Energy Conservation

[Sustainability]

Recycled products help to reduce the usage of virgin materials. We should buy products that can be recycled.So,lets conserve energy and make our Earth green.

[CaptainPanic]

Ok.

Consider it done.

 

Any particular questions, or did you just feel like posting an advertisement for the color green?

[Sisyphus]

Also, what does this have to do with "energy conservation?"

[insane_alien]

i'm with sisyphus here, it often takes more energy to recycle materials than to get some more out of the ground.

 

thats not energy conservation, thats energy over-consumption.

[kavitha]

energy conservation means not only production of renewable energy. it also means utilization of energy in an economic way,like do not put light on day time.

[SH3RL0CK]

Buying products that "can" be recycled does nothing if these are not actually recycled. A very large portion of the recycleable material consumed winds up in landfills. While not much is mentioned of this, I would bet a very large portion of the items I put in the "recycle" barrel doesn't get recycled as many people think they do.

 

As IA pointed out, recycling is often more expensive than virgin material, and there are lots of other reasons not to do so (reduced quality of product, possible contaminats, questions regarding health, etc.).

[insane_alien]

Buying products that "can" be recycled does nothing if these are not actually recycled. A very large portion of the recycleable material consumed winds up in landfills. While not much is mentioned of this, I would bet a very large portion of the items I put in the "recycle" barrel doesn't get recycled as many people think they do.

 

i like to think of landfill as resource depositing.

 

landfills are a wealth of materials that, while uneconomical to exploit currently, will be essential later on in our development and unlike natural deposits, we will not need extensive exploration expeditions in order to locate the resources.

 

there are already a number of lanfill mining pilot operations in progress.

 

so, as it happens, i'm actually pro landfill. doesn't make sense to recycle the majority of our trash YET. but it needs to go somewhere so, why not put in a nice neat pile and wait till we are able to do it properly and then reap the rewards.

[Theophrastus]

Ok, to all of those out there who claim that it is easier to simply make things from scratch, rather than recycle them, I must say that this varies from product to product. Recycling metals, for example, requires far less energy, than is required to refine them from their respective ores, in the first place. Also, wide- scale recycling of a particular material is simple proof that it is simpler, as large- scale production on various fronts is a sign that a process is economic. For example, the reason that some alternative "green" products cost more than their wasteful counterparts, is due to the fact that as the energy required to produce them is greater than that of the common product, on the market (ie denim insulation vs. ordinary insulation) the price has to be increased, to achieve an adequate financial profit. Recycling works in many cases, and seriously speaking: Yes, everything you put in your blue and compost bin, is in fact recycled, as is the nature of recycling. Alas...human ignorance.

 

Though I do agree, the original post in truth, is not a question, or even relevant as a discussion topic. If you desired a view on recycling, please, do post a note somewhere to display it to be so. Go green.

Edited March 25, 2009 by Theophrastus
addition of content

[iPeppers]

I remember when I lived on campus, there was a huge kerfuffle about recycling.

It seems that when the garbage truck came around to the back of our residence to take away all the garbage in the dumpster, that they were also dumping all the contents of the recycling bin in with the garbage. I doubt anyone spent even more energy later on in sorting it all out again.

 

I never got the point of recycling every single little item that we can. The earth will do it for us eventually. I think a better approach would be to cut back on waste that isn't biodegradable and for us to just be less wasteful when we could be reusing a lot of things that we throw out, instead of saying "oh it's ok if I throw this out, its recyclable!". Just because we can recycle doesn't mean that it is good for the environment with all the extra energy and burning of fossil fuels that it requires.

[Sayonara]

If anyone is expecting the thread starter to reply, forget about it. He only came here to spam his links. Other than that, at least he started a discussion we can run with

[mikana]

The state’s electric utilities would be required to provide all of their customers with information about energy conservation opportunities and options, including information on energy-related services that are locally available.

[mikana]

conservation of energy simply means making optimum utilization of energy resources.Conservation is possible if we use renewable sources of energy like solar power,wind power etc wherever possible instead of the non-renewable sources i.e. petrol, coal, etc

[SFNfan#1]

Happy Earth Day!

[iPeppers]

Happy Earth Day!

Seconded!

 

On a slightly related note... did anyone else notice the triforce on the google.com Earth Day image?

 

It's right at the bottom, between the "G" and the "o". I thought it was a fitting easter egg.