GoingTrueGreen's Blog Postings - Going True Green

How To Recycle Better

3/26/2021

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Easier Than... **

I have posted many Going True Green blogs about Recycling over the years. Anyone can read them by clicking the Category Link named Recycling on the right side of this page. Now recycling is a Team action and this blog post will focus on the three big players in recycling: Government, Manufacturers and each of us as Individuals. Only together we can start to recycle better.

As readers of my Recycling blog posts have deduced, the very foundation to recycling is provided by the township and other government agencies. Then we the individuals follow the established guidelines that are bad, fair or good. Thus, the majority of the failures with recycling are founded within the established guidelines dealing with the "business" of recycling.

Therefore, I believe for recycling to start going true green, the following first actions must be taken:

1.) All manufactures of recyclable containers and products, must INCREASE the size of the triangle that have the recycling number within, so this important information for the individual consumer can be found, seen and read easier!

2.) If already eliminated, bring back rinse out and sorting by the individual with tax rewards, not citations to penalize.

3.) Provide or Sell* multi-recycle bins on hand push cart with wheels. Each bin, color coded for designated item such as glass, metal, paper, cardboard, plastic.
*Selling these units can be done with a reward program. The individual can earn back the cost and "more" through tax rebates and / or credits.

4.) If already eliminated, bring back the recycling collection trucks with divided sections for the sorted recycled items. If the previous designs didn't work well, then re-design them!**
** In 1969 we were able to send humankind to the moon and in 1974 engineered lifting a submarine off the ocean floor 3 miles down! All the people from around the world, who made up those teams and called themselves Americans, did the impossible because they didn't believe the mission could not be done!

Now after the above has been done successfully, then we can visit additional actions such as implementing Dual System laws for manufactures. Only then can we say that we didn't squander our children's tomorrow here on Earth.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Old Traditions Made New

12/17/2020

DuckDuckGo, duckduckgo, Lincoln Logs, Log cabin toys, toys, Christmas, plastic, scrooge, grinch, save earth, saving our environment, sustainable living, making a difference, save money, Christmas Past, Christmas Future, Christmas Present, GoingTrueGreen, GoingGreen, Christmas Cards, glitter, cotton, linen. porcelain dolls, recyclable, wooden toys, Amish, Amish Toys, Amish Log Cabin toys

Real Wood Amish Made Log Cabin Toy

This holiday season, we can all make a great difference for our health and our planet’s environment just by omitting plastic from our festivities, this year and forever.

“Impossible!” Is the false cry from the Scrooges and Grinches worldwide!

Sadly, when you hear this tone from those in the above categories, they are only spinning a theme in their favor and lying through the process of omission.

I hope this GTG blog will be a helpful start for many. I used the word “start” because, I too, am not plastic free for the holidays. Yet, I have taken significant actions over the last few years leading to a finish line that shows all things are possible.

First action is to remember Christmas Past:

Think of the times when children received a truck made of recyclable aluminum, tin or wood, not plastic. Even the tires were wood or rubber. Dolls were made of stuffed material, with clothes made of cotton or linen. The head was made of porcelain and the hair was real.

Christmas and greeting cards were made with just paper or even hand made. The caring words written carried the message and good wishes. There were no sparkles or glitter made of plastic sprinkled all over the card and envelope that then would fall all over the house.

Children ran into the room to find treasures under the tree. The gifts were right there to see! Already set up and unwrapped. No wrapping paper with multiple color inks or sparkles, just a ribbon tied in a bow on top of “Wow, just what I wanted!” or “Thank you, this is just what I needed.” Then hugs, kisses, and I love you, followed. We enjoyed our gift(s) and each other before getting ready to attend Church, see friends and family.

Second action is to compare our Christmas Present:

Are the hugs and kisses with “I love you” still there? Are we still going to Church to say thank you to God? Do we mail order plastic wrapped gifts and not see family or friends? Do we plow through only our wrapped gifts and not even take time to share the enjoyment of the person next to us and the gift they received? Do we indulge ourselves way too long into a cell phone screen, wide screen TV or Social Media lies about people we don’t really know? Sadly, we are all guilty.

