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There is more to recycle than just paper, and plastics. Often people forget to recycle glass. To illustrate how important it is to recycle glass here is a statistic. According to an article by Larry West on the Benefits of recycling glass, it takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to breakdown in a landfill, however had that one glass item been recycled it could have been reused as a brand new glass bottle in approximately 30 days.
Other points made in the same article include the idea that glass is a very durable recyclable product. It can be reused many times without a decrease in quality. this makes it an exceptionally sustainable product. Additionally by using recycled glass, glass producers are saving more than a ton of natural resources they would have used to produce new glass.
Another benefit on the list of many in recycling glass is it’s ability to conserve energy. To make a new bottle there are many things that need to happen. in order to properly mix the sand with the other components needed to make glass the substances are heated at approximately 2.600 degrees Fahrenheit.In re-producing glass from recycled glass 40 percent less energy is used. This is because the recycled glass can be crushed up into what is called “cullet” . this cullet can be properly mixed with other ingredients at a much lower temperature thus conserving energy.
Personally i find glass to be beautiful. Watching an HGTV episode I realized how great glass can be. In this one episode the designer was given the task of creating a sustainable home. One of the aspects included was a recycled glass counter top. It was made of recycled glass an some other environmentally friendly materials. The beauty of the counter top comes in a couple forms. firstly it was actually really visually appealing. You can have blue glass, green, clear, all kinds of color options.
http://www.wikicover.com/images/thumb/336px-Recycled-glass-countertop.jpg – picture of recycled glass counter tops.
secondly glass counter tops are comparable to granite and tile. This is great because you can sit a hot pan on tile or granite. This is what makes them so desirable, a lot of people do not know that recycled glass counters are just as great!
http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/benefits_of_glass_recycling.htm
Fireworks are propelled by gunpowder. They are fired and their remnants fall to the ground. Based on the effect the firework is aiming for dictates what other chemicals are present in the product. Some of the chemicals that can be found in fireworks include barium for green colors, copper for blues and many other carcinogens. Again, these chemicals are scattered about the ground once fireworks are set off.
As we have discussed in previous classes if it can get to the ground it can get into water. This is one of the ways that fireworks can pollute our environment. If these chemicals get into our water and are not removed, and as we know the chemicals such as these are not removed on purpose, then it is obvious what can happen to the human population.
surprisingly these fireworks can actually be in violation of the clean air act. It is obviously a world-wide issue because the US is not the only place to use fireworks. But what can we do? just stop using fireworks? Lame. Walt Disney has come up with an alternative. Their environmentally friendly compressed air version of fireworks is much safer for the environment. Disney is also in the works to make this available to other companies.
In the article that discusses this issue they end with the idea that we may not even need fireworks. I personally disagree. I enjoy the festivity and beauty accompanied by fireworks. Upon first reading this article i was apprehensive to write about it. I wasn’t sure a solution other than discontinuing the use of fireworks was going to be presented. I was presently surprised to hear that Disney had come up with an alternative solution.
Up until now i had not even though about what fireworks were made of or how that was affecting our environment. I was shocked to learn all the other chemicals used in fireworks. As i said before the alternative solution Disney has provided really shows how far we have come technologically. I would be really interested to see the comparison of a regular gun powder firework and an air compressed firework.
http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/toxicfireworks.htm
I am a commuter to Queens. I live in a small town outside of Mathews NC called Mint Hill. We have recently experienced a lot of development in Mint Hill and when urbanization was discussed in class i remembered all of this stuff that is going on in my own town.
I have lived in Mint Hill for 15 years of my life. When we moved here it was “the boonies” all the houses are spread out, and all the land between neighbor hoods was grassy fields, and lot’s of natural areas. Just to get a better idea of what type of town im talking about let me share a little more. I live across the street from a cow pasture, we had over 20 trees removed from our front yard upon moving in. There were so many trees that the likelihood of one falling on our house was high. Even after removing these trees our home is still heavily surrounded by natural and wooded areas.
about 3 years ago these grassy fields and natural areas between neighbor hoods began to be demolished. Since this construction or urbanization has begun Mint Hill has received 2 new strip malls. These strip malls are set up where the residence of the homes built within these communities can walk to shopping, dining, and many other things. Mint Hill has officially been “urbanized” if you will.
Aside from the two new strip mall/ residences we received we where also underway to get a mall, comparable to Concord Mills. So all the homes on the proposed site where purchased and demolished, and construction began.
Shortly after construction began everything came to a stop. the reason they did not build the mall was because of a muscle present in Goose Creek. This muscle is called the Carolina heel spliter. To this day construction is still not happening because of a high demand from those of us residing in mint hill to save this species. The Carolina Heel spliter is an endangered species and it is of obvious importance to those of us in Mint Hill because construction has completely stopped and has been that way for a couple years.
When we began discussing the issues surrounding urbanization and the issues about fragmented wildlife i could not help but think of my own town. If the mall had been built we could experience these same issues. The Carolina heel splitter’s habitat could be fragmented or even completely destroyed. Up until now i had no real understanding of why protecting this muscles was so important other than it was endangered but now i can relate these issues to what we are learning in class to better understand the importance of conserving and protecting the natural land that we have.
