Happy New Year!!! Although it is slightly late into the year for such types of well wishing it is indeed my first post of the new year. So happy 2011! Hopefully your resolutions are in full effect, you've changed out your light bulbs and you are mindful of your own waste stream. Waste stream?? No it is not your peepee silly, it is defined as: a waste production cycle for a given population. The concept that the stuff you use or create becomes waste and moves along to the dump. Typical Americans have a very large waste stream and those 3 R's (reduce, reuse, and recycle-in that order please!) are a great way to alter your waste stream.
I received an email the other day from a friend, Jimmy K, that showed a pretty ingenious little machine that takes your household plastics and converts it to a crude but usable oil. Click Here It is an inspirational video that shows how a tabletop version of this device can be set up in a school room and with the input of PP, PE, and PS plastics (polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene respectively) it spits out a flammable oil that is said to be able to power generators, cars, ect. This is an interesting way to reuse those grocery bags, bottles, ect. that are a terrible part of your waste stream.
At first glance it's great, a way to reduce the volume of household plastic wastes that end up buried for eons in landfills and put them to use. It seems fairly easy to use and reportedly does not subject the operator to noxious fumes, via a vapor collection system. The oil is crude but, as the videos points out, it could be used to power a boiler or it can be refined for high performance engines. But the price tag is high.
For a table top machine (1kg plastic conversion) it costs roughly 12k as of 2009. This is cost prohibitive for personal home use. An industrial size machine (5-50kg oil/day) ranges between 100k-700k depending on the conversion rate. Then to refine these oils you can also purchase a processing machine for roughly a quarter of what you paid for the converter. If you factor in the financial offset of oil produced at optimal efficiency, then you could recover a fair amount at the commercial level of recycling, plus the great environmental value of reducing the landfill volume.
The Blest Co. plastic distilling rig is one of those simple ideas that has the potential for great environmental change and I hope that the cost is driven down so that it is available for more widespread use.
While this machine is great at reusing it is always better to reduce your use, so carry that box of cereal out of the store with your own two hands or just throw that head of lettuce in the cart without a bag, your going to wash it anyway.
Which brings me to your, eh, weekly, maybe monthly:
D.I.E.T.- Decreasing Individual Energy Thirst
This installment will focus on the small amount of energy that is used by all your appliances that are plugged in but not in use. This is also known as " Phantom Load". With the increase in personal electronics this phantom load has increased over time. Some estimates place it at 7% of the total annual energy consumption in the US or 280 million MWh. That's enough energy to power Los Angeles county with some MWh to spare.
This phantom load is the energy that is pulsing through your dvd player, computer, cable box, ect. It is the energy that keeps the light on your "sleeping" computer on. So its a simple fix right?
Just unplug your appliances when you're not using them. You don't need to keep your computer on during the day when you're at work, just shut it down and unplug it. Same goes with your other personal electronics. A simple way to make this easier is to plug in to a power strip then you can just flip the power strip off. There are also a few fancy power strips and home monitoring systems that do the turning off for your but these devices are pricey.
A typical single family residence can save up to $100 per year! So manage your phantom load and do your part for the environment!
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