Final action is to plan our Christmas Future:

Here is just one example (Other examples can be found in previous December GTG blogs)

I remember when I was a kid, I would visit my grandparents and their son, who was my youngest uncle. Now these memories were before I learned the truth about a Bishop named Nicholas of Myra who lived from 270 to 343AD in the country now called Turkey and how he, Saint Nicholas, was the real Santa. My Uncle Wilton was still a teenager and he would take out his Lincoln Log sets that he had received as gifts when he was young so I could play with them.

We built cabins, cowboy barns and stables with fences. I built towers and windmills. The log sets were all made of real wood, not plastic. There were no online directions - I had to problem solve myself. There were no batteries - I had to make the sounds and use cardboard for additional parts, such as the blades for the windmill.

Log cabin sets made of real wood are still made today! They are made by hand, no power tools, and they are made by some Amish businesses. All made here in the United States of hardwood and only a non-toxic, water based stain is used. Recommended for 3 years old and up. Parts come in burlap bags with pull string. Wow ingenious! Third party partners help to make these toys available via the web. Try doing a search on DuckDuckGo, a better search engine, to find a wide variety of Amish made toys.

We all need to start evaluating the complete picture for our holidays, so we can take some action that once again, allows us to find treasures under the tree.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Furniture Made By Hand Power

11/28/2020

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Just as long as families and friends can get together to celebrate the real meaning behind that first Thanksgiving event and give thanks to God, the where doesn't matter, nor does the table or the ground you share the meal.

I have sat at many types of tables for Thanksgiving. With my grandparents when young, the table was from the early 1930s and not really a table. Built to be placed against a wall with various decor in a hallway, this skinny table opened up to 8 feet long and 2.5 feet wide. The image shows the actual table we used and since there was no dining room in our Brooklyn apartment, the table was opened in the parlor room. AKA, sitting room or living room.

I myself did not have a dining room or any dining room furniture until just recently. My apartments didn't have that option. Nevertheless, I was very grateful for the opportunity to add a room onto my 1942 house about ten years after moving into the house. Then I was faced with managing the large expense that would come with buying dining room furniture. So for several more years I used saw-horses to hold up three quarter inch thick plywood for a table. I was able to add extra wood and saw-horses when needed, because the room was able to comfortably fit a larger version.

When I earned the ability to buy furniture, I immediately went to an Amish business to find hand made furniture at a very reasonable price. The furniture is not only handmade, the work is done without the use of any electricity. This was the Eco-Friendly alternative that I was seeking. The quality surpasses all machine made furniture selling for double the price and that didn't include delivery.

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My Amish made table is 6 feet long and 4 feet wide! Along the wall is the custom made chest, that I designed and drew up on graph paper as a guide. Communicating any adjustments took time, since the Amish community do not use phones of any type. However, with the assistance of an employee at the Peaceful Valley furniture store, we were able to accomplish my custom designed chest. The chest is 8 feet long and 18 inches deep, leaving room for people to walk by even when others are sitting at the table. Like the table, the chest is made of solid oak wood, even the backs, sides, and bottoms of the drawers are made of solid oak wood.

The amazing part of my custom designed Amish made dinning room table are the 8, one foot wide extension boards. Adding each one of these boards to the table, opens this work of fine craftsmanship to 14 feet long! Fitting 18 people very comfortably.

Four of the extension boards fit under the table and the remaining 4 extension boards are stored in my designed pull down front center door. If you examine the photo, above right, you shall see the boards behind the glasses in their supporting slots. (All images will show a larger view when clicked upon) Below is the table opened to the maximum length of 14 feet.

