UPCYCLING: Why re-use resources?

By researching ways to go green, I discovered a hip new trend called upcycling.  Upcycling is the use of waste materials to provide useful products. It's taking something that you would otherwise throw away and finding a new purpose for it.  Below are 3 reasons why we should upcycle more often.

1.  It is a reinvestment in the environment. Upcycling helps the environment in a couple ways.  First, your old items aren’t going to landfill sites, where gases like methane are released and can contribute to climate change.  Also, upcycling makes use of old items, which saves you from buying new things.  “This saves money in your pocket, as well as reduces need for more goods to be manufactured.” (www.greenlivingtips.com)

2.  It can be fun and creative.  Upcycling encourages creativity.  People have made wallets out of innertubes, fishbowls out of old Macs, and even a wine rack out of chopsticks.  “If you challenge yourself to find new uses for old things, you’ll discover a wealth of creativity.” (www.ecolivingexperts.com)

3.  It requires less energy and resource.  Recycling is great but it requires energy and resources to collect, sort and process unwanted waste.  “It’s all about taking disposable things and creating something useful… usually the only energy being used is your own…” (www.upcycling.com)            

-Lawrence

Old Mac computer turned into fishbowl


Grey Goose bottles into vases, or reuseable drinking glasses

Shower Tub into flower pot

Old ladder into bookshelf

Solar panels: Using natural light to power your life

The sun is incredibly powerful. It generates so much power in the form of light waves and heat that there is no way it can all be used with our current technology and understanding. But that doesn’t mean we need to keep letting it go to waste!

You know that bill you get every month from the power company? Notice how it keeps increasing, even with energy efficient bulbs, windows, heater and a/c units, etc.? There are two ways to lower it; either get rid of everything electronic and use candles for light (not practical!), or invest in solar panels.

Solar panels are fairly easy to use. Simply have a certified technician install them on your roof and connect them to your main power line. After that, every once in a while, rinse them off with your hose, or better yet, some companies actually have a maintenance service that will come out and inspect them regularly and clean them as needed.

I’ve talked to people with solar panels, and heard stories about how after getting solar panels installed, they are receiving “bills” from the power company showing a credit to the account. In other words, the power company owes them money! Wouldn’t that be a welcome sight? One of my friends was telling me about their power usage. He lives on a large piece of land and own horses as well as rent out stabling space. There is the main house and the guest house, both occupied full time. He told me the power bill monthly was close to $1000, and rising. It was out of hand. He decided to get solar panels, which cost him about $100 per month is maintenance and finance fees, but now his power bill is below $200 per month, consistently! That’s about $700 in savings per month. I was shocked. And really, if he wanted even more savings, he could get panels installed on top of another one of the stables and start making money from the power company.

Incredible!

I’ve looked into solar panels for my house a bit and I’ve found that if I covered my roof with panels I could generate enough power to run my devices constantly during the day, and still have excess power trickling back into the power grid, that I would get paid for from the power company. The only thing holding me back at this point is lack of funds, and a desire to not go into debt getting them.

There is a cost to going solar, and in the long run it does get returned to me, but right now I sadly cannot justify the expense. Perhaps when I have finished my schooling and move into my career I will visit the subject again, but until then, I will continue to turn off my energy efficient lights, and open my windows at night for the cool air.


Until next time,
Tony

Gardening is good for the environment

Traditionally, the ideal look for residential homes has been to have beautiful grassy lawns. But have you thought about how much water is used into maintaining your lawn? The cost adds up more than you realize, especially if you live in a warm climate like here in sunny Southern California.  In actuality, there are many areas in Orange County and the Inland Empire that are already in danger of low water levels. The water companies continuously try to advise the community to conserve water anywhere possible.

Truth be told, we are all slowly running out of water as global warming continues to tweak the normal order of the world. Drastic climate changes move expected rain fall further out, animals and plant life suffer with this seasonal shift, and it’s becoming more noticeable. It’s always better advised to conserve what we already have, than use extra energy and materials to create a new process of saving energy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some helpful tips and reminders in saving water outside around your home. Even with saving water, you can still enjoy the beauty of nature to help accentuate your house’s appearance. J

Lush green lawns are always nice, but do you need it to have grass on all sides of your house? Cut back and only use one area for a grass lawn (if you must). This way you don’t dedicate large amounts of water to hydrate the ground for the grass. 

There are many beautiful low-water-use-plants, and also cactus plants that are colorful and produce some amazing flowers.  Make your own collection of favorites, and plant away!

Normal grass lawns are so yesterday...

Why not create a nice pathway on any side of your property, mixing with low-water-use-plants and rocks helps save on water immensely.

Check out this link for more garden tips to save water around your house

http://www.casasugar.com/How-Save-Water-Your-Garden-Yard-1757565

One of the easiest ways to understand what style landscaping is best for your home AND the environment, is to follow your regions climate temperatures and rainfall patterns. With this information, you can choose plants accordingly. For example, Southern California’s inland regions tend to be drier and desert like than near the coast, where there’s higher moisture and warmer nights.

It just takes some time to think through how much water you normally use on your landscape, then see which areas you can cut down the usage, and modify the area to conserve more energy and water. There are always cost efficient ways to make this happen, and don’t forget about Pinterest for DIY project ideas!