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15 Comment
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Paid Parking, Reducing Parking Minimums and Ride-Share
2008-05-16 11:09:03 UTC
Does anyone have information about promoting paid parking in business districts, reducing parking place minimums in business districts and ride-share programs. I am especially interested in experience in small cities with tourist traffic.
Marion Huxtable
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Packing Vegetables at the Market
2008-05-02 11:58:56 UTC
For packing veggies and fruit, I make suitable sized nylon bags that last for ever. If you don't use the veg up in a couple of days, it is a good idea to keep a few plastic bags on hand to store them in so they don't dry out. You can put a variety of vegetables in a single plastic bag in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator and reuse the bag. So on those days when you forget to take your cloth shopping bag, you will have another use for a plastic bag at home.
Marion -
Plastic or Paper?
2008-05-01 13:41:34 UTC
This is a repeat of information I sent in October 2007: I found the following information in the Australian report "Plastic Shopping Bags - Analysis of Levies and Environmental Impacts" of December 2002. Assuming 52 grocery shopping trips per year using 10 bags per trip: Singlet HDPE bags contribute the equivalent of 6.08 kg carbon dioxide. (This works out to about 11 grams of CO2e per bag). Kraft paper bags with handles contribute the equivalent of 11.8 kg carbon dioxide. (This is about 23 grams of CO2e per bag). The information I obtained from the University of Bath report was for LDPE bags (less strong but more resilient). I imagine the amount of petroleum it takes to make them is similar. To repeat the information from U of Bath: The small clear vegetable and fruit bags equate to about 7 grams of CO2e and the larger opaque shopping bags about 11-19 grams CO2e. So if a person uses 520 paper bags with handles and 520 vegetable bags a year (not unusual in the US), 15.4 kg of CO2e goes into the atmosphere. For Americans this translates into about 34 pounds of CO2e. (That is just for the manufacture of the bags.) For the average American consumer (emitting 42,000 pounds of CO2 a year) that is about 0.08 % of his or her carbon footprint (about two gallons of gas). The CO2e is just one part of the problem of single use shopping bags.
Marion
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Car Free Zones
2008-03-30 11:14:55 UTC
Car free zones Does anyone have data about the effect of car free zones and car free days on businesses such as shops? Also any experience with turning streets into public plazas with loss of parking spaces?
Marion Huxtable
Port Townsend
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Re: Push mowers
2008-02-13 11:42:29 UTC
I have practical experience using a push mower as an older, average sized female. I can lift it out of the shed and down steps to the area to be mowed. The lawn is bumpy (but not on a slope) and that poses no problem except requiring more patience. The push mower adds a little to the exercise I get doing chores. For older people it is essential to use the muscles in order to keep muscle tone. So older folks especially could consider using a push mower as an additional way of maintaining strength. I encourage older people to avoid anything that adds to the degradation of their hearing or impairs their breathing, such as gas mowers. To kill any grass you want to get rid of, cover it with several layers of newspaper printed with soy ink. Add topsoil on top and you will be ready soon to do real gardening. Push mowers are expensive and hard to find and that is an obstacle, however should not deter anyone who is determined to have the benefits of a push mower.
Marion Huxtable
Port Townsend -
Gas, Electric and Hand Mowing Compared
2008-02-10 12:55:19 UTC
Gas, electric and hand mowing compared
1. Weight of mower
Gas 60 to 100 lbs impossible to lift
Electric 30 lb too heavy for me
Push 18 lb or less - easy to lift and move
2. Noise
Gas 95 decibels - like a motorcycle
Electric 75 decibels like a washing machine
Push 60 to 70 - like a sewing machine
3. Pollution
Gas: One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Electric: 84% less CO2 according to Audubon also moves the pollution to the power plants smoke stack, so not in your own back yard
Push - None
4. Calories burned
Gas very few
Electric very few
Push - about 500 per hour and reasonable whole body exercise
5. Practicality
Gas - useful for large lawns, if you are not concerned about your neighbors' sanity and health
Electric - useful for medium sized lawns
Push - useful for up to 1000 square foot of lawn or more depending on the user, easy to use
Marion Huxtable
Port Townsend
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Mulching mower rebates
2008-02-08 11:48:05 UTC
It would be a mistake for any Government agency to encourage power mowing, mulching or not. (See quotes from the EPA below). Reel mowers and scythes are easy to use and produce no pollution. Replacing grass with native shrubs or ornamentals is even better. Why pollute and drive your neighbors crazy with the noise of mowing to produce a monoculture that has not value except for cows. If you keep a cow, you don't need a mower either.
Quotes from the Environmental Protection Agency: Most people do not associate air pollution with mowing the lawn. Yet emissions from lawn mowers, snow blowers, chain saws, leaf vacuums, and similar outdoor power equipment are a significant source of pollution. Todays small engines emit high levels of carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas. They also emit hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, pollutants that contribute to the forma- tion of ozone. While ozone occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere and shields the earth from harmful radiation, ozone at ground level is a noxious pollutant. Ground-level ozone impairs lung function, inhibits plant growth, and is a key ingredient of smog. Gasoline-powered landscape equipment (mowers, trimmers, blowers, chainsaws) account for over 5% of our urban air pollution.
Marion Huxtable
Port Townsend -
Shopping bags
2007-11-28 12:02:15 UTC
Safeway sells reusable shopping bags for 99 cents. They are large and have good handles.
Marion Huxtable -
Fruit labels
2007-11-19 11:48:44 UTC
Buy as much as possible from your local farmer and/or Farmers' Market, collect fruits in the wild, grow your own or have friends who grow too much and give it away. Organize a local "gleaning" project such as the one in Victoria, B.C. - http://www.lifecyclesproject.ca/ initiatives/fruit_tree/gleaning.php. Eat local fruits during the growing season and store or preserve fruits by freezing or canning for the rest of the year. It will taste better, feel good and support local farms.
Marion Huxtable -
Alternate model for environmental forums
2007-10-11 12:50:33 UTC
Alternate model for environmental forums For your Environmental Homes Show, how about a tour of homes? You could include homes with solar panels, energy efficient appliances, rain barrels, electric cars and electric bikes, people who preserve food from the garden etc. Include a family that grows vegetables in the backyard and a community garden on city property. Make sure someone shows a reel mower or scythe for cutting grass. You could include a store that sells products. You could include a family conducting an energy audit on their home. Gardens and street swales for collecting storm water would be another thing to include on the tour.
Marion
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