Every household generates a certain volume of garbage every day. Proper collection and disposal of this waste material is one of the most important tasks that need to undertaken by local government authorities. Some of this could be recycled. The most important factor in the correct garbage recycling is the cooperation extended by the householders.

In most municipalities each family is required to leave their recyclable material in one bag and the real garbage that could become compost in another. It is not easy to achieve desired results with such an exercise unless householders cooperate 100%.

It is normal for garbage collection vehicles to have two compartments for the two types of material that need to be disposed of. The recyclable material could be unloaded at a facility that is geared to recycle the material that is being received. The real garbage that couldn’t be recycled could go to a facility that is able to convert them into compost.

In a garbage recycling facility, electromagnets, air blasts and screens could be used to separate different materials such as plastic, aluminium, paper and glass that are being transported on a belt. This process could be made fully automated. However, manual labor also is necessary for a certain extent. That is because it is a must to correct the mistakes householders have made while leaving the right type of garbage in the right bag.

Once the recyclable materials are separated in a sorting out facility, they could be sent to different plants for recycling. After sorting out waste material in a garbage recycling plant there will be some materials that cannot be either recycled or converted into compost. These could be sent to sites of land fill in order to dispose of them there. Even out of the real garbage that is sent to a compost making facility, there will be a portion that could be used only as land fill.

It is a must for every householder to be careful not to add toxic waste material into any of the bags. Also, material such as needles that could cause injuries to manual workers should not be left in them. In case you have oils such as used engine oil that could pollute environment, it is necessary for you to talk to your garbage collection company to order for suitable containers.

This is one of the many arrangements that a local authority could resort to. There could be a different arrangement in your area. Whatever the arrangement could be, the most important factor is getting the cooperation of householders.

Nine out of ten households in the UK now have a kerbside collection of recyclable materials, and recycling initiatives are increasing day by day. However, there are many members of the population that remain unaware of what it actually is. What is recycling and what you can do to save this earth from harmful waste by products.

Recycling is a process through which you make use of used materials and turn them into new products. Items made from materials such as aluminium, plastic water bottles, certain kinds of paper, glass, metal, plastic, electronics and textiles are recyclable.

This is an excellent way to save extracting new raw materials from the earth, which in turn reduces energy usage, lowers greenhouse gas emissions, and stops water pollution by reducing the need for waste disposal in landfill sites.

Recycling Saves Energy

It takes less energy to process recycled materials than to process raw materials from the earth. For example, it takes a 75% less energy to recycle aluminium than to mine it from the earth. The energy it would take to transport raw materials from the source is also saved. Saving energy in this way also decreases pollution from carbon emissions.

Recycling Reduces Global Warming and Pollution

By saving energy through recycling, CO² emissions are lessened. Recycling non-biodegradable waste (ie. plastics, metal, and glass) helps reduce air pollution and gasses that would otherwise be emanating from landfill sites.

Recycling Reduces Waste and Space in Landfills

Landfills are mostly composed of non-biodegradable waste which takes a long time to decompose. Recycling can lessen the materials that are buried in landfills.

Recycling Saves the Earth

Recycling helps the environment. As an example, we know that many trees are cut down to produce paper. By recycling paper, we can reduce the number of trees that are cut down. Products which are made from raw materials that come from our natural resources should be recycled in order that we can preserve the environment.

Recycling Helps Save Money

Recycling provides ways to save money. Using products that are recycled lessens expenses, as recycled products tend to be less expensive than products made from virgin materials.

With a little investment, in either a compost bin or a wormery you could recycle many different types of food waste, like eggshells, vegetable and fruit peelings and use the composted material to fertilize plants in your garden.

What Can be Recycled

It can be often hard to remember what can be recycled. Almost anything that can be re-processed to serve another purpose is considered a recyclable items. aluminium, plastic water bottles, certain kinds of paper, glass, metal, plastic, electronics and textiles are all highly recyclable materials.

In offices aside from paper, cardboard and plastic products, several other materials and products can be recycled. Cellular phones, Ink cartridges, computers and batteries can be recycled. Tyres, keyboards, light bulbs, car batteries, metal scraps and small electronic equipment. Wood, wires, cables and rope can be converted into other useful products with a little creativity.

Making other products from recycled glass and paper uses a significantly reduced amount of energy than producing completely new materials. Used glass can be converted into food and decorative jars, beverage bottles and other glass materials used for construction. Segregating glass according to colour and removing the lids is a sure way to help in the recycling process.

Newspapers on the other hand are usually turned into more newspapers, tissues and cardboard. This can save a considerable amount of space in landfills. Aluminium and tin cans are the most energy saving recyclables. The process allows the aluminium industry to produce twenty times more can while utilizing equal amount of energy. This consequently results to significantly less water and air pollution.

Plastics are harder to recycle than other materials. Different plastics require different recycling processes, so its best to check with your local council or recycling centre. Used car engine oil can be stored in safe containers and brought to selected oil recycling centres which convert them into industrial lubricants and heating fuel.

