong age groups. The most impressionable age group will be from roughly 12-30 since they will grow up learning that taking care of the environment is important and that will reflect later on in their life choices. It’s important to get this message out to as many as possible but like many things, it’s important to get this ingrained into the minds of kids as they will undoubtedly carry the most weight and purchasing power during the periods of when this is most important. Pushing EVs and hybrids to adults is important and a smart move as they have the buying power to get companies to recognize trends but making sure kids understand this same thing is more important as they’ll be far more likely to want to purchase an EV once they can drive or can purchase their first car (EVs are just an easy example but it’s applicable everywhere).

Movement in masses is exactly why (most) politicians try and up-play the younger generation, those freshly able to vote in their first Presidential race or Congressional elections. Companies should make the same moves, although more intelligently since they can have limitless coffers of money to spend on surveys and focus groups of 16-24 year olds. If politicians can wrap their heads around things like Twitter and Myspace, what’s stopping Toyota or Nissan or GM from listening to their customers and creating truly earth-friendly products, especially when money is involved? Or making best use of the mediums available to them for information dissemination and gathering? With mountains of free and readily available data, they’d be foolhardy to not heed it, even in the least amount possible.

Recent movements in Southern Baptist circles, the Religious Right, and Catholics are stirring to get their constituents involved more as the Bible clearly has messages about caring for the earth and fellow man. I may not agree with the overall message and its delivery but I do agree that getting more people on board the “green”, sustainable, “hippie”, environmental, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it movement is going to make a lot of important sit up and take notice. Companies understand what their customers want through marketing and surveys but they’ll understand what’s important to us a lot more if we start allocating spending dollars to more sustainable products and methods. They’ll switch over to get our money a lot quicker than if they had simply listened to market test groups and survey results.

I’m not sure where the Popeplane is touching down again but now that the G8 summit has concluded, one can be certain that he’ll be making more environmentally-focused speeches in the short-term and reaching out to the young Catholics at hand to try and make a difference, or try and convince their parents or politicians or companies to make a difference. Whatever he says to those ends is what matters and raising awareness is the biggest hurdle that we all have to deal with.

Consummate consumer apathy

July 9th, 2008 • 1 comment chatter, environmentalism
Tags: environmentalism, rant, recycling

Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this post, let me present you with a list. It’s a list of stuff I’ve dug out of our Waste Management waste dumpster in the last 10 days or so:

1 1/8″x15 1/8″x48″ pressed pine wood panel (according to Lowe’s, this retails for about $17)
5 or 6 aprons, at least 3 chef’s/frontal aprons and a few waiter’s aprons (just one chef’s apron is roughly $16 at Bed, Bath, & Beyond)
1 bread pallet from a restaurant (#3 or #4 HDPE, wholly recyclable)
1 24″ women’s 15 speed mountain bike with cantilever brakes (a little rusty in spots but works fine)
1 empty and depressurized (presumably) propane tank (shouldn’t have been there in the first place)
1 3′x4′ wood frame (about $20 worth of pine)
1 pair of men’s slacks, 32×32, looks to be barely worn (probably $30)
a whole mess of clothing (mixed womens and young mens clothing but I didn’t pull this out, it was covered with all sorts of trash at the moment)
1 black bookcase made of particle board (easily $50, obscenely more at IKEA)
20-30 birthday cards for “Shane” or “Shaun” from a recent party

Without counting the price of the bike when new, people threw away at least $200 worth of stuff that anyone can use, right now at this very moment or could easily be recycled (which I did do my best to sort, something I pretty much do daily for these lazy folks). We kept the aprons and I’ve saved all the wood. With this wood alone, I’ve probably saved myself close to $50 in costs for some shelves I keep talking about building. Why would anyone throw away perfectly good usable wood is beyond me. Granted, I do need another jigsaw blade to cut the large frame’s wood but it’s about 80% usable and the wood panel is wholly usable. I got free shelves. And now we have a whole bevy of aprons, which I’ve been searching for — cheaply — for about a month now. Now I’ve got at least 3 for free. At $16 each, I saved $48 minus taxes. The bike’s going to someone on Freecycle this week — today if I’m not mistaken.

What the hell, people?!

I’ve been dumpster diving for years now but it was always for discarded electronics and such but now, I look for just about anything. This is something that’s pissed me off for years about America: rampant disposable consumerism. I don’t understand why everyone must simply throw away everything at some point. Did their parents never take them to thrift stores or Goodwill in order to rummage through used stuff? Or teach them that just about anything can get repurposed for something else? Or that when they (the parents) were growing up they had to reuse everything and use as much as possible of everything they consumed, simply because they had no other choice? Why is now any different from then, we don’t really have much more resources at our disposal to just throw away and no real reason to throw away most consumables. I’m fairly certain most of these people drive used cars, something someone else discarded intelligently for whatever reason. Why must this be different for anything else we consume? I believe this weekend we are drafting signs for clothes collection in our complex, I know it’ll get mixed reception. Some people will be thrilled at the fact that they don’t have to do any “dirty” work to get rid of their clothes and that they’re be helping others or some crap. Others just won’t care no matter what the sign says. Whatever the reception, we know it’s better than just throwing them away entirely.

And of course, this goes on everyday all around the world and everyone wonders why pollution is such an issue. For all the hemming and hawing 1st world/developed countries make about recycling and reducing emissions and so forth, we all do a pretty pathetic job at actually doing it. This isn’t indicative of every country mind you, many in Europe have a firm grip on these issues and execute them in much better ways than say, England or America are doing or have done in the recent past. There are even lesser developed countries whose populations are far exceeding our capacities to reuse and recycle, just look at the electronics recycling boom in China or all the cool gadgets/toys villagers make in Africa. Comparatively, the West is far more developed and we’re lagging behind those two countries — I stress comparatively for a reason.

We personally started recycling and reusing much more simply because I was tired of throwing away my money all the time. Now, I don’t have much more money to spare in comparison to before but I surely do have a lot more stuff to no longer feel guilty about if it goes in the trash (or recycling bin). This has also landed us two free, brand new bikes, a nice little spice box, a shelf for my hookah and shelves for all of my shisha/accessories and a buttload of other stuff.

With gas, food, and other consumables prices rising, what will it take for “developed” nations to stop throwing money away (figuratively) and start giving a damn? Will it take us literally throwing away money, just as a demonstration? Unfortunately, I think it will.