SDAT - What is this?

I got an email the other day concerning a meeting Tuesday night for something called SDAT. I had never heard of it and had no idea what it was all about. Having other plans for last night, I was unable to attend the meeting. However, Phil Compton was at the meeting I was at and enlightened me on SDAT.

Sustainable Design Assessment Team is what this stands for. The goal of this organization is to create more sustainable places through good planning and design.

Stay tuned for more details.

Disposing of Electronics

With the holidays and the end of analog TV reception approaching, some of you will be getting new TVs soon. There are others that acquire other new techno gadgets from time to time. I know that we have several old desktops that need to be disposed of. I went looking around for advise on ridding my house and garage of these old clunkers. I have posted a couple of sites here, but was wanting to know if we have anyone locally that recycles used electronics.

City to Hold Household Chemical and Electronics Collection

Tampa, FL October 15, 2008 - The City of Tampa Department of Solid Waste & Environmental Program Management will hold a Household Chemical and Electronics Collection from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 25, 2008. The collection will take place at the Solid Waste facility, at 4010 West Spruce Street, located behind the main Solid Waste building.

The following materials will be accepted at the collection site: paints and solvents; used motor oil; automotive products; pool chemicals; mercury-containing devices, such as fluorescent light bulbs and thermometers; lawn, garden and household chemicals; and electronics including computer monitors, printers, CPUs, keyboards and televisions. The city will not accept any explosive, radioactive or biomedical wastes at the collection site and only residential waste will be accepted.

To access the facility residents should enter on Clark Street. For additional information, please call the Department of Solid Waste at (813) 348-1111.

Bioreactor Landfills

For those of you who saw the story about Polk County's Bioreactor Landfill that was highlighted on the History Channel's Modern Marvels here is some additional information: http://epa.gov/ord/npd/pdfs/lrp-factsheet_landfills.pdf

Local Business offers 'Green merchandise'

I visited the Tampa Street Market recently and was very surprised to find a large assortment of merchandise. All of the products are made from recycled materials, be it glass, rubber, metal or plastic. They have recently moved from a smaller space up the road to the corner of Florida and Osborne. I found this store to be a perfect spot to shop if you are looking for gifts. They have fresh flowers on the weekend, and ones that the supermarkets don't carry.

Park around back if you drive and walk to the store entrance on Florida Ave. You will find a link to their website under 'Going Green Sites'. Give them a try, you will be happy that you did.

Organic Cloth & Fabric

Another way to improve indoor air quality is to use natural cloth and fabrics whenever possible. Non-organic fabrics may have fumes coming off them for some time. Also, many many fabrics are made from materials that are heavy in pesticide use for growth (e.g., cotton) and dyes are often far from healthy for the environment.

In our home, we decided to "go green" with fabric when we moved in and had no curtains or blinds. I searched the internet for organic fabric sites, found wonderful fabrics of all cost ranges and a good range of colors, and then had a local seamstress sew the blinds to my specifications. Voila! Green blinds. Ours are a cotton/hemp mixture, a very faint peach hue, Roman design with a natural amber stone as the cord pull. Although other websites exist, the one that we used and the one that I thought had the best variety and best prices is: www.NearSeaNaturals.com. They will send swatches for you to look at, feel, match to other fabrics, etc. for a very small fee.

Community Gardening

This morning someone mentioned to me that they save and compost their leftover meats and vegetables for a Community Garden. I have not been involved in a Community Garden. I have heard about them and know that several of our neighbors are involved with them. In the spirit of engaging into a discussion on this blog, I invite you to provide your experience in being involved with a Community Garden. It is really easy to do, just hit the word comment and type in your thoughts. You can elect to do this anonymously or use a Blogger ID.

City of Tampa Curb Side Recycling Program

The city of Tampa does have a curbside recycling program. The list of items allowed is continuing to grow and currently includes:
• Phone books,
• Paperback books
• Junk mail
• Cereal boxes
• 6-pack soda boxes
• Office paper and cardboard
• Magazines
• Newspapers & inserts
• Catalogs
• Plastic bottles (numbers 1 and 2 only)
• Aluminum and steel cans (including empty aerosol cans)
• Gable-top beverage containers (juice & milk containers)
• Glass bottles & jars (all colors)

Basically the only paper product that is not allowed are those coated with wax, i.e. anything that goes in the freezer or refrigerator. The wax coating causes problems for the machines that process the paper.

If you need additional recycling bins use the link, it is the quickest way to get one: Blue Bin Request

Wind Farms

Wind farm that we drove through in New York while on vacation. These things are very strange looking, but really don't take up much footprint. The farmers can still plant their crops, get wind power for their homes and get paid for the use of their land.

