Last night, I had a very lengthy conversation with my good friend Shannon about Alternative Energy and Politics and SO MANY good ideas came from the conversation. We're both very passionate about Alternative Energy, Recycling, Politics and the like and we thought that this area would be a good medium to post some of our ideas. We feel that there has been a lot of discussion in the media about alternative energy by the political candidates, businesses, etc., but there isn't a true plan, just talk.
I believe the U.S. car manufacturers are starting to get on-board with creating vehicles for the population that start to get a decent MPG rating, though, we are far behind other countries in this race for lessening our need for oil. Electric, Wind, Hydro, etc., needs to be the main direction we take in order to get away from paying billions and trillions of dollars to Middle East. This thought is great, but we need to have a plan!
Throughout this blog, both Shannon and I will post some of our ideas and strategies that we feel could be a decent start for both the general public and those with the full money coffers that could drive our country back to where it once was, a great leader of technology and advances for human-kind!
Here are a few ideas to start:
- Recycling - If every household begins a recycling campaign, we can then lessen the enormous excess dumped into our landfills and at the same time have an over-abundance of resources to begin cheaply developing alternative energy methods. Below, I will list some links to sites that list how various recyclable materials are made and the materials that they're composed, and how they can be recycled:
- Recyclable Materials: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recyclable_materials}
- Plastics: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic}.
- Glass: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass}.
- Aluminum: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum}.
- Oil: {http://www.recycleoil.org/}.
- Tires: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_recycling}.
- Paper: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper}.
- Batteries: {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_(electricity)}.
- Electricity: The biggest thing that a home-owner can do to save money with our low economy is to conscientiously save on the electricity that they use. Simple things that can be done for this process are:
- Turn lights off in rooms that are no longer being occupied. Waste Savings!
- Change incandescent light bulbs (ILBs), after they've expired, with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFLs) {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent}, as they last 8-15 times longer (6,000-15,000 hours versus 750-1,000 hours) and consume 50-75% less energy. Since your homes lighting typically accounts for approximately 9% of electricity usage, using CFLs could reduce your bill by 7%. The bulbs may initially cost more, but the savings far outweigh the expense.
- Caulk, weatherstrip, and insulate your home to save on wasted heating/cooling costs.
- Replace your thermostat with an newer, programmable model, which changes the temperature to a less ideal setting when you're away from home, during the day time hours, and returns it to the ideal setting just before you get home.
- See the Edison Electric Institute's (EEI) article on "How to save electricity in your home" and EnergyStar.gov for additional tips on saving electricity in your home.
- Solar Power: This is a prime resource that needs to be harnessed to decrease the amount of dependency for foreign oil. It can be used to power your home, cars, etc., and it's free, though a cheap and easy way needs to be developed for the average home-owner to harness its potential! Here's is a link to a Wikipedia article of Solar Power which explains its various types and uses. For those inventive types out there, you could buy a cheap marine battery and a small, fairly inexpensive solar panel and begin to harness the sun's energy.
- Politics: This is where it starts! The public can only do so much on a limited budget, so we rely on our politicians to help find ways and resources to overcome our energy crisis. Here's an article that I found on CNN's website detailing both McCain and Obama's energy plans. I will try my best to be very neutral minded, but the way I see it Obama has the best plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, whereas McCain's plan seems to increase our dependency. I believe that internal, alternative methods is our best bet. "Invest in our own country" should be our motto. The U.S. has invested SO much money in other countries and in our time of crisis, we need to start helping ourselves, as no one else will!
This year, I have taken a politics and oral communications class for my degree, that I am trying to finish up, and my wife and I have also began to start a recycling campaign for our household. We've found that we have a local recycling center close to home, though, our trash service does not offer recycling pickup, but at least we can begin to do the right thing. The great part about the recycling center is that we don't necessarily have to sort everything ourselves, as paper, plastic, and metals can be thrown into the same bin at home and then taken down to the center, which makes it easier on us. Also, I have a metal recycling plant very close to home and I recycle aluminum, copper, brass, etc., which I can get paid for, which is an extra incentive. We recently did some home remodeling, which required the old copper drain pipes to be replaced with PVC, and by recycling the copper, I regained a lot of the money used to purchase the new materials!
We have also begun to purchase fabric bags and take them to the grocery store versus getting paper/plastic bags and recycling those. The bags typically only cost $1.00 each and can be purchased from places like Walmart, Schnucks, Dierbergs, etc. Yes, recycling does take a little bit of effort, but after you start, it becomes second nature. Do your part, you know it's the right thing to do!
More to come, please stay tuned!
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