Ha! Got your attention. Now, I am simply wondering.....how green are you? 

Recycling programs are everywhere:  home, the office, schools, restaurants, office supply shops, basically everywhere.  But are they really reinforced? How many of you have and use the 2 or 3 different recycle bins provided by your local city solid waste management department? We have 3. Black = everyday non recyclable waste. Blue = paper products, glass, aluminum, plastic jugs, bottles, etc. Green = lawn clippings, compost, tree limbs, etc.  Do you separate your trash into organic, inorganic, paper, plastic, etc.? Do you turn the light and/or ceiling fan off when not in a room? Ride your bike to do a quick errand close by or maybe walk if it is a reasonable distance? Have your sprinkler system on an energy saving water reducing timer? Your thermostat programmed to the temps in your climate/area and set higher when you are not home or sleeping?

What steps have you taken to "go green?"

Gas Strike Tomorrow!

70 Billion will be lost on Friday May 2nd

if everyone does not buy gas on that day!

slightly off topic, but this is best place to put it, i guess

$$Want gas prices to fall? It's worth a shot!$$

i recycle all cans and water bottles, and give them to the inlaws. they keep the $$$ they make to go to vegas, which i'm always proud to support

and all newspapers, boxes, milk cartons, juice bottles, dry cleaning hangers/plastic, you name it...goes in our blue recycle bin, which is always fuller than the garbage can at the end of the week, i'm proud to report!

i've got PLANET detergent that i use on all the stuff that doesn't require tide with bleach, and wash with cold water as often as i can...most of the energy used for washes is because of the hot water.

low energy bulbs

keeping all lights off that we're not using

now, i do use disposable diapers...no cloth...i'm not green there! tried it for a month with the first one...and it was a NO GO! sorry mother earth, i couldn't handle it!

Might sound a little silly but when I'm taking a shower, I turn the water off while I'm soaping.  That saves on water. I brush my teeth with the water off.  Ask for brown bags instead of plastic.

Interesting facts wrt Turning on/off Fluoresant Lights:
A bit long winded but interesting all the same.

Should I Turn Off Fluorescent Lighting When Leaving A Room?

Short Answer: Turn them off if you will be gone for more than about 15-20 minutes (for details keep reading).

There are a few misconceptions about fluorescent lighting that keep too many people from turning lights off to save energy. The first misconception is that it takes more energy to start a fluorescent light than it takes to run it. The second misconception is that turning a fluorescent light off and on will wear it out right away. Like many of our myths about energy, there is a small amount of truth in the belief. (Special thanks to Steve Selkowitz of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs for doing the research that this article is based on.)

Misconception #1: It takes more energy to start a fluorescent that it does to run it, so leave the lights on all the time to save money on your electric bill.

Reality: When you turn on a fluorescent light bulb (correctly called a "lamp"), there is a very brief jump in current when the ballast charges the cathodes and causes the lamp to start. This inrush of current can be many times greater than the normal operating current of the lamp. However, the spike of current draw normally lasts no longer than 1/10th of a second, and draws the equivalent of about 5 seconds of normal operation. So, if you turn your fluorescent lamp off and on more frequently than every 5 seconds, you will use more power than normal. So, normal switching of fluorescent lamps has very, very, very little effect on a power bill.

Misconception #2: Turning fluorescent lamps off and on wears them out right away.

Reality: Electric lights have a published rating for expected life. This rating is in the hundreds of hours for many incandescent lights, and in the thousands of hours for most fluorescents. Fluorescent lights have a life rating based on how many hours they are left on every time they are turned on. This is usually referred to as "burn time", and for fluorescent lights the burn time is three hours.

Every time a fluorescent light is turned on, a tiny amount of the coating on the electrodes is burned off. Eventually, enough coating is burned off, and the lamp fails to start. Most full-size fluorescent lamps are rated to last 20,000 hours when left on for 3 hours every time they are turned on. This means that the lamp has roughly 6,667 starts available to use up. (20,000/3 = 6,667)

Longer burns extend lamp life. If you "burn" your fluorescent lamps shorter than 3 hours per start, you use up your potential starts faster. If you "burn" them longer than 3 hours per start, you use up your starts more slowly. However, you are paying energy costs for the operating time of the lamps, and the most efficient lamp is the one that is not on when it is not needed. See Table 2 for the effects of longer burn time on lamp life.

