Food Recycling
What Makes a Home a Green Home?
What Makes a Home a Green House?
One of the hottest topics today is about being environmentally friendly. There are many ways to become environmentally friendly about the home including water preservation and energy reduction. This not only helps with a positive action by reducing your impact on the environment, but will also save you money!
Lets take a look at what makes a home environmentally friendly.
Reduced Energy Use
Energy comes in many forms such as electricity, natural gas, oil, etc. The creation or use of this energy results in greenhouse gas emissions that affect our planet in a negative way.
Methods of Reducing Energy Usage
Insulation, One of the best things that you can do to make a green house is to ensure that the walls, windows, attic, and floors are all well insulated and draft free. The majority of the energy used in a home goes towards heating the house. Insulation will prevent the air temperature from escaping the home and save you money on your utilities.
Energy Star Appliances When one of your appliances has reached it’s end of life, or when you are building a new home, consider installing an appliance that meets energy star requirements. This will ensure that it will use over 30 percent less electricity or fuel than a typical appliance of that type.
Other options include advanced mechanical Systems On demand tankless water heaters, geothermal HVAC equipment, and even solar power is a great way to reduce the amount of energy that is wasted to run the plumbing, heat and air, and electrical systems in the home. While they can have a higher upfront cost than a typical unit of its kind, tax incentives from the government can offset a good deal of the extra cost and allow you to make the money back within a few years time.
Reduced Water Use
Water is another essential resource that can be preserved in our day to day use around the house.
Low Flow Fixtures Many low flow shower heads and toilets developed a bad reputation in the past because they could not live up to their less efficient counterparts. Fortunately, todays better engineered models and aerators allow you to experience the luxury and ease of use that you prefer, while additionally using a significantly lower amount of water.
Efficient Clothes Washers Many of the newer front loading clothes washers use as little as half of the water of a typical top loading washer. For families who are constantly putting in a new load of dirty clothes, this can lead to a significant savings in cost and water usage over time.
Use Rain Water For Irrigation For those who want to really cut down on water usage, storage tanks that collect rain water during a storm for latter use to water the garden and lawn can save thousands of gallons over the span of a summer.
These are just a few of the many ideas out there that will help ensure that your home is green. Environmentally friendly decisions in the home can lead to wallet friendly results over time and allow for the satisfaction of knowing you are reducing your negative impact on the planet.
At Be Seen Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.
Waste Management| Made simple
Mention waste management to most people and they either do not have a clue what you're talking about, or they genuinely aren't interested! It just sounds a load of rubbish, what do you care what other people do with stuff they do not want? However, once you begin delving into what waste management is all about, then you realise there’s a whole cycle of events going on and it's quite an fascinating topic to find out about.
Waste management is essentially how rubbish and trash is disposed of with out causing any harm to others or the environment. You can find different aspects to waste management; these contain monitoring, collection, transportation, processing, and disposal or recycling. When carried out properly, waste management is efficient and extremely environmentally friendly, and in today’s world is something each conscientious firm need to take responsibility for.
You can find specialized environmental companies that provide guidance and services for waste collection, not only for householders, but also for industries and companies. They're experienced in all areas of waste management solutions and will remove all of your waste efficiently and speedily, transporting it to be disposed of in the correct manner, or recycled.
A few of the waste services provided to industrial clients contain waste collection, recycling and disposal, hazardous waste management, emergency response, laboratory services, asbestos removal and re-Insulation.
Within the initial instance the environment service is concerned with monitoring, this would be to identify the sort of waste produced and in what quantity; they can then evaluate the processes they have to put into place to reduce the amount of waste produced. Records are kept to see if techniques put into place are working and, if not, techniques may be changed and re-examined to make their implementation a lot more efficient.
Once the waste has been monitored and assessed it is time for the collection method. Skip bins and containers need to be emptied just before they become too full and prevention of overspill or produce to rot is quite crucial. Depending on the amount of waste produced will dictate the size and number of containers needed, and how frequently collections will probably be necessary. You can find various containers for every sort of waste, some of these contain drums for hazardous liquid waste, tanks for acid or caustic waste, collection bins for e-waste and bulk bins and skip bins for construction site waste.
