What Do Flashaholics Do To Avoid Environment Pollution?

Yesterday evening I watched a TV documentation about environment pollution all over the world. One statement I heard was really distressing: In the United States of America live about 4% of the world population - but these 4% produce about 25% of the whole amount of greenhouse gases which the longer the more cause very serious problems for the nature and therefore for all of us.

My provocative questions: What do you as a flashaholic do to reduce the production of these greenhouse gases? What else should be done?

Maybe it's just me, but I never hear about special collecting bins for batteries... At least not from U.S. sources. All I hear is toss the old batts out, discard,(flush down toiliet ) and put fresh ones back in...

In the Netherlands, and I'm sure a lot more countries, we have special waste bins for environmentally hazardous materials, such as chemicals, asbestos, car-batteries, batteries, etc.

Just wondering if such a thing exists in the U.S.

Don't get me started people....Sasha would never get me to shut up.

In the UK, we're beginning to take Eco-issues seriously, but it'll be a long time coming before any country gets to a decent level.
Greenhouse gases apart, there are a lot of other considerations (for me). I've seen websites with recommendations for small everyday things you can do to save resources without going to uncomfortable lengths.

Unfortunately, our FlashlightFun does have environmental impact. I think all I can do is make sure that my Lithiums have happy homes to go to once I've finished with them in my lights.

Jahn

Zippo.

Nothing I ( or anyone ) can do about the natural climatic cycles of the earth.

I thought most modern batteries were touted as environmentally friendly...

Me? Well...I use rtechargables for my stuff that gets a lot of use like cd player and FRS radios. I charge my batteries in the sun

Saaby,
Ni-Cads contain Cadmium, an extremely toxic metal. They should be disposed of carefully/appropriately.

And the problem with Lithiums is that after using them in a light, they usually still contain plenty of juice for less demanding applications.

All battery production is very energy-intensive, that just can't be helped. (I don't think we need to justify that too much ...... )

I have a feeling that in 10 years time, we'll have very efficient power sources, and mostly all rechargeable, but for now, we're stuck.
Fully regulated lights are an answer as well, and that should be widely featured in 2-3 years time.

Jahn

Ok, I see I have to ask my question again and make it hopefully clearer what I want you to think about:

What do you personally do to produce less greenhouse gases?

And as an additional question:

What else can we - you and me - do to protect our environment?

This is what I (and my family members) already do:

I drive a car which consumpts less than 9 l/100km (a VW Passat 1.8T) and I use it mainly for my job because I often must go to customers. On weekends we try to not use the car even though this does not really work every weekend . We also have reduced the room temperature in our house (yes, here we need a heating as during the winter months but also in the early spring and late autumn it's quite cold). We also keep an eye on what we are buying as for example it is really not necessary to buy apples imported from South Africa as long as they also grow here in Europe or even in my own country. Or why shell we buy excellent wines from Californa if the Italians and the French do have outstanding wines too? And we also try to buy things which are not packed with a huge amount of material which is hazardous to the environment when burned in the combustor ....

There are many things more we do in our family: We also collect used paper, cans, every kind of aluminium, batteries and PET bottles (if we ever buy such ones) to bring back all this stuff for recycling or environment protective disposal. And of course as Saaby said I also changed (back) to NiMh's instead of alkalines or lithiums and replaced my ARC AAA (sorry Darell and Saaby) which I used before as my night light by a solar powered Free Light. And almost all of my flashlights now are fully regulated to suck the batteries empty ....

You see, each of us - you too - can do a lot to protect our environment. You're right, on a first glance it seems to be not very much - but imagine each human being would do this ... At the time we do a similar thing: Each of us is producing a bit of environment pollution but this bit times number of human beings adds up to an unbelievable huge amount and causes irreparable damage to the nature - and to us!

Originally posted by Cutter:
Don't get me started people....Sasha would never get me to shut up.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Oh yes you should start thinking about my questions . This does not necessarily mean you also have to post a lot .....

Originally posted by jlh:
Zippo.

Nothing I ( or anyone ) can do about the natural climatic cycles of the earth.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I didn't talk about the natural climatic cycles. I asked two questions about how to reduce greenhouse gases and how to protect our environment. I think we really don't mean the same thing!

"What Do Flashaholics To Avoid Environment Pollution?"

I'm curious about if there comes any answer from someone living in the US.

we here in germany have to separate the garbage in normal garbage and primary material like aluminium,plastik,glas and paper.

stores have to take back of their packaging.
stores have to take back used batteries.

i use only energy-saving lamps around the house.

my fridge runs on low energy and does not use fckw (downt know english term, its that chemical for the fridge)

my car uses around 7 liters of diesel pro 100 kilometers.

i also buy fruit and vegetable only unpacked.

i try to avoid buy disposable bottles, plastic bags.

Originally posted by artar:
I'm curious about if there comes any answer from someone living in the US.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">At least Darell should be able to give us a good answer

But you're right I don't expect this thread will become a huge one as we are only a few Europeans here - and even not all Europeans have the same high ecological and environment awarness . I do hope it's not much too late when the majority realizes how we lay violent hands on our environment ...

I live in a poor and very rural county. We do not have recycle for garbage available.
I try to do my part by reducing energy consumption at my home by:
Setting hot water heater temp lower.
Florescent bulbs.
Shut off climate control when possible.
Do all shopping on one car trip.
Turn off not needed lights.
Work the same shift as my wife so one car is used.
I'll think of more later.

