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Posts Tagged ‘composting’

There are many eco friendly businesses that can be found online today. One example of a great business interested in advancing sound environmental sanitation ideas and products is Envirolet®. They build some of the highest quality composting toilets that are used in many homes today.

What are composting toilets?

In contrast to septic systems which utilize anaerobic decomposition, a compost toilet is aerobic. This means that the system depends on oxygen alone for the decomposition of the waste material. In general, the technologically advanced toilets are low flush if they use water at all. Some are totally waterless which as you can imagine will save a lot of money long term. For the person who is into gardening and has a need for compost or fertilizer, this can be a really reliable and environmentally great option.

There are many benefits to utilizing the Envirolet® waterless toilet or some other brand of composting toilet system.

1. Many towns throughout the U.S. now offer rebates to homes that are using compost toilets for their waste management. It is wonderful to see communities coming together to fight the cause for the things that will ultimately help the environment or at least reduce the current trend of harm.

2. As noted above, the use of such a low flush or waterless system can greatly reduce your household water costs. In today’s economy, every dime in our budget counts, so this savings can be very noticeable especially to bigger households.

3. Using such a system will definitely promote a positive impact on the world around us. If more people would get on board with this idea, it would greatly reduce water contamination and water usage in general. This is a great thing to be aware of when we think about how our current actions affect our children and grandchildren years down the road. We must consider the implications of everything that we do right now that does affect the world of which we live.

4. Many of these toilet systems allow for anything that is organic in nature to be disposed of. This means that you could completely get rid of the compost bin that you’ve been using for kitchen food material and put everything into the one solution. If you practice an natural lifestyle that includes your own garden, this would be a great system for you to consider for the household. Your toilet will now be creating the compost that you can use to fertilize your garden, thus saving money on gardening costs as well as utility bills.

Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a few months in Dublin, Ireland. I was amazed at the wonderful system that is in place there for making it easy for homes to be environmentally conscious. Many households keep a small green bin for organic waste in their kitchens. The meal time clean-up includes making use of this can and almost nothing food related goes into the actual trash can. The community then collects the material from these small bins and households on a regular basis. I loved this and hope that more cities and particularly places in the U.S. would be quick to get on board with this idea.

For the serious composter, the Envirolet® composting toilet is a common progression in the enironmental friendly lifestyle that you are already living. Consider this choice now or in the future as something that can help to align you on your path as you fight for health and a clean environment.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

1. Reducing

We  need to find ways that aim at reducing our wasteful habits and trying to reuse items we use everyday rather than discarding them into the trash, for the times ahead are troubling for our economy and have a huge impact on the environment in which we live on our planet. Greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere that are destroying our planet and heating it up.. Here are a few green solutions:

2. Reuse

Find uses for items that are broken or misplaced around the home before you discard the item. Plastic utensils that you may not use in the kitchen anymore that are not broken and safe to use may be just what your child is looking for to use in their play-dough set or play kitchen.

3. Recycling

Recycle your oldtennis shoes. Large companies like Nike can recycle your old sneakers to use in their program that use them to pave new playgrounds for children, making them a safer area for kids to play in. A quick search online will point you in the direction of ways to participate.

4. Composting

Invest in a compost bin – You can make your own inexpensive and safefertilizer for your garden, rather than throwing your vegetable scraps Fertilizer that is homemade will make your gardens grow abundantly, and because you have used a natural substance that is free from chemicals, your homegrown fruits and vegetables will be muchhealthier and tastier.

5. Old Clothing

A wonderful thing to do is to get together with your friends and your family for a clothing swap meet, or go on an excursion to your local thrift store. By shopping at “thrift” stores you will be helping their organization and you never know what kind of deals you will find stashed. There seems to be no shortage of clothing items, in fact it would be a lifetime enough!  Additionally, you could use old clothes that are unable to be donated as rags around the house for cleaning jobs, or donate them to an animal shelter, where the clothing will be used for .

6. Trading Old Goods

There are a number of programs that are online now for the sole use of trading old and unwanted household items, sometimes these can be a real score if you know where to find them. Look for ways to trade unwanted items. One way is to post a classified ad in your local newspaper or even an online publication like Craigslist, and trade your unwanted items that you may not want or need anymore with an item that you do require and save money at the same time.

7. Shopping Bags

When you are going shopping, any kind of shopping, clothes or grocery shopping, take your reusable shopping bags with you. This will be a great way to preserve resources and to save the planet. Paper bags and plastic bags are very environmentally unfriendly, and they contribute to the unnecessary filling of our shrinking landfills and can take a lifetime to breakdown. Although most content in paper bags are recycled, a better solution would be to not have to use them at all.

If you find yourself still using these types of bags, make certain that you do your part and recycle BOTH you plastic and paper, as they are accepted in most recycling programs nowadays.

Save The Earth Today For The Future Tomorrow!

Most of us don’t think about recycling much past when the driver picks it up or we drop it off at the local recycling center.  Of course, the process of making new material from used items is important, but in the course of everyday life it just doesn’t make it through all of the other concerns in the day.You could schedule a visit to the closest recycling plant and see the recycling process for paper looks like up close and personal.  Most companies are more than willing to share the process and information behind taking scrap paper and making it usable again.The best way to really show people that their efforts matter.  However, it’s a little faster to learn about the recycling paper process by reading about it.

Nothing can happen in the recycling paper process without one very important element.  People willing to take the time and save their paper products are vital to the success of any recycling effort.  The entire process starts with you, the consumer, in other words.Whether you drop your stuff off at the recycling bin or have it picked up, the process can’t start until you become a part of it.

Once the paper makes it to the center, the first step is pulping.  In the recycling process for paper, this means that water is added to large amounts of used paper and agitated to produce pulp.After the paper is sufficiently broken down, the pulp is pushed through a series of screens to separate the larger pieces of contaminants from the useable paper pulp.The somewhat clean paper is then placed in a machine that uses centrifugal cleaning to spin more of the debris from the paper pulp.

The next step in the recycling process for paper is to remove the ink.The water and paper pulp mixture is brought to a flotation treatment.Surfactant is added to the mix and it forces the ink to release from the paper causing it to float to the surface for easy removal.The pulp is now ready to be kneaded and broken into fibers further.  The final washing is done with clean water to get rid of any contaminants or particles that is still hanging on.If the paper is intended to be white, a bleaching process is started by the workers.

The recycling process for paper is then completed with presses to form the new, recycled paper into its proper shape and size.  As you know, recycled paper and paper products usually bear the famous recycling logo so you can pick products that were made with environmentally safe techniques.