Next in the cycle is organizing the transportation of all waste items collected.Specially created waste vehicles make scheduled collections and are responsible for safely transporting it to the landfill, or treatment site where it'll be treated and then processed for Recycling. Vehicles need to meet safety standards and be licensed for this purpose, as waste may be a health hazard and even dangerous if not handled correctly, drivers and personnel connected with the transportation are needed to have the required training and experience to deal with any potential danger.
Once the waste has all been collected it needs to be processed. This entails separating the waste collected, treating and then packaging the raw materials and sending the parts that may be recycled to the different factories that are all part of the recycling procedure. Materials that can’t be recycled will probably be transported to a landfill, and liquid and hazardous wastes will probably be disposed of safely.
Improvements and new practices in waste management and environmental solutions are in the news all of the time, thanks to study and development projects that are committed to discovering a lot more efficient and safe techniques of disposing of waste. There are several things that are recyclable now that just some years ago would have been thrown into a rising landfill, everyday items including paper, glass, newspapers and plastic bags to printer cartridges, corks, mobile phones, even fluorescent lamps may be treated and re-used.
Society has experienced a massive learning curve in the reality that if we do not take action now to make certain our waste is processed correctly; nature will gladly do it for us, and in techniques which may be detrimental to our environment.
Increased fine for Company Charged with breaching waste regulations
A FIRM who broke waste dumping laws had their fine increased more than 11 times to £90,000 recently.
The Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh upheld a challenge brought by the Crown over the level of the sentence imposed on Doonin Plant.
They were originally fined just £8000 for breaking environmental laws as they dumped waste at Bardykes bing between Blantyre and Cambuslang, Lanarkshire.
Lord Clarke said the conduct of the company had involved “a blatant and complacent disregard” of its responsibilities.
The judges said they were satisfied that the original fine was unduly lenient.
(source Daily Record)
Could this be just the start of increased fines for companies flouting the environmental regulations?
New Plastic Recycling Discovery!
A new technique has been devised to recycle plastic which would normally end up in landfill.
Currently approximately 12% of plastic found in household plastic and packaging is currently processed.
Now, however, a process has been developbed by Warwick University which could mean 100% of this type is waste can be recycled.
Municipal plastic solid waste is often too time-consuming and labour intensive to separate and clean and ends up going straight to landfill rather than being recycled.
Engineers at the University have invented a process that can cope with every piece of plastic waste and can even break some polymers, such as polystyrene, back down to its original monomers.
The researchers have devised a unit which uses pyrolysis (using heat in the absence of oxygen to decompose of materials) in a ‘fluidised bed’ reactor.
Tests have shown that the researchers have been able to literally shovel in to such a reactor a wide range of mixed plastics, which can then be reduced down to useful products. Many of these products can then be retrieved by simple distillation.
The products the Warwick team have been able to reclaim from the plastic mix include: wax that can be then used a lubricant; original monomers such as styrene that can be used to make new polystyrene; terephthalic acid which can be reused in PET plastic products, methylmetacrylate that can be used to make acrylic sheets, carbon which can be used as Carbon Black in paint pigments and tyres, and even the char left at the end of some of the reactions can be sold to use as activated carbon at a value of at least £400 a tonne.
This research could have a significant impact on the budgets of local authorities and produce considerable environmental benefits.
The lead researcher on the project, University of Warwick Engineering Professor Jan Baeyens, said:
“We envisage a typical large scale plant having an average capacity of 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year.
“In a year tankers would take away from each plant over £5 million worth of recycled chemicals and each plant would save £500,000 a year in land fill taxes alone.
“As the expected energy costs for each large plant would only be in the region of £50,000 a year the system will be commercially very attractive and give a rapid payback on capital and running costs.”
The work will be of great interest to local authorities and waste disposal companies who could use the technology to create large scale reactor units at municipal tips which would produce tanker loads of reusable material.
At Be Seen Go Green, we offer solutions for a variety of Environmental issues. Please click on the following link to contact us.
