How Do I Dispose of Hazardous Chemicals?

The handling and disposal of Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) has become quite a problem over the past couple decades. Items that used to be thrown into the trash, poured down the drain, or dumped in the grass have been proven to pose a health threat when disposed of improperly.

Products that are considered HHW are safe when used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, but become hazardous when they are thrown away in a manner that may leach chemicals into the soil or groundwater. Some examples of common HHW include oil-based paints, cleaners, used oils, batteries, household cleaners, fuel, pesticides or other items that contain potentially hazardous ingredients.

How Can I Dispose of Used Paint Cans?

All paints basically fall under two solvent categories, which define their type: water-based and oil-based.

“Water-based paint actually has water as a solvent, and is most commonly called "latex" paint even though it does not contain latex. Many water-based paints are made with acrylic and may be called "acrylic latex."

Oil-based paint is equally confusing. It isn't actually made with oil; it has a solvent of mineral spirits (also known as paint thinner) or alkyd resin. Alkyd can be thinned with mineral spirits, and latex paint is thinned with water. At the paint store, you can't go wrong with the terms latex paint or alkyd or oil-based paint.”

Conserving Water and Energy With High-Efficiency Washing Machines

Being environmentally conscious comes in many forms from all angles. From reducing how much we use to reusing what we can and recycling what’s left. Conservation and preservation go hand-in-hand with these efforts.

Newer High-Efficiency (HE) washing machines conserve both water and energy, making them incredibly popular among environmentalists.

Do Prescription Drugs Get Into Drinking Water?

Pure clean drinking water seems like it would be fairly easy to find in the United States. As plentiful as water is, and usually free of charge at that, sometimes it’s anything but pure and clean.

According to several studies, American drinking water can contain trace amounts of pharmaceutical drugs, including 
antibiotics, hormones, mood stabilizers, and other drugs.

PETE?...Who's PETE?

Eight glasses of water a day? In today’s fast-paced society, how often are we near a glass and a kitchen faucet? The obvious answer to being able to drink this much water a day is, of course, is the ever-popular water bottle. It is estimated that, “every 27 hours Americans consume enough bottled water to circle the entire equator with plastic bottles stacked end to end. In just a single week, those bottles would stretch more than halfway to the moon — 155,400 miles.”*
 
If we really sat and pondered all of the products we use every day containing plastic, we would be astonished to find out that it’s a far shorter list of thing that do not contain any plastic material. Plastic, in itself, has so many benefits. Lowered production costs, lighter weight, ease of portability are just a few. But what about the drawbacks of so much plastic in our environment?

Stormwater Runoff

Storm drains are drainage systems that collect rain water and melted snow that doesn't soak into the ground. Their main function is to  keep streets and roadways from flooding.

Rain, melted snow, and any other water that is allowed to go down a storm drain flows directly into nearby streams, creeks, and lakes, eventually ending up in the ocean. 

Unlike water that goes down the drain in your house to the sewer or your city's waste water treatment plant, water that flows into storm drains is not treated or filtered for pollutants. 

Rain Barrels......Sustainable, Drainable, Attainable. Don’t Just Watch Your Money Go Down the Drain!

It wouldn’t be as beneficial to talk about recycling if we didn’t add in information and discussion on topics that round out the concept of recycling. Conservation and preservation of our natural resources remains of equal importance. For our purposes today, and along the lines of conservation, I’d like to discuss water conservation.

Even though we are a recycling company, we don’t only recycle. Our main goal is to conserve and preserve all of our natural resources while continuing to reduce the amount of waste in the landfill, reuse the items and materials that we can, and recycle the ones we can’t. Sound familiar? It may be a little cliche, but certainly right on the money.

Water As A Renewable Energy Source

Water as a source of power and energy it not a new concept. The use of water current to accomplish such tasks as grinding grain at a mill dates back hundreds of years.

Power from water, called hydro power or hydroelectric power, is yet another renewable source of energy. Since water is about 800 times denser than air, even a slow flowing stream of water can yield considerable amounts of energy. 

Water, Water Everywhere But Not a Drop to......Recycle?

 When I say the word recycling, what types of materials come to mind? Plastic? Aluminum? Paper? Water?.........Really, water? Water recycling is becoming more and more prevalent among recycling enthusiasts.

Getting people to buy in to the concept of water recycling is more difficult than it should be since we have literally been drinking and showering in recycled water for decades. Water is actually one of, if not the most, wasted natural resource, on the planet due to its abundance.

Water recycling is usually broken down into 3 or more categories: Simple Water, Greywater, and Treated Water recycling, among others. 

Unmanaged Landfills Can Pollute Groundwater

Water, the most abundant compound in the universe, is also the most widely recognized and used. We rely on this precious commodity for several different things including transportation, washing, cooking, helping things grow and, of course, drinking. Basically speaking, if we ran out of water, all living things on Earth would eventually die.

Trickle-Down Effects of Disposable Water Bottles Run Deep

“Recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours”.* Imagine how much energy Americans could save if every one of the estimated 30 to 50 billion water bottles that are thrown away each year were recycled! Although it seems impractical to think that every one of them would be recycled, if even half of them wound up in the recycling bin instead of the landfill, it would impact the United States greatly.