06.26.09

What to do with discarded Tires?

Posted in Green Ideas at 10:39 pm by Administrator

I was reading an article today that said 1 billion tires are thrown away every year. Thats Billion with a capital B. I can only imagine, in general terms,, that means that 250 million cars annually get new tires. Is that possible? Is there a better solution?
Looking for ideas to deal with this problem and would like to hear from you. I know of one company, Ashland Rubber Co. that takes old tires and makes them into door mats. The company was founded in 1936 and makes a series of door mats. They even custom size. I remember these types of mats from my childhood, heavy to move but durable.

What kind of good ideas are out their besides recycled tire door mats. Curious as we move into the future. Tires were surely a disaster here in Florida as an artificial reef.

Looking forward to hearing from you all, and if your looking for mats, think about the Ashland Rubber Company, and the mats are called Eco link.

06.25.09

Is there a better way to get fresh water….

Posted in New Flashes, Plastic Water Bottles at 4:25 pm by Administrator

My children have an addiction to bottled water. At some point in our family, we decided that convenience, specifically during soccer games, volleyball, beach, etc, that the only way to transport water was via plastic bottles manufacturered and sold in every convenience store. Now we generally don’t buy at convenience stores but have bought the 24 bottle cases for $4.99, which work out to a nice $0.20 per bottle. The bad news is that those cheap bottles, will outlast us all.

We have been looking for a good reusable water bottle that is double insulated, BPA free, has a carrying case(yes the bottle gets cold) that we could embrace and use from a practical perspective. The good news is that the folks at Multipure Water Filters have created a product called H2O on the go. Its a 17 ounce stainless steel, double insulated water bottle that can be reused again and again. Remember those plastic water bottles I mentioned buying earlier? They are gone. Replaced with 10 water bottles that are filled with Multipure filter water then put in the fridge for when we need to go to soccer games, the beach, etc.

Any good best practices you can share would be greatly appreciated

david

What the heck is a one use Bag?

Posted in Green Ideas at 4:12 pm by Administrator

I recently read an article from the west coast saying that they are putting a ban on one use bags, you know the ones we get from grocery stores to carry our groceries home. I understand the ban on the plastic side of the equation when there are so many better alternatives, but does anybody only use a bag once? Looking for your thoughts on this one. In the past we used the plastic “one use” bag to pick up dog waste, but have since switched to the biodegradable dog poop bags. The bags were also useful for waste baskets in the bathrooms, but again, we moved to a biodegradable trash bag version from biobag that works great.