5 Steps to Effective Waste Management
5 Steps to Efficient Waste Management
What is efficient waste management?
There is more to waste management than collecting rubbish and dumping it at landfill. Although this is a vital step in the process, there is a lot more to it!
Efficient Waste Management is a system : Monitoring, Collection, Transportation, Processing, Disposal / Recycle. Through these steps a company can effectively and responsibly manage waste output and their positive effect they have on the environment. Not to mention the potential to save/make money from waste sources.
Monitoring is identifying the waste management needs, identifying recycling opportunities and ways to minimize waste output, and reviewing how waste minimization is progressing. Through keeping records of the different waste streams, a customer can see the results of their efforts in becoming more environmentally friendly, and a more efficient business.
Collection involves the logistical organization to guarantee that bin containers will not overfill and waste sit time does not become too long. The correct bin container size and service frequency is a must to prevent overspill or excessive smell. The correct bins for different wastes must be available with sticker and bin colour identification. Locks, chains, lids and bars prevent public access and non-trained personnel putting rubbish in the incorrect bins.
Cooperation between the waste company and customer is vital. Bins must be accessible to the truck driver at the agreed times. Access to work premises outside work hours will cause an issue if unaddressed. Bin wheels can allow customers to move bins from convenient areas to serviceable locations.
Transportation is the organizing of waste transport vehicles with the authorization and ability to transport the specified wastes from a customer’s work residence to landfill or processing plant. A waste must be transported by the vehicle designed for it. For example, general waste requires a vehicle with thicker compacter walls, to that of a cardboard and paper waste transporting vehicle. Therefore, a customer may require a series of vehicles to meet their waste management needs.
Vehicles, drivers, and companies need licenses and approval to transport waste. EPA standards need to be upheld as well as General Public Safety. Safety standards are vital to the transportation of clinical and hazardous wastes. Drivers must undergo training for emergency circumstances that may arise.
Processing involves the separation of recyclables for treatment, and then after treatment are packaged as raw materials. These raw materials are sent to factories for production. Non-recyclable wastes by-pass this step and are delivered straight to landfill or processing plants. Liquid and hazardous wastes are delivered to treatment plants to become less hazardous to the public and environment.
Disposal / Recycling is the disposal of non recyclables into landfill. Landfill sites must be approved by legal authorities. Legal authorities guarantee that specific wastes are buried at the correct depth to avoid hazardous chemicals entering the soil, water tables, water systems, air, and pipe systems.
In this step the raw materials made from recyclables are produced and sold as products on the market. Companies can purchase such products to further sustain the environment and natural resources.
In conclusion, waste management is a science that addresses the logistics, environmental impact, social responsibility, and cost of an organization’s waste disposal. It is a detailed process that involves human resources, vehicles, government bodies, and natural resources.
Learn more about waste management by contacting Be Seen Go Green.
Packaging Waste
Moves to cut packaging waste received a boost as group of leading firms pledged to curb waste levels across their supply chain. New Environment minister Lord Henley called on more Big names to follow suit.
The government-backed Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) announced that seven more firms have signed up to its Courtauld Commitment 2 scheme since it was launched in March, taking to 36 the total number of businesses to have agreed to meet voluntary waste reduction targets under the initiative. (Scotland has compulsary targets)
New members include Marks & Spencer, Heineken UK, Burton Foods, and Dale Farm, the first Northern Irish firm to join the scheme.
Under the second round of the Courtauld Commitment scheme, firms signing up to the initiative pledge to reduce the carbon impact of grocery packaging by 10 per cent, cut household food and drink wastes by four per cent, and reduce supply chain product and packaging waste by five per cent by 2012.
The group held its inaugural meeting yesterday to identify the measures and best practices that will be required to try and meet the new targets.
The Courtauld Commitment was set up under the previous government, but has already secured the backing of the coalition with recently appointed environment minister Lord Henley telling the meeting that he wanted to see more retailers join the scheme.
“This government is right behind you – the Prime Minister has pledged this will be the greenest government ever, and waste is one of the biggest environmental challenges facing this country,” he said. “We must all work together, exploring ideas, sharing innovations and successes.”
