Recycling Facts about Aluminum

January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

aluminum pull tabs

    I have a friend from college whom I noticed was always keeping the aluminum pull tabs of the softdrink cans she’s drinking. I asked her once why she was doing that and she answered that the pull-tabs are made into wheel chairs. I asked her if the wheel chairs can support the weight of a person if they are made of Coke pull-tabs. I forgot her answer.
    I remember that incident with my friend today because of the recycling facts about aluminum that I was researching. I didn’t know that the Coke pull-tabs are not actually glued together to make wheel chairs. They are instead melted and recycled. I really didn’t know that all things that are made from aluminum can be recycled.
    This information is amazing. How come I didn’t know that? I didn’t know that softdrink cans can be recycled for indefinite number of times and the quality will not decrease. But even so, why do companies of softdrinks still manufacture new beverage cans? Why don’t they just recycle them all?
    It’s very easy to say but here in the Philippines where college graduates like me who don’t know that aluminum cans are recyclable, it can be difficult to put into action. How can we act if we didn’t know we had to act on it? We really need more people to educate us on greening. But I think there are a lot of Filipinos who have already initiated aluminum recycling programs in the country. One is the program being supported by my friend that makes wheel chairs out of the aluminum pull tabs of softdrink cans.
    I didn’t know that we can make not only wheel chairs but also cookware, bicycles, cars and even airplanes (whattt!!!) from recycled aluminums. Recycling just ONE aluminum can can save energy which can power a television for 3 hours (what!!!). If we recycle all the aluminum cans of the softdrinks that we consume, the energy saved can power the fluorescent bulbs of millions of homes every year. These recycling facts are just astounding.
    I wonder if there are other initiatives in the Philippines that promote the recycling of aluminum cans and other aluminum products. If I had known this, I would’ve collected all the aluminum cans that I, my family and friends have been drinking. If I had started collecting aluminum cans since college, I would’ve already made hundreds of elders and disabled people in my country happy.
    It’s just so amazing how one little thing (collecting aluminum cans and recycling) can make a big difference. It’s just amazing. But amazement is just the start. What can I do about it? What can we do about it? Where do we go if we have collected all those aluminum cans? Where are the recycling centers of aluminum cans in the Philippines?
    Questions can start a revolution. Green revolution I mean.
Filed Under: Energy Saving, Everyday Green, Recycling Tagged With: , , , ,

Green Bath and Body Works Soap

January 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

organic soap

    When we lather our body with our favorite soap, do we know how many chemical ingredients in the soap that gets in contact with our skin and may enter our body through our skin’s pores? These are some of the ingredients used in making commercially bought soaps:
    -Coco Diethanol Amide
    -Sodium lauryl ether sulfate
    -Sodium silicate
    -Sodium tripolyphosphate
    -Caustic potash
    -Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid
    -Sodium phosphate
    -Benzalkonium chloride
    -Glycerine
    -Carboxyl methy cellulose
    -Triethanol amine
    These are only some of the chemicals that are used in making soaps. They are needed to give the soap the quality of a soap: hard, produces bubbles and can clean oil and dirt in our body. If we use a soap that has added qualities such as a moisturizing soap or a soap that has a scent, then more chemicals are added in those soaps.
    Most of the chemicals found in our bath soaps are not harmful but they are still chemicals. They enter our body through our skin. When they enter our body, they become toxins that need to get out either through perspiration or peeing. When they don’t get out and they accumulate, they will cause illness including cancer.
    Good news is that today there are a lot of stores that are selling organic eco-friendly bath soaps. These soaps may be expensive but they are not made from chemicals. The ingredients are all natural meaning they are sourced from nature.  Using organic bath soaps helps in greening our planet because thsee soaps are not manufactured with chemicals in the factories that use up a lot of energy.
    When we use handmade soaps and organic soaps, we can help in reducing the air pollution that the factories of popular bath soaps emit in their factories. Besides, organic soaps are really good to out skin. They don’t cause skin irritation and dryness. THey can smell really good too when they are added with natural oils such as lavender and rosemary.
Filed Under: Conservation, Energy Saving, Everyday Green, Green Homes, Green Tips, Pollution, Toxic Wastes, Water Conservation, Water Resources Tagged With: ,