Food leftovers, leaves, waste, twigs and other garden waste, can be recycled in our back gardens. Composting in a bin or a wormery is the process of converting decayed organic matters into fertilizers to be used for soil or plant nourishment. Home-made compost will yield produce and crops which are guaranteed free from any hazardous chemicals that may have affected plants if using commercial fertilizers.

It is important for everyone to understand what can be recycled out of the items we use on a daily basis.

Draught-proofing is often overlooked when looking at ways to save energy in the home, it’s also one of the cheapest and most efficient ways to save energy and money in any type of building.

Most homes lose around 15% of their heat via draughts and poor ventilation, and time invested sealing these gaps could save a large amount of this. A thorough DIY sealing job can be done for as little as £30 and could save £60 a year, so it could be worth the outlay even if you don’t own your own home.

Cold air entering around the windows and doors in your home means warm air is also escaping, and the money you’ve spent heating this air is being wasted. To draught-proof your home you should block up unnecessary gaps that let cold air in and warm air out. Conserving warm air means using less energy to heat your home, saving you money as well as making your home nice and comfortable.

Let’s have a look at possible places where heat could be escaping in your home, and what can be done to fix them.

Windows

For windows that open, buy draught-proofing strips to stick around the window frame and fill the gap between the window and the frame. There are two types:

self-adhesive foam strips – cheap, and easy to install, but may not last long.

metal or plastic strips with brushes or wipers attached – long-lasting, but cost a little more.

Make sure the strip is the right size to fill the gap in your window. If the strip is too big it will get crushed and you may not be able to close the window. If it’s too small there will still be a gap.

For sliding sash windows, foam strips do not work well. It’s best to fit brush strips or consult a professional. For windows that don’t open, use a silicon sealant.

Doors

Draught-proofing outside doors can save a lot of heat from escaping whilst not costing a great deal. There are four areas to consider:

The keyhole – buy a purpose-made cover that drops a metal disc over the keyhole

The letterbox – use a letterbox flap or letterbox brush. (remember to measure your letterbox before you buy)

The gap at the bottom – use a brush or hinged flap draught excluder

Gaps around the edges – fit foam, brush or wiper strips like those used for windows.

Interior doors need draught-proofing when they lead to a room not normally heated, like a spare room or kitchen utility. Keep these doors closed to stop cold air from getting into the rest of the house. If there is a gap at the bottom of the door, seal it with a draught excluder. Interior doors between two heated rooms won’t need draught-proofing, as energy is not lost when warm air circulates.

Chimneys and fireplaces

If you don’t use your fireplace, your chimney is most likely to be a source of unnecessary draughts. There are two ways to draught-proof a chimney:

Fit a vented cap over the chimney pot.

Buy a chimney balloon, which is an inflatable cushion that blocks the chimney.

*Remember to remove the draught-proofing if you ever decide to light a fire.

Floorboards and skirting boards

You can block cracks and small openings using filler that you squeeze into the gap. Wooden floorboards and skirting boards often contract, expand or move with everyday use, so you should use a filler that is plyable and tolerates some movement, usually silicon-based.

Fillers come in a variety of colours, and some specifically for indoor or outdoor use. They block gaps permanently so be careful when you apply them and wipe off any excess with a damp cloth before it dries. They may break down over time, but can easily be re-applied. Also check whether you need to insulate between the skirting board and the floor.

Loft hatches

Hot air rises and dissipates into the cold space in your loft or attic, so it’s worth blocking off draughts around your loft hatch. Use strip insulation, as you would on a door.

Pipework

You can fill small gaps around pipes with silicon fillers, similar to the fillers used for skirting boards and floorboards. Fill larger gaps with expanding polyurethane foam. This is sprayed into the gap, expands as it dries, and sets hard.

Old extractor fans

Old fan outlets may need to be filled with bricks or concrete blocks and sealed from the inside and outside.

Cracks in walls

You can fill in cracks using cements or hard setting fillers – but if it’s a large crack, there may be something wrong with your wall. Consult a surveyor or builder to see what caused the crack in the first place.

Help Available

Government help is available and qualifying households can get improvements worth up to £3,500 (£6,000 where oil central heating and other alternative technologies are recommended). Grants are available for wall insulation, draught-proofing, loft insulation, water tank insulation, gas, electric, liquid petroleum gas or oil heating, and even to convert your solid-fuel open fire to a glass-fronted fire.

Landlords are also eligible to claim up to £1,500 against tax for energy efficiency improvements made to each house or flat you rent out. You could claim back the cost of loft insulation, wall insulation, floor insulation, hot-water-tank insulation and draught-proofing.

Chances are if you haven’t yet heard about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), you soon will do and over the next decade it could become as frequent as the advert featuring a fat opera singer.

Carbon Emissions as if you didn’t know, need to be reduced, and targets have been set by governments all over the world. The problem in the UK is Electricity Generation, which counts for 30% of all UK CO² emissions, no surprise to learn then that 75% of electricity generation comes from fossil fuel fired plants. 16% is from nuclear, which is carbon free, albeit not without certain drawbacks, one being that the radioactive waste left over from the process lasts a million years.

