Hot Recycling Tips

Great ideas for green living through recycling, re-use, and sustainable energy management.

Got a hair clogged sink? Before buying one of those bottles of synthetic goo to clear it out, try a little Nair hair remover. Borrow some from a neighbor to prevent buying a bottle of completely non-sewer friendly gunk for massive amounts of chemicals to clean out of the municipal water supply.

Got some serious junk on your hands? Looking at solvent cleaner to degrease or dissolve substance on your skin from paint or project and need to buy some fancy goop to clean your hands? Try a little corn oil or canola oil to get off the principal stuff. Organizing clothing to throw out and using it for cleaning rags is better than ripping up paper towel after paper towel.

Rattling pipes? We all know those trouble spots in the wall where the pipes rattle either from steam pressure warming up or water pressure making a lax set of pipes rigid with flow. If you can drill through the wall where the pipes are located, inject spray foam and stop up holes. those creepy, old-house sounds will stop soon.

Garden Looking Bare?  Before draining your wallet at the home store or nursery, look at freecycle or community resources for free plants, green seeds, and environmental aids to new fruits plants and vegetables.

Check out estate sales and curbside recycling outlets. Ceramics and urns might be synthetic but if you are looking to augment the garden foliage will cover flaws and seconds quality stuff. Remember, today’s recycling effort is tracking reclamation not only of today’s waste but prevous decades as well.

Too Much Trash? Shop for less. Garbology studies have shown people eat the bad junk food and microwaev meals and let the vegetables and fruits rot and go bad. If you detect a trend of throwing away too much food gone bad, stop buying it. Stop carting full trash bins out to the curb once a week because your shopping strategy doesn’t match your consumption.

Vote! California is ready to take another step to curb greenhouse gas pollution. On June 25, the Air Resources Board will vote on a proposal to make polluters pay when they emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. The money would go to fund implementation of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), the landmark law capping our state’s greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2020