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Another additional note for more Eco-Friendly alternatives, the Amish craftspeople can use reclaimed wood from old barns when feasible. Just another action we can all consider when in need of furniture. Hoping everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

HomeMade Hat Rack From Left Overs

11/18/2020

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, going green, living sustainable, sustainable living, homemade, hat racks, left overs, building from scratch, save money, save energy, going true green, sustainability

I came across a need to hang my bicycle helmet and my Indiana Jones hat by the back door. So instead of thinking where can I buy a new hat rack, I searched out my various "odds and ends" that I kept over the years, because I felt they would come in handy one day.

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Reduce, Reuse, recycle

First, I pulled out some old closet door knobs and an Oak Wood Saddle that I never used for the transition between a wooden floor and a rug covered floor.

I then sanded down the two ends to the saddle and rounded the edges. Next I stained the wood after drilling holes for the mounting anchor bolts and the extra long threaded bolts that fit the closet door knobs.

I had black decor covers to hide the heads of the mounting anchor bolts as you can see on the left side of this second image.

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Since I had all the hardware, this was an easy project to save Money, Energy, and Earth, by Reducing my "wants" to create my own product that met my "need" while Reusing and Recycling.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Sabotaged Recycling

9/18/2020

Recycle, recycling, sabotage, plastic, plastic bottles, recycling program, waste, glass, paper, trees, sorting, China, Townships, going green, going true green, sustainability, sustainable living

Sabotage Handbook

Earth Log, 1970s
Query:
Why don’t all Townships implement a recycling program?

Answer:
You will see recycling everywhere, once someone figures out how to make money from the process.

Earth Log, 1980s
Someone did and recycling started in earnest through the 1980s.
So in the beginning we were instructed to do the following when recycling…

Wash or rinse out all cans, glass and plastic bottles
Remove the paper labels from all cans, glass and plastic bottles
Recycle paper labels with newspapers and paper mail tied together with cord
Separate aluminum, glass and plastic in appropriate bins

Earth Log, 1990s
Then an anomaly occurred.

Many people in America were not rinsing out anything nor were they removing paper labels. However, they were still sorting.

Jars can’t be recycled with peanut butter at the bottom and plastic bottles can’t be recycled with paper labels still on them. The tolerance level was reaching the highest saturation percentage for the ratio of paper to plastic and food contamination to container.

So instead of “rewarding” the people for recycling correctly, the Townships didn’t re-educate the public, they threaten the public with punishment for not complying. No education or explanation given, just warnings and possible fines for not complying.

Earth Log, 2000s
China was now buying the bulk of America’s recycling inventory.
Many Townships change strategy to make more money…
Let the people recycle contaminated items and tough on China.
After all, many Townships concluded, people are lazy and don’t care. People will recycle more if they no longer had to rinse or sort. Again this would mean tough on China and more money for politicians.

Earth Log, 2010s
China communicates to the U.S. in 2012, that the paper labels on all the new plastic water bottles is at a 10% level of contamination and needs to drop to 1.5%. China is now purchasing two-thirds of America’s recyclable scrap, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Scrap Recyclers (ISRI). The same holds true for food waste on aluminum, plastic containers, and cardboard.
Manufacturers step in to help with replacing paper labels on plastic water bottles with plastic labels and reducing the amount of plastic in every water bottle. Thus, making them weight less and hold a lower monetize value.

Most American Recycling no longer required:

Rinsing out cans, glass and plastic bottles
Removing the paper labels from all cans, glass and plastic bottles
Sorting of any kind

Earth Log, 2020
China stopped buying America’s contaminated recyclable scrap.
Many Townships no longer accept plastic above the number two.
Many Townships no longer accept glass bottles! Glass was one of the first items ever to be recycled and is now thrown into Landfills.

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America's Unwanted Recyclable Scrap

America’s recycling scrap is piling up in warehouses and parking lots.

Sad state of affairs. We did this to ourselves because of greed.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

I Don't Think So Bill

8/29/2020

Bill, say it ain't so!
Don't jump to assumptions! This isn't my car. This "bad boy" as Tim Allen would say on his old TV show, Home Improvement, belongs to my neighbor who is also named Bill.