Solar Panels - Leasing Option

Solar Energy was my first thought when it came to Going Green. I became very interested in this after watching an episode of Extreme Makeover – Home Edition. The episode took part in the mid-west on an Indian Reservation and the show hooked the new home up to a windmill that allow the owners to actually sell excess electricity back to the grid. I knew that wind was probably not an option for us, so I started looking around at Solar Energy. The start up cost for the majority of the systems was cost prohibitive. Then I came across a company called Citizenrē REnU (this company was featured on a HGTV Show in 2007) that allows you to lease a system. Sounded like a good idea, so I signed up. However, it looks as if this company is having a difficult time getting off the ground. I have had no communication from them since July 2008. I am now looking to alternative solutions.

Cleaning Products

Go Green OSH mentioned PAINT as a major contributor to indoor air quality. Another major source is the fumes from cleaning products, many of which contain petrolchemicals. To reduce our carbon footprint as well as improve our own health, green products are a huge step in the right direction.

The 1990 Toronto Indoor Air Conference reported that women who work at home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than those who work away from home. A 15-year study concluded that it was a direct result of the much higher exposure rate to toxic chemicals in common household products. A 1985 E.P.A. report suggested that the toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than air pollution. The Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that of chemicals commonly found in homes, 150 have been conclusively linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological abnormalities.

There are many alternatives to common cleaners - baking soda, vinegar, natural soaps, and also green-made products. I'd love to have a discussion about which types people prefer. Vinegar is bad for those with cats as the smell is so close to cat urine that territoriality issues with the cleaning product sometimes becomes a behavioral problem. I've choosen a local company's products - carbon footprint is low because shipping is local - and they clean wonderfully. I used to use 7th Generation products but I prefer now to support a local business (and they are very very nice people). I use their all purpose cleaner, their glass cleaner, their loo goo (for bathrooms), and their laundry products including laundry soap, stain remover, and heavy duty stain remover. I can't say enough about how well they work. (www.greenmancleaning.com). You can order their products by using the phone number on their website!

Small things you can easily do

You know that Starbucks that we all rallied to have move into our neighborhood? The next time you visit the store and are going to be staying there to drink your coffee/tea, ask for a ceramic mug instead of a paper cup.

Shopping at Publix, spend $.99 for one of the green or black reusable shopping bags. The affordable and recyclable "green" bags are made of non-woven polypropylene (plastic) which looks like canvas. Publix also has sold reusable canvas bags for many years. Customers can also bring in their own bags for Publix to bag their groceries. I was very surprised to see the amount of groceries that fit into one of these bags. This is going to be a habit change for you and will take some effort to make it work. When you get the groceries home, remember to put the bags back in you vehicle to make sure they are available for you next trip to the store.

Tankless Hot Water Heater

When doing our last major renovation several years ago, I wanted to make sure that I was getting hot water at the kitchen sink sooner rather than later. To accomplish this, the whole house was re-plumbed. This did a couple of things, increased our overall water pressure and allowed me to move the hot water heater closer to the kitchen, laundry room and master bath. Over the years the plumbing had been modified as needed to and was so filled with corrosion that it was amazing that there was any water flowing at all.

I setup the house to allow for a tankless hot water heater, however the old hot water was working just fine. I later decided that it would be a better idea to switch over to the tankless, but when I got the estimate to change over I was shocked - $1,800 to install. Now remember, all of the piping and plumbing is there, only need to put in the new tank and hook everything up. Why such a high price, I wanted the tankless system to hang inside my house, not at the back door. 90% of the price was to install a venting system in the event that gas leaked.

For those homeowners that have installed these systems, most of them love it. Hot water on-demand and a reduce heating bill. Make sure you consider going this route if you need to replace your hot water heater, but know that it will need to be hung outside your home.

Painting Interior Spaces

The next time you need to paint a room in your home, consider this:

According to the EPA, indoor air is three times more polluted than outdoor air and is considered to be one of the top 5 hazards to human health. Paints and finishes are among the leading causes.

When shopping for paint, you will see a new label on the paints:
VOC - Volatile Organic Compounds.
Paints and finishes release low level toxic emissions into the air for years after application. The source of these toxins is a variety of VOC's which, until recently, were essential to the performance of the paint.

New environmental regulations, and consumer demand, have led to the development of low-VOC and zero-VOC paints and finishes. Most paint manufacturers now produce one or more non-VOC variety of paint. These new paints are durable, cost-effective and less harmful to human and environmental health.