55 gallon drum

Went to Rural King before church tonight and bought a 55 gallon full metal drum.  The intent is to punch a bunch of holes in it tomorrow and to use it as a burn barrel to burn only paper products (no plastics allowed).  Ok, I know it is not exactly green but do I want to use all the fuel to truck it to a landfill that will allow all decaying matter to slowly seep into the aquifer?  In the long run I think it will save energy while polluting  just a smidge.  To the USA energy is more important than going on a vendetta against burners that live in the far country environment.

We canceled our garbage service 6 months ago and have instituted a rigorous recycling program that includes no special trips to the recyclers – we include this on our weekly shopping trip and to special events like buying a burn barrel.  The result is about 3 -4 shopping size plastic bags that leave the premises each week: That includes glass which the recyclers will not take.  We were pretty impressed with this.  The burn barrel will “take it up a notch”.

Remember that all the new stuff, like the energy efficient light bulbs, contains mercury and other bad contaminants.  Recycling those items to the county recycling agent is a special trip and does not figure into our energy equation but we try to do these trips in an energy efficient manner.

I have two mercury vapor bulbs, many Ni Cad & Lithium batteries that I take to the special place.  The new efficient electric light bulbs will take a special place to get rid of them & I cannot understand the government stance on the subject.  They list all incandescent bulbs as bad but we have a totally electric heat situation and in the winter any light that is on is 95+% efficient in generating heat.  In the summer, we are on DST so the incandescent lights generate heat for only a couple of hours at most.  Be that as it may, the lights we leave on most of the time are the efficient type that contain mercury and cast a greenish sort of glow ( OK, this is not fair) that makes my skin look jaundice.

CWM perfected & related articles

• What “green collaboration” might mean in practice (jamesfallows.theatlantic.com)
• Oil Generator Recycles Plastic Into Fuel (takepart.com)
• A Brief History Of the Light Bulb (time.com)
• Recycled Russian bombs supplying US nuclear power (tech.bl0x.info)
• E-Recycle: Where loads of electronic waste wind up (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Following Trash on Its Journey Through the Waste Disposal System (huffingtonpost.com)
• Lighting: Chandeliers, Blazing With Recyclables (nytimes.com)
• Closing the Waste Management Loop: Creating Fuel From Landfill Gas (treehugger.com)
• The Death of the Incandescent Light Bulb (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Study says LEDs are about as efficient as compact fluorescents, all things considered (engadget.com)