The coolant systems of most freezers, refrigerators, dehumidifiers and other condenser devices were designed to use the CFC known as Freon. Between the 1950s and the late 1990s, this made its way into virtually every home in North America.

Now newer models use a different type of coolant that is less harmful to the ozone layer. While new machines are far more energy efficient, significant energy savings are also achieved by recycling your existing model. This can be done with relatively minor changes to the system that shouldn’t cost much at all compared to the cost of a new machine.

While freon coolant isn’t a concern while the refrigerator is running properly, its leaks that allow it to escape into the larger atmosphere – it’s not “consumed” any way during operation. More extensive modifications, including replacing the seals with more efficient ones and increasing the insulation value of the surrounding housing, can significantly increase the energy efficiency of an older ‘fridge that’s otherwise working well.

Contaminated freshwater is a major concern for most cities, even in places where the municipal water supply is reused many many times before being discharged into the environment. This increases the level of contamination each time it passes through our homes and cities.

Conserving water also decreases the amount of energy used on pumping. It also decreases the reliance upon our source water, meaning lakes, streams and rivers. These can be pumped too low so that animals suffer or they can become polluted.

Laundry uses much of a household’s water intake, so it makes sense to look into water usage as the source becomes more limited due to climate change, also water supply and service is very costly. Some washing machines have been designed to use a fraction of the wash water since the 1970’s by recycling there gray-water from one load to another and only using fresh water to rinse.

When you look back there is more than just rubbish lying about in our Landfill sites and helluva lot more than methane to worry about. Thinking about the trash which dates back quite a few decades, and what it is made of, including pesticides, sprays and polishes all of which has been thrown out over the years are just grabbing the attention of the environmental scientists.

In the early 1910s the acceleration in creation of made made chemicals rose very steeply after and during World War One. At the same time the sanitary landfill became acceptable and very popular concept in North America. These landfill sites could expand and the waste was really crammed in, this was at a time of expansion on many fronts including novel chemical creation, waste generation and increased consumer consumption.

The only trouble is nobody knows what happens when these chemicals and their byproducts interact.

Polychlorinated biphenyls were found in food supplies from 1930 until they were banned in the 1970’s, the company responsible was the Monsanto Company who produced several million tons, which ended up in the soil and water as it was given to farmers as a fertilizer. PCB as it was know was used as a pesticide and a insulating oil and lubricant.

In 1993 there was a massive closure of US landfill spaces and there have been hardly any landfills created since to take the growing number of waste volume. Even though recycling rates have increased, so has the rate of general waste.

Increased regulations in the permitting process has been the problem for a lack of new landfills, once landfills were just rubber stamped into creation, but now environmental science has identified the real threat to our water supplies and landfill were the cause.

In the 1970’s plastic replaced glass due to the petroleum crisis and the expense of glass, also there’s no movement in glass, so breaks easily. Throughout the mid 20th century there was nothing wrong with plastic, but now that isn’t the case.

Plastic releases a huge amount of toxic substances when incinerated if there’s no exhaust control which adds to soil and air pollution.

Now some plastics are known to cause problems, like baby feed bottles and containers, so are now being replaced by glass.