Archive for July, 2009
July 30th, 2009
OK, I jest, but Friday’s Register Star Wheels section highlights the federal government’s ”Cash for Clunkers” program, aka CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System).
The goal in spending $1 billion of your tax dollars is to boost auto sales and “clean up” the roadways by getting Americans to buy more energy-efficient vehicles. Apparently, it’s working! See below.
To qualify, your set of wheels must be model year 1984 or newer and still operable, among other things, like you must improve your mpg by certain levels with your new car. The $3,500 to $4,500 credits were supposed to be available until November, but the government is supposedly suspending the program due to high demand in just one week.
Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns about large backlogs in the processing of the deals in the government system, prompting the suspension. …
Even before the suspension, some in Congress were seeking more money for the auto sales stimulus. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., wrote in a letter to House leaders on Wednesday requesting additional funding for the program.
“This is simply the most stimulative $1 billion the federal government has spent during the entire economic downturn,” Miller said Thursday. “The federal government must come up with more money, immediately, to keep this program going.”
Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said they would work with “the congressional sponsors and the administration to quickly review the results of the initiative.”
General Motors Co. spokesman Greg Martin said Thursday the automaker hopes “there’s a will and way to keep the CARS program going a little bit longer.”
July 30th, 2009
In January, a national trade organization based in Rockford is launching a magazine focusing on environmentally friendly manufacturing.
Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International Inc. will send Green Manufacturer six times a year to 100,000 subscribers.
From the group’s press release:
“FMA believes that in today’s business environment, tremendous pressure is on all areas of an organization — engineering, plant operations, facilities management, and top-level management — to understand and implement effective green or sustainable practices that improve the bottom line,” said Edward Youdell, group publisher of FMA Communications, Inc. “Green Manufacturer will deliver the guidance and practical applications that discrete manufacturers are looking for to implement in their green initiatives.”
FMA, founded in 1970, is a professional organization of more than 2,300 members working to improve the metal forming and fabricating industry.
July 29th, 2009
Today, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill that helps finance cleaner coal and renewable energy projects with $300 million more in bonds. According to the Peoria Journal Star:
“The key to prosperity in the 21st century is to have a green way of thinking and a green way of acting,” said Quinn, who described the measure as a “landmark piece of legislation.”
Can the Rock River Valley benefit?
July 29th, 2009
I wrote in June about Aveda’s special recycling program to collect plastic bottle caps.
In addition to Weis-Morris, ZelaEuro Salon, 3855 N. Perryville Road in Rockford collects the caps, and you can get a punch card for discounts when you participate. I learned this by coincidence because I really went to that strip mall to pick up pizza but needed eye shadow. If your salon participates, let me know.
One thing I noticed on Aveda’s site this time around is that schools can get involved and adults can print out coloring pages for kids.
July 28th, 2009
Either bring one reusable bag from y our car when you run into a store for a quick errand or just carry it out with the receipt so you don’t look like a common thief.
I’ve nagged about this before, but I can’t believe how hard this habit is to break for cashiers and shoppers.
Looks like a suburban Chicago county is on the recycle-your-bags bandwagon.
Roughly 70 grocery stores, drugstores and other retailers in Lake County are participating in a six-month pilot program set up by the task force to encourage customers to recycle plastic bags - and use fewer of them in the first place.
Jewel-Osco, Lowe’s, Sunset Foods, Walgreens, Butera, CVS, JCPenney, PetSmart and Piggly Wiggly are among the companies that will put a special container near their front doors to collect used plastic bags.
The experiment is to last from June through the end of the year, with collections being weighed to gauge the effect on the environment. The idea is to present evidence that it’s working to the state legislature in the hopes of growing the program.
July 27th, 2009
Like for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been caught violating his own anti-idle initiative.
According to the AP story:
In spot checks over the past week, The Associated Press timed idling periods for the mayor’s city-owned SUVs, which shuttle him around the city or trail him when he takes the subway. The parked vehicles idled at least eight times for periods of 10 minutes to over an hour.
This is coming from a mayor who wants to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 because the Big Apple was responsible for nearly 1 percent of the nation’s in 2005. So the reaction?
Bloomberg’s SUVs are exempt from the law because they are considered emergency vehicles, but the city is trying reduce idling, spokesman Stu Loeser said Wednesday.
The SUVs have devices enabling heat and radios to run without the engine. The devices don’t allow the air conditioning to run, but the vehicles are supposed to be parked in the shade when possible, Loeser said. Nearly every time the AP noted the idling vehicles, temperatures were mild and they were parked in the shade.
If you catch me idling, I expect you to bust me. I sure try not to do so, ever since the ball got rolling on our own local No Idle Zone.
July 24th, 2009
That’s what I wondered when I saw this week’s story about Winnebago County and William Charles considering a deal to import trash to Winnebago Landfill for about $700,000 a year in host fees.
Sue Grans, spokeswoman for William Charles, would not disclose the amount of waste Groot Industries plans to bring into the county, but several county officials who are familiar with the negotiations said a 1,200-tons-per-day average is what they’ve been told.
Grans would not comment on the current average daily intake at the landfill. Still, reports filed with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency showed the average daily intake of the landfill in 2007 — the most recent year available — was 3,902 tons of waste.
In 2006, the average daily intake was 3,066 tons per day and the intake in 2005 was 1,583 tons per day, according to the report.
“What the engineers tell me is we have an 18-year life on the landfill today,” Grans said. “This deal, if it goes through, would cut that by about 20 percent, so we’d be looking at a life of 14 to 15 years.”
