Category: ‘Recycling Opportunities’

Composting

September 29, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

Composting is the act of recycling organic matter into soil, utilizing a compost area in the garden allows you to not only recycle the waste of the garden but also elements from the house. Composting at home can be achieved with a number of different methods but is most commonly done by designating an area or pile to add matter too, or with the use of a drum/bin. The act of composting basically means to provide an aerobic environment for microbial life to digest the food provided, being aerobic the environment must also have air and water.

Lawn clippings, trimmed/fallen branches, and leaves are common contributions added to the compost from the garden.  Waste vegetables, eggs/shells, paper, pizza boxes, tissues, napkins, bread, grains, meat, seafood and pasta, Coffee grounds, Dairy products all of which would otherwise be thrown away and are thus free. Composting can reduce yard waste that needs to be hauled to the dump by anywhere from 50 to 75% and in turn returning composted soil back into the garden it will add to the garden fertility and stimulate healthy growth and complex root development. Compost loosens boggy clay soils and aids in the water retention of sandy soils, furthermore the increased microorganism balances levels of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus eliminating the need for soil amendments to be added.

Depending on where you live and the surrounding environment/climate will depend on what maintenance your compost will require, a good rule of thumb is to keep the compost moist and aerated.

 

Brick in toilet tank

September 22, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

25%-30% of the water usage in each household is from the toilet, and the average toilet uses 3.5 gallons of water per flush. In a different post we discuss the market of water saving toilets that use less water per flush, but here we talk of two ideas to reduce the amount of water your current toilet uses by placing either bricks or water bottles in the water tank.

How much water your toilet tank holds will dictate the size of or amount of void space you can include with either a brick or water bottle, and considering that the most efficient of toilets get as low as 1.5 gallons per flush, it is conceivable to fill 2 gallons worth of space (If you have the 3.5 tank). Having said that, it is advisable to test out your system a few times with different sizes to check the system is still efficient at passing on waste :)

This should be quite a simple task the costs nothing assuming you have an old brick lying around and can recycle a water bottle (a bit of sand or small rocks in the bottle will aid in sinking it) and can potentially reduce your water bill by 15%.