Surprisingly coral reefs are very important to us. Aside from being a beautiful tourist attraction, and economic boost for communities with coral reefs present, coral is often also used in medicines and sometimes even food. unfortunately coral reefs are being destroyed left and right. According to Status of Coral Reefs of the World 24% of the worlds coral reefs are in danger strictly from human factors. Additionally, 26% of the coral reefs that are in danger of being destroyed are facing permanent long-term damage. Of all the coral reefs in the world, The Great Barrier Reef is the best kept reef in the world.
What could possibly threaten our beautiful barrier reefs? Some of the more common and well-known causes of reef destruction include coastal development, inland pollution, and even global climate change. Coastal development can often be lumped with inland pollution because most often coastal development is inland pollution. Global climate change can affect the temperature of the water, which can cause change is the types of species that inhabit coral and also affect the coral. Do not forget coral is much like plants, in that they can be native to certain types of water.
A less well-known cause for coral reef destruction is ocean acidification. Ocean acidification occurs when excess carbon is absorbed into the ocean. Excess carbon is obviously produced by carbon emissions caused by humans. What is suprising about these carbon emissions is that the ocean can actually absorb this extra carbon. This thought probes another thought.
If we can reduce our carbon emissions we can ultimately save the coral. We are already working toward this goal. It is beneficial that we are killing two birds with one stone because unfortunately it seems that the coral reefs are forgotten amongst all the other things that are effects by carbon emissions.
“Coral Reefs — Global Issues.” Global Issues : social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all — Global Issues. Web. 27 Nov. 2009. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/173/coral-reefs>.
Recently a small town in Australia banned the production of bottled water. This vote occured in late September. What will the citizens of Bundadoon do for water? The town is setting up free “water fountain” style filterd water stations throughout the town. Another option for the town is to purchase reuseable water bottles that come filled and chilled.
Suprisingly this trend is apperntly catching on because London will also adopt the idea of having more water fountains available. However, in London patrons will be charged a fee to fill up half liter bottles. This money however, is going to a good cause. The money collected from the water fountain stations is given to a non-profit group called “waste watch”.
The United States isn’t far behind. Naturally it is becoming more “fashionable” to carry a reusable water bottle, i know i carry one. Salt Lake, Seeatle, and San Fransisco mayors have signed an order to stop buying bottled water using the cities money. Additionally California is also following this trend. Hypocritically however, Nestle is currently underway to build a bottled water plant in Sacramento. This happend after a plan to build on the McCloud River was snuffed.
According to an article on the bottled water usage, almost 90% of all bottles from bottled water end up in a land fill. This is where that Brita commercial comes from.” 30 minutes on a treadmill forever in a landfill” meaning, use reusable bottles, or recycle your plastic ones because the bottle won’t break down in the landfill. Aside from that bottled water also impacts the earth through oil useage/pollution. Again, according to the article from newsdesk.org 50 million barrrels of oil are used to produce bottles over a years time.To illustrate how frequently bottles are tossed out insetead of recycled a Boston Glode coulumnist picked up 112 discarded bottles along the Boston Charles River in 2 hours. He says “Americans buy and discard three billion plastic bottles of water each year.” (newsdesk.org). That is a stagering statistic, especailly considering a place like Bundadoon can completly wipe out plastic bottle trash. Sadly, although Congress has held hearings on what to do about the situation, no solution has been reached. As the green trend continues however, people are coming around to use these bottles. Maybe we can one day be simialr to Bundadoon.
Source:
“Newsdesk.org: Again With the Bottled-Water Wars.” Web. 01 Nov. 2009. <http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/006032.html>.
In Core 222 we are learning about world issues. We were asked to pay attention to what happens with the UN. Recently the UN met, one topic up for discussion was global climate change. They met on Sep 29th to talk about the role forests play in fighting the global climate change battle. In an article about what was said the IPCC was referanced. The IPCC says that 20% of the world’s greenhouse gasses is due to deforestiation which is the cutting down of large forests. The representative from New Guinea said that it is still occuring at an “alarming” rate. He said that 13 million hectares of forests are being cut down yearly. To combat this issue the UN has been in the works to create a group called UN Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation or UN-REDD, but New Guinea seems to make referance to it not being off the grond completly yet.
Surprisingly the United States was not mentioned in the article anywhere. To me this is cause for concern. I may just be reading into the whole situation but i feel like, because we were not mentioned means we most likely had nothing to say because we don’t care. As we learned in class the US and China are the leaders in overall pollution and i don’t think it is a coincident that we had nothing to say on the matter.
Additionally i was suprised to learn that the UN acctually has groups set up to combat global climate change. There is a group called the United Nations Environment Programme or UNEP with a relativly educational website, it has links to other government backed groups including the UN-REDD. Clicking through the website it looks like a little bit of everything is covered by the UNEP. Recently gorillas and elephants were given a role of protecting rain forests. The website also makes comments about a climate negotion in Copenhagen.
Overall I am shocked to hear that the UN is meeting on global climate issues. I’m not very savy in the political/governmental aspect (which makes Core hard). For me to hear that the UN is playing a part in this environmental issue points out to me that the problem is larger and more serious than i thought. To hear the UN meeting on economy issues sounds normal, the UN meeting on global climate change? It seemed a bit out of place to me, obviously this issue is a global issue, effecting everyone, the UN stepping up seems like a great idea to me.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32355&Cr=forest&Cr1
Environmental Science 