Another major problem facing the country is all but one of the 17 nuclear power stations are due to be decommissioned by 2024 due to age. While new nuclear plants are built, the shortfall is expected to be filled by Natural Gas, but the trouble is that we are currently importing 50% of the amount we use, and by 2015 it is expected to be as much as 75%, due to North Sea sites becoming depleted. Also it doesn’t solve the problem of emissions as they still emit CO² although not as much as Coal-fired plants.

The coalition government’s idea is that all new fossil fuel plants be fitted with the technology to capture carbon emissions produced at power plants and store the gas in liquid form. They currently have a £1 billion grant up for grabs available to anyone who can come up with a workable project, unfortunately the fund has no workable proposals as yet, with the deadline approaching this year in July.

They do however have 2 failed project proposals on the books, that of Scottish Powers Longannet project which could not be made to work within the budgetary framework of the proposed £1 billion, and Eon’s Kingsnorth CCS project in Kent, which was deemed unviable.

The idea behind the CCS project is to transport liquefied CO² via pipelines, to be stored offshore in deep underground structures, which for the UK means deep under the North and Irish Seas.

The UK is in a very advantageous position due to the many depleted gas and oil fields it owns in the North Sea, and deep saline aquifers sited all around the country. The British Geological Survey estimates that storage capacity in old UK oil and gas field’s amounts to approximately 100 years of storage capacity (at current rates of emissions from power generation).

It remains to be seen whether a viable project will be proposed in the current timeframe, and it makes you wonder, when amazingly the Norwegians have been storing 1 million tonnes of CO² per year in a deep aquifer in the North Sea since 1996, back when technology was in the dark ages.

I am tempted myself to try and bag the £1 billion prize fund by suggesting MP’s no longer talk, which in my guesstimation should save enough CO² being put into the atmosphere to run another 15 fossil fuel power plants belching out carbon emissions 24 hours a day! And it certainly will be interesting to see whether this is another idea up to recent Crazy Coalition Standards. Watch this space.

If you have the opportunity to build your own home, you also have the opportunity to add features which will benefit both yourself as a home owner, and the environment. There are numerous factors to consider when building a sustainable or green home. Many of these have to do with commitment to sustainable living and personal preferences. Others have to do with location. Some are dependent on the laws that govern the location.

There are a variety of sustainable alternatives in building. Above all, for you as the potential builder, is having a home that provides both security and a measure of comfort. After you have imagined what you “need” to be safe and happy, you can begin considering options on how you house will be built.

The location of and topography of the property are important pieces of information, when beginning to design a home. The ideal location for a green home has a gentle, south-facing slope upon which to orient the house for maximum use of solar usage, both for the interior of the house itself, and consideration of solar panels. If the piece of property is not south-facing, then adjustments continue to be made in terms of design and location on the land.

Applicable laws governing the area in which the property is located will also determine design, allowable construction techniques and allowable sustainable practices. These, in turn, will effect cost and time (which is also a cost), and practicability.

We have built two sustainable living houses in Mexico, just outside the World Heritage Center City of San Miguel de Allende (SMA). Although SMA itself has stringent rules which are applied to all construction within the town center, these rules are relaxed out in the countryside, allowing for flexibility and more creativity.

Before beginning construction on the first house, which was built on a south- facing slope, we decided upon which green factors we wanted in our design. These included using Adobe blocks for good thermal insulation, facing the house just east of south for maxim solar gain in the winter and less direct sun in the summer, setting up a system for capturing rainwater, directing gray-water (from our shower and dishwater) to use on plants, an indoor composting toilet to eliminate high usage of “black-water” (i.e., the water from toilets), which would require a septic system. All of these are allowable in the countryside outside of SMA. And that is how we built, incorporating all of these systems. All of the systems have been in place for 5 years and have operated well, with minimum adjustments and maintenance.

Many of the laws are not as relaxed in the cities of Mexico or in many (or most) parts of the United States. Green builders in the US face more restrictive—though not necessarily healthier—sanitary laws and other building codes. Still, many green principles can be applied. Gray-water, once strongly resisted, is now more popular as communities grow and water sources shrink. Capturing rainwater in a storage unit also has become a more viable legal option to slow consumption of the communities’ shrinking sources. Higher rated insulation, whether from natural products such as adobe or straw bales, or higher grade synthetics, help to prevent heat loss in the colder months and the need for artificial cooling in the warm months. This slows the consumption of fuel needed to mitigate temperature extremes.

Human waste is an issue which has yet to be addressed in a way that will allow more sustainable means of disposal. Composting toilets are still heavily regulated, such that only the most costly are being allowed for home usage. Once there are more designs which efficiently eliminate human waste in a manner which regulators deem “safe,” there will be more inexpensive alternatives to the human waste process.

As you consider building your own green home, the factors of safety, comfort, land location and topography, and local laws all are important to consider. These factors are the framework and canvas upon which to start your project. From there, let your imagination (and your budget) guide your creation. Make what you do good for yourself and good for the planet.

For more information on Green Construction (especially in Mexico) or to take a look at the homes we built and are selling, check out our website: https://sites.google.com/site/casitadosarbolitos/