Environmental Tips
Occasional suggestions for easy ways of handling energy reduction in everyday situations.
Idling Gets You Nowhere
Going nowhere, emitting plenty...
Idling to warm up your car in cold weather is the slowest way to bring it up to operating temperature. It invites a whole host of problems - and excessive idling can actually damage your engine components, including cylinders, spark plugs, and exhaust systems. The reason for this is that fuel is only partially combusted when a car idles, because the engine does not operate at its peak temperature. Operation at low temperatures leads to the buildup of fuel residues on cylinder walls that can damage engine components and increase fuel consumption in the long term. (It used to be that cars did require warming, before cars were full of all the sophisticated systems in them now.)
In short, if you’re worried you’ll stress your car out by driving in winter, idling is not the answer. Cars warm up faster when they’re driven, so idling won’t even help you get warm faster on those chilly winter days. The best way to warm up is to walk or ride your bike, of course… but if you do need the car, here’s a good procedure to follow:
Put on your seat belt - start the engine - wait from 0 - 30 seconds to allow engine fluids to circulate - and drive away, accelerating gently, especially while your car is below its normal operating temperature.
Note to parents: if you’re picking your kids up at school, be sure to turn your engines off. The fumes from idling cars are more dangerous for kids because young people breathe more as a percentage of their body weight. Inhaling exhaust has also been linked to developing asthma. Save money, protect your kids - it’s as easy as turning off the car!
Carry a reusable bag when you do your shopping
Paper and plastic bags often end up as litter. It takes more energy to recycle paper bags than it does to produce them, and plastic bag recycling also is very uneconomical. So the majority of bags collected for recycling often end up in landfills.
The best thing to do is carry your own reusable bag with you. Many environmentally-friendly bags can be purchased. Some are made from recycled materials, but any reusable bag is better than the usual plastic and paper bags. To get in the habit, put some extra ones in your car or a very easily folded bag in your purse or pocket. That way you will always have one handy.
In many grocery stores, if you tell the checkout person you have your own bag, they will not immediately stop packing your purchases in plastic or paper. Using your own bag actually saves the retailer money, so they are likely to be pleased to use it.
Manage your transition to DTV in an environmentally sound way
In the case of most old television sets, the environmentally sound thing to do is to keep the old set and hook it up to a Digital TV Converter Box.
If you feel you must replace it with a new TV, select an energy efficient TV.
Most old CRT sets use less energy than LCD or Plasma TV’s. LCD TV’s are more energy efficient than Plasma TV’s. A smaller screen TV is more energy efficient than a larger screen TV.
See this link for more information about choosing an energy efficient TV.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=choosing-an-energy-efficicient-tv
See this link for information about EnergyStar qualified televisions.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=TV
Dispose of that old TV properly. Recycle electronics for free at the Illinois EPA’s and the City of Chicago’s site at the Goose Island Facility in Chicago.
Consult the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) on how to recycle your old TV and other electronics. http://www.swancc.org/recycling/computerelectronicspermanentdropoff.html