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Bill, is a Golf Pro, and has been fixing up this "bad boy" over the years in his spare time. Just a few more tweaks and he will be completely done. Mr. Allen, always admires people who repair something instead of replacing it. So do I, even if I would not own a car like this due to the gas mileage, I admire my neighbor for fixing, caring and only driving this 8 cylinder craftsmanship for a reason. For me, I am still saving up for a Tesla car so that I can charge up that "bad boy" with my solar panels!

Tim Allen and Richard Karn are about to start a new competition show with @HISTORY to challenge the people who love to fix up stuff, instead of filling up another Landfill. If Mr. Karn saw me with this car and knew my background, I would hear him say another Home Improvement favorite line... "I don't think so Bill" - I took the liberty to change the last word.

Perhaps my neighbor Bill can enter his car, but I will also be entering many items that I have fixed up. As a U.S. patent holder and inventor, I have made many things from spare items collecting dust and improvised to save old antiques over the years. All of which has helped to save money, energy, and our environment! So stay tune, this will get interesting!

P.S. I think a 0 to 60 test will have me come out ahead with a Tesla.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

REALLY... Glove Litter?

5/4/2020

gloves, virus, covid, covid19, litter, litter bug, litterbugs, careless, medical gloves, wakeup

Discarded Glove: Neighborhood Lawns

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Discarded Glove: City Sidewalk

I do not get out much lately due to "stay at home" orders, but every time I had an essential trip (doctor/food) to make... Really? GLOVE LITTER!

Why would anyone allow their glove that may have been contaminated to be dropped or discarded on a street, lawn, hallway or sidewalk?

Each one of us is the solution, but sadly, we are also our worst enemy.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Dead Solar Panels

3/10/2020

solar, solar electric, solar panels, gallium, solar farms, photovoltaic, solar energy, recycle

Unusable Solar Panels: Recycle or Bury

Solar Panels have a life span of about 20 to 30 years. They help our environment in that time period by reducing the alternatives which would increase our carbon footprint. However, to prevent dark clouds from forming overhead due to the coming waste management issue with old solar panels that are decommissioned, we need a plan toward an efficient infrastructure to recycle up to tens of millions of solar panels.

America has over two million solar installations ranging from roof tops on homes and businesses to rack systems on the ground in solar farms. Many older systems are at the decommissioning stage. Currently, America does not have efficient solar panel recycling policies. The U.S. actually has no national policy.

Europe has policies for solar recycling programs because the Dual Systems laws, which have been in place for years have the manufacturers take back their products to recycle. In July of 2014, I wrote a GTG Blog post on this called:
eRecycling and eWaste. Here in the U.S. the homeowner is on their own, especially with older systems that do not have monitoring abilities in place to inform the contractor or homeowner when the solar panels need to undergo decommissioning.

Solar panels are 99% recyclable since they are made up of glass, aluminum, plastic, copper, lead, gallium, cadmium and silicon. However, the process to recycle solar panels is very involved. Dissembling all parts and separating some of them with melting, lasers, a solvent, cutting or a stream of electrons to selectively break apart components on a surface maybe necessary. Despite all that, great recycling opportunities are coming and an economic upside can come from recycling solar panels. Some estimates state that there will be a 15 Billion dollar business waiting for the new solar recycling industry by 2050.

The time to start is now, so we don't find ourselves burying dead solar panels in landfills.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

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Grandpa's Wood Hangers

2/13/2020

FTC Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate Ad link below and GTG will be compensated if a purchase is made after clicking the link. Thank you.

