Tips On Going Green

Post Reply New Topic

This is all well and good, BUT do you ever to stop to think that as you use less plastic there are more and more products being churned out that are made of it?

Anybody carry their drinking water in a canteen??

I have a yamaha c3 to get me back and forth to work and around the twin cities. 120mpg and its a very clean liquid cooled 4 stroke motor.

I was thinking of getting some sort of small bike to get around town in the summer

hmm "going green"

I wonder why green. The world is mostly blue and brown. :D

Use energy-saving light bulbs. I don't know if thats been mentioned yet but hey, i'll say it again if it has!

Keep a compost bin and USE IT! Put all your food scraps in there and within a few days you will have a large meal for the local bugs and a fertalizer for your garden. Plus, this fertalizer doesn't come in one of those environmentally-UNfriendly plastic bags...infact it comes in no bag at all!

Drink tap water instead of bottled water. Bottled water produces large amounts of container waste.

Eat one meat-less meal per week. Factory farming requires huge energy inputs and produces lots of waste. Factory farms also help spread diseases such as bird flu...eww!

I'm pretty green. I only bike or walk and tend to leave the lights off. Much better that way. I am also trying to make paper out of rice, but I'm getting mixed results.

Go Organic!
Also switch over to Eco-friendly detergent.
I'm a "tree-hugger" so I'm allready doing everything I can think of. Too much to list right now.(I just got home from work and I'm tired)

Now that I have data to support one of my efforts, I will present it. I started turning my engine off when my car is stopped at a stop light for more than 15 seconds. The data below shows the MPG for the 21 previous fill-ups and the last 21-fill-ups in which I started turning off my engine instead of letting it idle. The data clearly supports that I am saving a significant amount of gas, and thus polluting less, when turning my engine off.

Miles Gallons MPG
363.3 12.408 29.279
304.6 10.592 28.758
282.8 9.852 28.705
353.6 12.171 29.053
311.6 11.287 27.607
338.1 11.722 28.843
311.9 11.072 28.170
356.5 12.359 28.845
308.2 10.610 29.048
352.7 12.641 27.901
345.7 11.825 29.235
338.5 11.851 28.563
271.8 9.347 29.079
315.3 11.503 27.410
233.4 8.774 26.601
238.8 9.224 25.889
231.8 9.389 24.688
307.2 11.114 27.641
274.3 10.002 27.425
278.3 10.440 26.657
278.7 9.769 28.529
299.3 9.934 30.129 <-Start turning off engine at stop lights lasting more than 15 seconds.
324.7 11.852 27.396
372.1 12.462 29.859
316.3 11.314 27.957
343.6 11.707 29.350
356.6 12.725 28.024
268.9 9.249 29.073
354.9 11.787 30.109
334.7 10.896 30.718
151.9 5.611 27.072
363.7 10.741 33.861
329.4 10.823 30.435
317.3 10.650 29.793
327.6 10.785 30.376
362.3 11.979 30.245
339.8 12.055 28.187
326.9 10.260 31.862
356.1 12.230 29.117
303.6 10.316 29.431
335.4 10.847 30.921
346.0 10.861 31.857

Average MPG over each time period:
27.997 MPG (Idle)
29.799 MPG (Off)

That is almost 2 MPG more, which translates to over 25 miles more I can drive per full tank of gas. The only drawback is the wear and tear on the starter, which I am willing to live with replacing sooner should it become necessary. This is a big deal! Please try it!

Recycling is a good way to save the enviorment rather than throwing paper, plastic and cardboard away recycle it, that way it gets made into new things which I learned when I was at school.