But longer burns use more energy. Operating a light when it is not needed is simply spending money for no purpose. Today's rapidly rising electric rates mandate that every building becomes leaner with energy use to control costs. See Table 3 for a comparison of operating costs for a typical fixture.

Find the trade off point.
There is a point where the amount of money you save from turning off the light exceeds the cost of reducing lamp life by more frequent starts. If you use the formula in Table 1 at $0.05 KWh, you come up with a time of about 15 to 20 minutes for that point. As energy rates go higher, that time becomes shorter. If you pay less than a nickel per kilowatt hour, your turning-off point would be longer.

The kind of ballast you use may make a difference if you turn your fluorescent lights off frequently. There are three different kinds of electronic ballasts: instant start; rapid start; and programmed start. Which one you use can influence your choice of how frequently to switch off your fluorescent lights. Check with your ballast supplier, or contact a lighting specialist at the Lighting Design Lab for more information on different types of ballasts.
Table 1:
The "Official Formula" to calculate how often to switch lamps off and on

In "Economics of Switching Fluorescent Lamps" IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications Vol 24, No 3, May/June 1988, Carriere & Rea provide a function f(u), that describes the lamp life in burning hours relative the rated lamp life under that standard burning cycle of 3 hours lamp operation per start.

Actual Lamp Life =
Rated Lamp Life x f(u) where, f(u) =
1.71 (1-exp[-(u/3.89)^0.505]) u =
burning cycle, hours of operation per start

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 2: Burn hours and Fluorescent Lamp Life for a Typical 4-foot Rapid Start Lamp (32W)

3 hr 6 hr 12 hr 24 hr
20,000 24,000 28,000 34,000

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 3: Comparative annual operating costs for a 3-lamp T-8 fixture with electronic ballast (94W) (@$0.05/kWh)

Burn Time
per day Annual
Hours Annual
Cost
3 hrs 1095 $5.15
6 hrs 2190 $10.29
12 hrs 4380 $20.59
24 hrs 8760 $41.17

ok, so i am researching hybrid's for husband, and came across this article on msn and thought.....hey..i would totally do this. bike sharing. what a concept, and it is finally coming to the US. how many of you would take advantage of this type of program?

Tuna ><((((*> the other white meat!

 hey guys, i'm reasonably sure we will be losing the battle to save the earth. like isaac said earlier, there are just too many of us on this planet. with that being said,   i don't carry a green pixel in my picture! and like someone else said,izzle, i think, people, especially americans, are lazy, and will do whatever is easier. but i do salute all of you who take the time and effort to teach your children to take care of things that matter. if u have no children, but still practice green, more power 2 u!..jk

when I lived in Ann Arbor, I walked everywhere.... except work, because it was 15 miles away. currently, my work is within walking distance. But my work is delivering pizza's. So, uhm..... yea. And there really isn't much else in a walking distances from my house. Or a biking distance. But I tell my friends to throw there trash on the floor boards rather then out the windows when they ride with me. unless it's banana peels or something..... then I tell them to throw it out.....

I'm trying to get my car running better. cleaning fuel lines, air intake, full synth oil, checking tire pressure. Though that's because it saves me money more then anything

otherwise, I don't believe that the planet earth can support how ever many billion people it has on it now. So I plan to only have one child. Maybe (probably) adopt more, but only one of my "seed"......

The only 'Green' anything that I concern myself with is when it has to do with chemicals I'll be using... only because that affects me more directly... I don't recycle... until I find a car that I like, I'm sticking with my fossil fuel consuming one... as for solar power? I think I'll wait until the price comes down...

I'm not overly concerned about the Earth for my lifetime, or my children's... so meh... I know it sounds selfish, but like AE, I don't abuse the Earth, I'm just not gonna drastically try to compensate for everyone's destruction.... I'll plant a tree... that's it.

Besides, referring to the 2012 thread... what if the apocalypse comes? lol 

.·:·.·:·.·:·.·

 And here I thought ohhhhh some good stuff........Tuna ya got me.

OK were a house that recycles - yep same bins (but instead of black we have yellow).  As I see it we have one earth so we need to take care of it - for our future generations.  Plus once you get in the habit of it then it's second nature.  It really doesn't take much effort but in the end our children (and children's children) will be so much better off.  I'll even go so far as to say one day when I bid farwell to this earth (hopefully long way a way) you can recycle me - yep toast me up and sprinkle my ashes