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70 Year Old Wood Hangers Still Working

I only had one grandfather in my life when growing up. I never knew my grandfather who was killed in an accident on a loading dock for a World War Two supply ship. The other day I thought of both of them as I reviewed my clothes in the closet. I have been Reducing and Reusing over the years and I make sure that a great deal of my clothes are made of 100% cotton or wool. See my previous GTG Blog post called:
All I Want for Christmas is Cotton and Wool

This time while going through my closet, I noticed something else I have been reusing: My grandfather's hangers made of wood. The grandfather, that I was fortunate to have in my life when young, was a tailor and worked in New York City's Garment District. When the Garment district started its transition and the demand for my grandfather's talent was replaced with overseas manufacturing, the company he worked for eventually went out of business. When he saw the company throwing away all the suit hangers, he took home as many as he could. These hangers were made in the 1950s and I am still using them. I inherited some of those hangers and I proudly use them instead of any plastic hanger made today which could never perform to the same caliber as my grandfather's hangers that he saved from a landfill.

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Curbside Garbage That Is Not Garbage

Sure over the years one or two broke, but I improvised and fixed them. I took the time to think of a way to repair them and spent the time fixing them instead of subscribing to be a member of the "throw away" society. Many times I see items by the curb for garbage pickup that are still in good working order. So many people just don't take the time, 3 to 5 minutes in reality, to make a phone call for someone else to use the items they are throwing away. One phone call to your church, community center or one of the dozens of charities that will pickup items from furniture to dishes, takes but a few minutes and others will be so grateful.

I realize the many faults of my own, even with me having less clothes now, I still have more clothes than my grandfather did. I know, because I remember cleaning out his armoire after he passed-over. I donated his hand-made suits and clothes. However, I kept the wooden hangers he was using and added them to the few he had given me many years before.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!

Tree Top Garbage

12/5/2019

Plastic Clouds, Bill Lauto, microscopic plastic, BPA, PS, oligomer, bisphenol A, molecular bond, pollution, plastics, petroleum, plastic islands, plastic in beer, plastic in air

Tree Top Garbage

Tree Top Garbage
by Bill Lauto

There it shall stay,
until it erodes away.
Let loose by humankind,
into our air & out of mind.
Innocently caught by a tree,
until it’s digested by you and me.

If the garbage is some kind of foam, plastic or any other very slow degradable product made by humankind, the key word or the upsetting word in the poem above is digested. Litter, such as plastic, is made from petroleum. The official name is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. When organic material, such as grass or an apple, is exposed to the elements of nature or buried, bacteria breaks down the item into the original compounds that formed the organic element. This biodegradation process doesn't occur on plastic in the same way or period of time.

Studies have shown that UV light will break the molecular bonds holding plastic together so that item can break down into smaller pieces. And smaller and smaller and smaller pieces. Nevertheless, there are problems because buried plastic in landfills are in a place where the sun doesn't shine and when plastic does break down into smaller pieces, this is proving to be a very serious problem.

First let us review what we all know: Plastic is building up in our oceans, especially the Pacific ocean. Humankind's plastic shopping bags, water bottles, take out containers, soda bottles, product packages and six-pack plastic rings are bathing in sunlight as they float in our oceans and waterways. The UV rays will eventually break down that plastic into smaller pieces. Ten years ago, a study from Nihon University in Chiba, Japan, discovered that plastic in our oceans can start to degrade within one year. Thus, creating smaller and smaller pieces.

BREAKING PLASTIC DOWN INTO SMALLER PIECES IS BECOMING A MAJOR WORLD WIDE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM

These smaller pieces of plastic are not natural. They are made of bisphenol A (BPA) and PS oligomer. These are carcinogens and these toxic chemicals end up in the bellies of fish and perhaps evaporate into our air. So let us continue with that natural process of the rain cycle...
After Evaporation is Condensation and finally Precipitation, allowing these chemicals to settle on the land and crops. Animals eat the chemicals and humankind eats the fish, the animals and the crops!

I am now asking everyone who is perusing this GoingTrueGreen blog post to also revisit or read for the first time, these two previous posts:

Plastic Water, Air and Food (12/27/2017)

Plastic Clouds (03/19/2019)

As for all of us, may I suggest that we be extra mindful this time of year with the Christmas and holiday wrappings, boxes filled with shipping material and plastic waste.

GoingTrueGreen.com is teaching the complete picture for saving money, energy, our Earth and our health - Not teaching poetry.

Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!