Recyclequeen & DrDave's Blog

I Don’t Use Shaving Cream

DrDave — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:47:10 +0000

Yeah it’s been forever since we’ve posted, but this came to mind the other day as I was shaving. I don’t use Shaving Cream. I get a close shave every day without any cans, propellant, or foam. I use Shaving Soap that I get from a friend who sells it at our local farmer’s market. One shaving soap puck lasts for months, comes wrapped in a paper wrapper, and is hand-made out of nice things that you can pronounce, like vegetable oil and cinnamon.

I saw where there were 140 million units of shaving cream sold in 2002 (the most recent stats I could find quickly). That’s a lot of cans. Save yourself from marketing hype – just buy some Shaving Soap.

H2Ozone water bottle – part 2

DrDave — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:25:08 +0000

Recyclequeen and I took a beautiful 3.4 mile hike at the James River Water Gap and Otter Creek, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Before we headed out, we filled our 2 H2Ozone water bottles with ice and water and stuck them in my daypack. After an hour drive and a 3+ mile hike in high humidity, high-80 degree heat, we still had cool water (what little was left after that much walking).

It was a great day, a great hike, and a good test for our water bottles.

See our original review of the H2Ozone water bottle here.

-DrDave

Old McDonald Had A Wind Turbine…

DrDave — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:16:28 +0000

One of the nearby farms has put up a wind turbine. See the article here.

Southern Energy and Environment Expo 2009

DrDave — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:57:19 +0000

The Southern Energy and Environment Expo is coming up August 21-23, just south of Asheville NC. We can’t make the whole thing but should be able to make 1 day of it. I want to see the exhibits on electric cars, solar and wind power.

Info at http://www.seeexpo.com.

-DrDave

Recycling Diary August 2

RecycleQueen — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:43:22 +0000

In the last two days we have recycled the following items:

Plastic: 1.25 pounds

Cans: 3 small cat food, 1 small coke can

Glass: 1 wine bottle, 1 olive jar

Post consumer Paper: 1/3 pound

Corrugated boxes: 1 pound

Paper: 1/8 pound

That’s over 2 pounds of stuff.

Our city (Staunton, VA ) http://www.staunton.va.us/ picks up weekly with our trash, plastics (1-7), cans, glass (clear, brown and green) and newspapers as long as it isn’t raining. In our city there is a big green recycling bin that we take our corrugated boxes (broken down flat) and then for our paper and post consumer paper we have a short drive to the county to recycle that. We typically go every 6 weeks to recycle for our corrugated and post consumer paper.

The pizza box we recycled was close to 1 pound. If you eat 1 pizza every week that is almost 52 pounds a year.

It is amazing the amount of over engineering that goes into the packaging in alot of things we purchase. I’m sure companies want shelf attention but it is just plain wasteful.

Recycling Quote Skepticism – Clement of Alexandria

DrDave — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:39:43 +0000

On another blog this morning, I came across a quote, attributed to the early church father, Clement of Alexandria:

We are not to throw away those things that can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.

A few things about this quote struck me as a bit off. First of all, it seemed a bit modern to me – but maybe Clement was just ahead of his time.

Then I checked for other instances of this quote via Google, hoping to find a reference to what work this quote was pulled from. While I found this quote on several other sites (all having to do with conservation, environmentalism or recycling) I could find no reference to where this quote originated from. Then I checked several sites that specialize in quotes of famous people. On those sites, this quote was not included among Clement’s quotes.

Then I looked at the play on the words “good/goods” in the second sentence. In English, the play on the words makes sense and helps to make the point. In NT Greek (which I assume Clement would have spoken, being from Alexandria), the play does not exist – the word ‘goods’ would be (transliterated) hyparxis, while the word ‘good’ would be (transliterated) agathos or agathopoieo.

Some of the sites posting that quote include here, here, here, and here. My Greek transliterations are taken from Strong’s Concordance.

While I appreciate the sentiment, I’m skeptical that this is actually a quote from Clement of Alexandria. Can anyone show me a reference to quell my skepticism?

-DrDave

Recycle Diary July 31

RecycleQueen — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:52:50 +0000

As I keep finding more and more items to recycle I am amazed at how much stuff can be recycled. Before we started our post consumer paper, regular paper and magazine recycling we typically would fill a garbage can (the kind you roll to the curb with wheels) each week and sometimes we may even fill 2. Our City picks up can, plastic and glass. I was so excited to find out that post consumer paper and regular paper could be recycled at a number of locations in our county. Post consumer paper is non-corrugated cereal boxes, tissue boxes, toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, spaghetti boxes – well I think you get the idea. Regular paper includes junk mail, newspaper and magazines. It is just my husband and me at home now – in the last two days we have recycled:

Paper: 1.25 lbs of paper (and we don’t even take the local newspaper)

Post consumer paper: 1 toilet paper roll

Glass: 1 beer bottle

Plastic: 3 water bottles (I found them under my seat in the car – before we bought the H2o bottles!), 2 sour cream tubs, 1 meat tray, 1 plastic glass, 1 carrot bag, 2 cheese wrappers, 1 pudding cup – humm….I don’t remember eating that, (he must have)

Cans: 2 small cat food cans

Charity:Water

DrDave — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:24:00 +0000

You might have noticed the badge in the sidebar of this blog, promoting Charity:Water. If you haven’t heard of Charity:Water before, please take the time to read the story of Charity:Water’s founder. Then scroll down my blog page and click the Charity:Water badge in the sidebar to the left and walk through the brief process to help. It costs you nothing but a little time – the sponsor (Powerbar) provides the donation based on the number of people who click through. It only will take a few seconds of your time, and you would be doing something to help others that really need it. And if you have a blog with a Charity:Water badge, post its URL in the comments and I’ll return the favor.

Charity:Water’s web site is here, if you want more info on the good work they do.

Companies going green – Tastykake

RecycleQueen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:49:22 +0000

Tasty Baking Company – makers of Tastykake is building a new manufacturing plant and a new distribution center outside of Philadelphia. They decided to build on a brownfield site which was once a Navy Yard. A brownfield site means that the property has already been developed and now houses abandoned buildings. While Tasty Baking didn’t start out to be green – they came on board as options were presented. You can read the entire story here and see their progress here.

After construction is complete, Tasty Baking will apply for a LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. To read more about the U.S Green Building Council please go here.

Plastic Recycling Numbers

DrDave — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:46:43 +0000

Ever wonder what those numbers in the triangles for recyclable plastics mean? Ever wonder what your recycled plastics get turned into? I found a spiffy guide from those wild party animals at the American Chemisty Council that explains it all. You can see it here. Some things in that chart that I wasn’t aware of:

Packing peanuts are a #6 plastic;
Shrink wrap and stretch film (like saran wrap) are a #4 plastic;

Where I live, until recently only #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) plastics were recyclable, but now they accept all types, #1 through #7. Good job, City of Staunton!

-DrDave