Here in North America during 2002 we have seen millions of trees burn in uncontrollable forest fires. That created far more "greenhouse gases" than all of the efforts of all humans could possibly control.

Nature may not cooperate with those who intend to dominate her.

Artar - Freon is the English name for the gas usually used in refrigerators. Automobile AC systems can no longer use Freon in the US.

We have an fairly active recycling program in our county. Almost everything inorganic can go in the recycling bin, plus newspaper and cardboard.

For those of you that want further involvement beyond a personal level: What's the best thing you can do on a county/state level? Promote waste incineration.

Burning trash in industrial waste reduction plants has gotten a really bad name, but it's actually the most efficient means to reduce and reclaim our waste.

First it starts with a really good community recycling plan. Everything that can be recycled, is. Everything else is burned. And I don't mean burned, like in a 55 gal drum in your backyard. I mean incinerated at such high temps that the end products are ash and water vapor. Add scrubbers to the stacks of the plant and you have nothing but water vapor coming out the stacks and ash under the grates. These plants don't even produce significant CO2 since the temps are so high. The carbon falls out as ash and the O2 combines with H to make the water vapor (just like an efficient automobile combusting gasoline). Waste is reduced to 10% of it's volume and is sterilized, meaning that your landfills last 10 times as long, the ash is only marginally dangerous (from any heavy metals that were in the waste that is burned) and you don't have birds/bears/racoons in your landfills looking for free lunches.

Where's the problem? Why the bad rap? Power generation companies. They get involved telling the plant owners (counties/cities) that "if you burn at a lower temperature you can use the plant to generate power via a special conversion unit, sell the power to us, and thereby reduce your costs." Only problem is that the lowered burning temp = unreduced gasseous waste products out the stacks. So, if you can keep the power companies out of the loop you have a fantastic method of reducing and minimizing the effects of the non-recycled waste on the environment.

Whew! Stepping OFF the soapbox.

Here in California, which is the black out capital of the world (I think), energy conservation is a must. That is why my family decided to use mostly flourescent lights instead of incandescent ones. Not only that it's bright and has excellent color rendition than that of regular incandescent, but it also helps us save a lot of money on monthly electricty bills. We use the Panasonic Gen 4 warm flourescent bulb for mood lighting or where there's a need for warm lighting ambience such as the living room or the entertainment room.

ZEPH

Originally posted by remuen:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Cutter:
Don't get me started people....Sasha would never get me to shut up.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Oh yes you should start thinking about my questions

. This does not necessarily mean you also have to post a lot .....

</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">No remuen......you don't understand......I'm a right wing Republican here in the U.S.

Trust me......you really don't want to hear what I have to say. And neither do the Administrators or the Moderators who would (because they know me by now ) promptly shut me down.

So, I won't get started.....because I don't like to start what I don't get to finish.

Dan out

Here in Ireland, the Government introduced a scheme where shops no longer hand out plastic bags free of charge. If you want one, you have to ask and there is a charge of 15 cents (Euro) per bag. Result? Millions of bags per week less been blown in the wind around landfill sites. It's only a small initiative, but as Remuen says, if everybody does their bit, the collective impact is very large!

In our family, we recycle what we can, but I accept I could do more here.

On the car front, what can I say? I don't drive a big Gas guzzling SUV. I drive a petrol engined Alfa Romeo 1.8 which has a consumption figure of 30 Miles per Gallon or 9.48 Litres / 100 Kms.

I am really sorry to see so many people who are normally very intelligent falling for this "Junk Science" and leftist propaganda of blaming greenhouse gasses on America.

One good sized volcanic eruption in Indonesia produces more CO2, SO2, H2S and halides than the factories and consumers in the USA do in ten years. The pine forests of the world produce more volatile hydrocarbons that go into the atmosphere in one year than the USA will in its entire history.

As MarcV said, one good sized forest fire will produce more particulate matter, produce more carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide than all of our vehicles. And the USA has had some devastating forest fires the past few years. Why? MOST of the blame can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the so called environmentalists who have made it almost impossible to prevent OR efficiently extinguish forest fires.

I realize that most people who don't live in the USA (and all too many of our own residents) hate the the United States of America, even if they are more than happy to accept the monetary and military help from America and its people when they lose control of their own affairs. But that doesn't stop them from trying to blame America for all of the world's problems.

Is America perfect? No. We make mistakes. Do we consume a lot of energy? Yes, we do.

But in consuming all that energy, we are (with a very few exceptions) the most innovative, the most productive, the most energy efficient and the lowest polluting per unit of production of the highly industrialized countries.

Heck, American Taxpayers fund studies, experimentation and development of energy saving devices and polution control in amounts greater than many other nations GNP.

Why is it that the rest of the world is so ready to jump on the USA- Why is it that Communist China, the worst polluter in the world is never mentioned? Why is it that what used to be the Soviet Union is rarely mentioned? Their history and their present is full of horrible pollution problems.

He77, America STARTED the environmentalist movement. MOST of our citizens and corporations voluntarily do what we can to protect our environment- YOU only get to hear about the few who are careless with the environment.

In the late 1960s the American Environmental movement was taken over by the communists and socialists, and spread world wide, NOT for the purpose of saving the world but to destroy us "capitalistic pigs".

Like Cutter said- Don't get me started... I could waste hours on this subject.