In a Decemeber 2008 story, that capacity was greater. Or at least there was a higher end on the range.
“Garbage, in its nature, is a very long-term business,” said Gary Marzorati, president of William Charles Waste Co., which runs the Winnebago Landfill. “We are always preparing for the future. Right now, we’ve got 19 to 21 years of capacity, probably a couple more.”
July 23rd, 2009
The garden has been long planted. Green beans, summer squashes, and cucumbers are finally sizable. The long awaited tomatoes are lightening up and showing signs of ripening.
Yukon gold potatoes are fork ready. The “experimental” artichokes have chokes. Some have been good. Now I can say I’ve seen artichokes growing. I don’t think they’re worth the effort as a production crop in this climate, but I’ll probably plant them again as a novelty.
The weeds are booming in all the rain. Many crops, lettuces, broccoli, and spinach are finishing or harvested. Weeding those becomes easy with the tiller. (Be productive or be gone.) This leaves beds for replanting. There’s no sense in leaving open beds when there are still 60 or more growing days left.
So what to plant? Consider any crops that will mature in 60 days, spinach, green beans, lettuce, Swiss chard, and radishes. Many plantings will survive frost! Consider broccoli, kohlrabi, carrots, beets, greens, cauliflower, and peas. Planting from seed this time of the year can become a challenge. The weeds germinate as fast as the crop seeds. We manage this by multi-planting seeds into soil cubes. 4 beet seeds, 12 green onion seeds, 4 spinach seeds, 4 carrot seeds, etc. When transplanted into the garden they have a 4 week advantage on the weeds. They’re a snap to weed and there is no thinning. When the sweet corn is finished and the tomatoes have become “routine”, it’s always a treat to welcome “new-again” crops.
The Japanese beetles seem to be fewer in number this year. Maybe it’s because they are really active when the air is warmer. Or maybe it’s because our 15 Guinea fowl are actively feeding in the garden several times a day. We started feeding them beetles that Bill bopped into soapy water. They acquire a taste for what they are fed. It seems to have worked. We herd them with two bamboo poles to the garden where we want them to start feeding. Since they can’t quite reach all the beetles on the tall raspberries, we shake the canes, the beetles fall, and the birds gobble up breakfast. They then head to the lower growing strawberries, eat until they’re sated, then nap or head back to their house. Then back to the garden for lunch.
Each season has it’s challenges. Each challenge is welcomed and dealt with. Of course there are the unknown challenges along the way. With little real summer this year, will the “hot season” crops produce? But then, we never had to water…so far.
July 23rd, 2009
Often you hear that “going green” is the cheaper option. Or at least that’s what my dad says when he stopped mowing part of the lawn.
This summer, many folks are washing their cars in their driveways. While that may seem like the recessionista way to go, it’s worse for the environment than going to the car wash.
This is how Real Simple breaks it down:
When you scrub your sedan at home, the dirty water, tinged with traces of motor oil, antifreeze and gasoline that your car has picked up on the road, runs down the driveway and into storm drains, which empty into local rivers and creeks. This runoff can coat the gills of fish (and tadpoles!) in these smaller waterways, suffocating them. Detergents also cause harm.
On the other hand, the runoff produced by an automatic car wash is subject to wastewater laws. That means either it goes to the local sewage-treatment plant, where it is filtered and cleaned, just like the water from your pipes at home, or it is recycled on-site by the business. The leftover gunk is disposed of at a landfill. Automatic car washes also tend to use as little as 30 gallons of water per car; at home, with a regular garden hose, you’ll use that amount of water in about four minutes. So give yourself a guilt-free break and let the pros handle the job.
I also found these suggestions on About.com:
If you must wash your car at home, choose a biodegradable soap specifically formulated for automotive parts, such as Simple Green’s Car Wash or Gliptone’s Wash ‘n Glow. Or you can make your own biodegradable car wash by mixing one cup of liquid dishwashing detergent and 3/4 cup of powdered laundry detergent (each should be chlorine- and phosphate-free and non-petroleum-based) with three gallons of water. This concentrate can then be used sparingly with water over exterior car surfaces.
Even when using green-friendly cleaners, it is better to avoid the driveway and instead wash your car on your lawn or over dirt so that the toxic waste water can be absorbed and neutralized in soil instead of flowing directly into storm drains or open water bodies. Also, try to sop up or disperse those sudsy puddles that remain after you’re done. They contain toxic residues and can tempt thirsty animals.
One way to avoid such problems altogether is to wash your car using any number of waterless formulas available, which are especially handy for spot cleaning and are applied via spray bottle and then wiped off with a cloth. Freedom Waterless Car Wash is a leading product in this growing field.
One last caution: Kids and parents planning a fund-raising car wash event should know that they might be violating clean water laws if run-off is not contained and disposed of properly. Washington’s Puget Sound Carwash Association, for one, allows fund-raisers to sell tickets redeemable at local car washes, enabling the organizations to still make money while keeping dry and keeping local waterways clean.
July 22nd, 2009
Update on the news:
The backers of GreenTek Career Academy, a proposed charter school, have appealed to the state Board of Education after being rejected by the Rockford School Board.
The school has proposed a curriculum focused on the environment and technology to prepare young people for green-collar jobs.
It was turned down last month because members were concerned that Comprehensive Community Solutions already operates a school in its YouthBuild program. Charter school law says a charter won’t be granted “that would convert any existing private, parochial or nonpublic school to a charter school.”
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