If you’ve thought of purchasing furniture or other things made of a tropical hardwood, you know how very expensive they are. That’s fair enough, since they take so very long to grow and then shipped a great distance which is costly. You may not be surprised to learn that it is quite common for goods to arrive in crates and on pallets made from these very same expensive woods.

And since they arrive like that, for this wood to be thrown away, put into a landfill or burned. Some furniture makers have noticed this and have begun recycling these crates and pallets into good quality furniture. This is an excellent example of up-cycling, a way where a low value item is turned into something of much greater value by a little bit of creativity.

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.

You’ve probably seen them on plastic containers, the little numbers contained in a three-arrowed recycling symbol triangle. These are a code that tell you what sort of plastic you have. They were started in the late 1980s by the plastic industry to help with recycling.

There are seven codes and they’re listed below.

1. Polyethelene or PET – polyester fibers, pop and water bottles and the plastic straps that hold bundles together
2. High-density polyethelene or HDPE – the hard plastic found in bins, equipment and other rigid plastics
3. PVC – water and electrical pipes
4. Low density polyethelene or LDPE – plastic bags, tubing and some bottles
5. Polypropelene – ducting, auto parts, food containers
6. Polystyrene – styrofoam, rigid knick-knacks, video cases
7. None of the above – yes none of the plastics above.

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.

The rural communities in America, mainly the North find the only way to dispose of trash is by reducing and recycling. This has been the practical way of disposing of waste generated at home. This takes the place of burying, so it ends up in landfills, or burning, despite warnings to the contrary.

Rural areas usually have burning bans on the time and place you can burn. Some counties will issue warnings and bans on trash burning when the quality of air becomes poor, this is usually during the hottest days of summer.

The main objection to burning trash is that rather having a few places that can easily be monitored, people burn trash in their neighborhood what is often rather toxic smoke.

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.