At Go Green, we offer solutions for a to help you achieve these reduction targets. Please click on the following link to contact us.
WEEE: The Business Users Responsibility
Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment such as redundant Telephone systemswill often have an asset value and therefore there
are a number of obusinesses that may be willing to collect the waste from a business.
If It is usually very good quality and can be reused. However there are other items of
WEEE that are not so valuable and therefore may be more difficult to arrange a collection
for, for example light bulbs. It is important to ensure that the organisation
collecting the WEEE can legally transport, handle and treat the different
types of WEEE they have been given.
offices themselves are responsible for and need to be aware of the options available
to them to ensure that the commercial / non household WEEE is managed appropriately
by suitably qualified and registered companies to ensure that it does not end up
in the hands of illegal operators.
End users should be aware that some WEEE disposal may be free if:
it was sold to the company after 13 August 2005; the company is replacing it with new
equivalent EEE; or you rent or lease electrical & Electronic Equipment.
In all circumstances any company considering purchasing or leasing EEE
should speak to their supplier before they purchase or lease. However, if the supplier
does offer an option for free recycling the company should obtain and keep the
“producer registration number” which should be on the sales contract for the new item.
This will enable the business to contact the producer’s compliance scheme when the
product needs to be recycled. There should be a producer compliance scheme that can
be called upon to collect and treat the WEEE unless the producer has made alternative
arrangements with the business through the sales contract.
Businesses need to ensure the recycling or reuse route they choose can eradicate the data.
A waste disposal contractor disposing of Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment that may contain information covered
by the Data Protection Act must hold a relevant certificate in information security
management or equivalent.
Waste Management
Waste Management
Waste management services exist to help companies with the challenge of industrial waste. As you can imagine some areas generate more waste than others and those that generate a lot in the course of their business usually find it more cost effective to have someone else deal with it.
This topic covers a broad spectrum. It is a term often used to describe the management of a variety of waste, usually collected, treated, processed, recycled, reused or disposed of by a department of the local authority.
As we produce more and more waste, mainly as a result of more and more packaging being used for our produce, our waste management services are becoming more sophisticated and better able to deal with the problem.
In industry there is a growing need for waste management services, some specialising in certain aspects of it and others attempting to be all things to all companies. Those who specialise in certain areas tend to deliver a better service as they can fine tune their expertise into a narrow and clearly defined area.
Industries such as the oil industry or chemical industry need waste management services who can respond to a given situation 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Often their waste management needs involve coping with an unexpected emergency, an oil or dangerous chemical spill, for example.
Waste management services trained and expert in dealing with the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste is invaluable to these industries. They will most likely have licensed facilities for the treatment and transfer of contaminated waste and the personnel trained and experienced to carry out the operation.
The first line of defence against an emergency spill can be the use of skimming equipment to try and recover the spill. Booms and dispersants as well as absorbents and may also be used. Waste can be transferred from the site to a holding facility using appropriate waste transfer vehicles.
The industries that can suffer heavily by a serious waste problem rely heavily on the expertise and experience of professional waste management services. Their emergency response teams can contain, collect and treat hazardous waste in the fastest possible time, thereby rendering the situation as safe as possible as quickly as possible.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive all give useful guidance on the regulations governing the storage of hazardous waste in the UK. All service providers have to operate under these regulations and each one should be a registered waste carrier and usually also having a facility with an appropriate permit for accepting and treating hazardous waste, as well as its possible disposal.
Waste management services provide an invaluable backup service to a variety of industries that have come to depend on them for the necessary support and assistance they need when it comes to collecting, recovering, treating, recycling, reusing and disposing of waste. Waste has paradoxically become big business for the companies who have chosen to specialise in it.
Who handles your waste management?
From October 2010 SEPA can now request the waste management records of all business, from the accountants office to the North Sea oil companies.
At Be Seen Go Green we can help on a variety of environmental issues which may affect you, including your compliance responsibilities.
To find out more contact us www.beseengogreen.eu