Green Hair Shampoo

December 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

natural shampoo

    Have you ever thought about what our ancestors used as hair shampoo when there were still no factories and no electricity? When my grandmother was still alive, she used a natural hair cleanser: gugo. Gugo is a Tagalog word for this brown thing that looks like very small branches. I remember when I was a child, my grandmother used to use gugo on my hair. I can’t remember where she got it.
    I am looking at the back of the plastic bottle of my hair shampoo. It’s a popular brand name of hair shampoo that I bought in the grocery and these are the ingredients: Sodium Laureth Sulfide, Sodium Lauril Sulfate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Sodium Benzoate, Glycol Distearate, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium and a lot more listed.
    I didn’t know I put that long list of chemicals on my hair everyday whenever I shapoo. Maybe I should get back to the natural hair shampoo. There are some people who use mayonnaise and avocado instead of conditioners and their hair are really shiny and soft. My roommate in College use beer to soften her hair. It didn’t smell nice but it did look healthy though.
    Come to think of it, using the bounty of our earth to clean our hair is not a bad idea. Here in the Philippines, “lauat” is a very popular herb for treatment of hair loss and dry hair. Green hair shampoo saves a lot of plastic bottle packaging and not to mention that toxins and chemicals that are produced that are harmful to the environment and to our own health.
    Maybe it’s time to go back to the basics. I regret I didn’t ask my grandmother where she get her gugo.
Filed Under: Conservation, Energy Saving, Everyday Green, Green Homes, Green Tips, Pollution, Toxic Wastes, Water Conservation, Water Resources Tagged With: , ,

Top New Year Resolutions for Greener 2009

December 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

green 2009
A new year brings with it new beginnings. It is a good opportunity to start all over again. Isn’t it great? Whatever we did this year, however bad we did them, there’s always the time to start all over again when the New Year comes. The New Year brings with it hope that this will be a better year and that everything we did badly last year, we can always put them correctly again. It gives us the gift of a fresh start and build from there.

So here are my New Year Resolutions for Greener 2009:

1. As much as I can, I will try to reduce my use of materials made of plastics and styrofoam. They are non-biodegradable materials and when they are torn and we don’t need them, they’ll be clogging the rivers and killing fishes and polluting the soil for thousands of years. Plastic bags and styrofoam food keepers are very convenient in the house but as much as I can, I’ll use the more earth-friendly alternatives such as biodegradable bags and ceramic plates.

2. I will conserve water and electricity around the house. I’ll turn off the lights and unplug electronic appliances before I go to sleep. I’ll shut down my computer even if I’ll be gone for only an hour. I’ll turn off the faucet when I’m not using the water. These are all little things but I believe they can make a difference.

3. I’ll continue on learning more and sharing more the little things that we can do to put our share in saving our seas, air and earth.

That’s it. It’s a short list but it’s a start. They’re simple, little ways but I believe that they will count. Welcome Greener 2009!

Filed Under: Conservation, Energy Saving, Everyday Green, Green Homes, Non-biodegradable Waste, Water Conservation, Water Resources Tagged With: ,

Green Clothes

November 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

green clothes

We wear clothes basically to cover our body and to protect our body from sun exposure or cold weather. But do we really buy clothes mainly because of this reason? For most of us, buying clothes is about looking good or at least not being teased as a “manang” or “baduy”.

I visited Alabang Town Center this weekend and I was surprised at the long lines of teenagers buying Havaianas flip-flops. It was only 11:00 am and the line was extending to the aisle of the mall. I saw this one young girl around 13-14 carrying 3 pairs of the same style but with different colors. Wow!

It’s the same with shoes and clothes. Philippines is really an ironic country. People say that this is a poor country but if you visit any mall in the metro during the weekend, you’ll ask yourself if you’re really in a poor country.

Maybe the reason why the fashion boutiques and the department stores are all filled up during weekend especially when the weekend coincides with the pay-day is because Filipinos are heavy cloth buyers. In this country, you’ll find people dying of hunger everyday in the streets while inside the malls, people are buying fashionable clothes and 3 pairs of flip-flips!

Buying too much is always bad for the environment because when we buy more clothes, more shoes, more flip-flops that what we need, more of them will have to be manufactured. During the manufacturing of these items, of course, more energy has to be used. Also, when there are more clothes, shoes and flip-flops to be manufactured, more natural resources are needed to produce them. There will be more wastes when we got used with our clothes or when they’re not fashionable anymore or when we can’t wear them anymore.

How many flip-flops do we really need? How many different colors of skinny jeans do we really need to buy? Have you seen the pile of old shoes in your house? How are we going to dispose them?

Having green clothes may mean buying only the clothes that we really need with the aim of energy-conservation and the protection of the natural resources of the earth. Having green clothes may mean wearing hand-me-downs. It may mean buying from ukay-ukay stores. They can be fashionable but they are not from the factories. Besides, they are cheap!

Buying clothes and dressing up are regular activities in our lives but we can make it extra-special when we think about our natural resources, energy and wastes whenever we do them. Go green clothes!

Filed Under: Conservation, Energy Saving, Everyday Green Tagged With: , , ,
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