05/15/16 08:09 - ID#60491

Clean Air dinner

Last week was the clean air coalition dinner at the Hotel Lafayette. The Allen Street Consulting table went crazy with the raffle. (e:xandra) won an air purifier, we won the 50/50 and (e:Dianne) won a Coop gift certificate.

I love breadsticks.

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Last Modified: 05/21/16 07:44

Category: environment

04/26/16 09:31 - ID#60476

Earth day recycling at Hazman

On Earth Day we went up to Hazman in Tonawanda to recycle all our electronics and dispose of our hazardous waste.

They take gasoline, paint, fertilizer, batteries - even styrofoam, vinyl and all the plastics you normally can't recycle. You do have to pay for everything you dispose - but you it's your fault for generating it. The same thing is free at the Erie County drop off, but that's twice a year and we always seem to miss it.

We had a ton to get rid of, and only paid $25. Most of it needed to go (like the gas/oil/paint thinner nightmare), but I felt bad scrapping the electronics that were functional but obsolete. I mean you could probably still use (e:terry)'s 15 year old PS/2 ball mouse or those bundles of phone wire, but why?

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Last Modified: 05/06/16 10:37

Category: environment

03/19/16 02:46 - ID#60442

Ban the bag

Last week the county executive announced that he was going to pursue a ban or tax on plastic bags in Erie county - finally. Sometimes I feel like we live in an open air trash dump with the amount of plastic that blows around - down the street, stuck in trees, clogging up the storm sewers, floating around in the water at canalside. People throw their bags out the window, stores forcing you to take bags for items that don't need it. I know (e:libertad) says his 7-11 makes him put a 6 pack in a plastic bag - WTF, it's already in a container? This is how everyone ends up with a plastic bag full of bags in their house.

I would 100% support an outright ban, if not a tax of $0.50. If they tax it I think all the money should fund a litter pick up program.

I went out to the backyard today and picked up some of the trash that blew in/was thrown over the fence this winter. Just 11 plastic bags alone, plus the usual chip bags, Tim Hortons cups etc. That's not even counting the 5+ bags I pick up a week on our front lawn.

You can email your county legislator and the executive and tell them that you want the study on the ban funded, and a law passed.

If you live in Allentown or anywhere on this map

your legislator is Barbara Miller-Williams at BMW@Erie.gov

Mark Poloncarz can be emailed at countyexecutive@erie.gov

You can find all the rest of the legislators on this page:

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Last Modified: 03/19/16 02:48

Category: environment

01/03/16 01:59 - ID#60385

We're number 7

National Grid has been sending these letters every couple of months telling you your power consumption compared to your neighbors. I'm not sure how they define that besides similar sized houses near you. Besides the fact that it should be an email and not paper I love it. I wish all utilities did this for consumption, garbage vs recycling, etc.

We always did terrible because of the tortoise and his insane heat demands. But now that he's solar powered in the desert, and we are a little, we're number 7!

This one covers October/November, when we only had solar panels for 3/4 of November (but still a sunny November). You can see our out of control power consumption pre-panel.

I'd like to make it to number one. I think we could do it.

Interestingly I read this article the other day about racial/class disparities in solar panel interest and purchase.

It also talks about how some utilities try to pitch home solar panels as a reason to raise rates, especially for lower income houses. Isn't that crazy? Shouldn't they be trying to incentivize everyone to reduce their demand on the grid during the day (aka peak usage when the expensive gas plants turn on)?

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Category: environment

08/13/15 12:53 - ID#60160

Paper hoarding

The Red Jacket building is having asbestos abatement which include's the Allentown Association offices. I think I'm more concerned for them about the banker boxes of old paper they moved to the window today. Paper stresses me out.

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Last Modified: 08/13/15 01:29

Category: environment

06/16/15 01:30 - ID#60054

I hate the Buffalo Preservation board

I hate the Buffalo Preservation Board. I hope a historic roof falls on the whole board. Especially Tim Tielman.

Some (3 of 20) of our solar panels were denied by them last Thursday. I have so much to write about it I don't even know where to start, so I'll have to flesh it out later, including the recording I took.

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Last Modified: 06/16/15 02:21

Category: environment

05/11/15 10:25 - ID#59989

Not so clean air

On our bike ride around town, we came across Montante or whoever they sub out to started to demolish Gates Circle. it was so dusty on Linwood and it wasn't even windy. While I don't think the building is pure asbestos like (e:Paul) no one wants to breath in concrete dust.

I don't know who to report them to if it happens again but I bet their permits rely on mitigating dusts and emissions. I'll make sure to take more pictures next time.

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Last Modified: 05/19/15 01:12

Category: environment

03/21/15 02:27 - ID#59919

Third world buffalo

We went with (e:uchina) to brunch at Panos. On the way in, we noticed Elmwood smelled like sewage, which is nothing new. On the way out we noticed their rain gardens and sewer intakes were literally spitting out sewage all over the street. notice the toilet paper.

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Last Modified: 03/21/15 02:29

Category: environment

03/08/15 01:45 - ID#59890

Tricked by the coop

We got completely greenwashed at the coop. We bought this sponge in a rush at the coop and somehow thought it was made of natural material. I remember talking about it in the aisle with (e:paul) wondering what it could have been made of. It turns out it's just a regular sponge, just with "Nature" on the package.

The "Natural Value" scrubbers are made of "tough fibers and abrasives" which I take means plastic since they point out the sponges are cellulose (so are 3Ms, so I assume they're all from the same factories).

I can't believe I fell for it. I really hate all greenwashed marketing, especially for packaged stuff like this. It isn't even good at it. Usually it'd be a regular plastic brillo pad wrapped in brown paper to give it an "earthy" feel, called "Bob's Sea Sponge" , with maybe a GMO and Gluten free label on it. On the back would be a folksy story about how Bob's Natural Sponges loves his artisian sponges, and how he feels about urban farming or kale or something. I really think I could be a marketer.

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Last Modified: 03/08/15 11:17

Category: environment

01/17/15 10:04 - ID#59758

Hanging out

I don't know why I usally did not before but on (e:tinypliny)'s suggestion I started hanging clothes to dry. It really is a waste of gas and electric to run a clothes dryer when with a little more time they could dry themselves. Especially when it makes clothes last longer. I guess I've always had access to one, even a "free" dryer in college, so I took it for granted.

I think I'm going to need to string more line up. I can't wait until summer and it'll be even easier.

In other news of my energy kick I took a look at the hot water heater efficiency. According to the energy star label it seems it was mid grade for when it was built but I need to find out when that was. The label's benchmark is for 1994, so maybe then. I wonder what advances have been made since then.

In my dream world it would be a green powered tankless electric water heater. I'm not sure the capacity of of solar here would support that, but even a gas model would be so much more efficient than maintaing a hot tank of water all day.