Going green!

[suburban george3 1]

I was completely unaware of this rule, but effective 1/1/08 all businesses with an alcohol license in NC must recycle ALL glass, aluminum, and plastic containers. The law was passed in '05 but participation and enforcement wasn't scheduled to start until now.

Good news for our landfills, now I can drink my beer at the bar and not feel guilty about it!

WGHP FOX8 News clip about mandatory recycling at bars in NC

[nashvillwill 1605]

I was completely unaware of this rule, but effective 1/1/08 all businesses with an alcohol license in NC must recycle ALL glass, aluminum, and plastic containers. The law was passed in '05 but participation and enforcement wasn't scheduled to start until now.

Good news for our landfills, now I can drink my beer at the bar and not feel guilty about it!

Thats pretty exciting. I wish that would happen in TN, it woud make my life alot easier.

George, i have two questions for you;

1. How did the law come about? I would like to know how to get the ball rolling here

2. How and who do they plan on enforcing the law and making sure the trash is correctly sorted?

-Thanks

[suburban george3 1]

Thats pretty exciting. I wish that would happen in TN, it woud make my life alot easier.

George, i have two questions for you;

1. How did the law come about? I would like to know how to get the ball rolling here

2. How and who do they plan on enforcing the law and making sure the trash is correctly sorted?

-Thanks

1. I don't know how the ball got rolling, I will see if I can find out for you. I have some colleagues at my sister company who deal with restaurants and bars, maybe they have some background.

This is a quote I got on inquiry about this law and how it came to be...

"This legislation passed in 2005 and was pushed by our now Speaker of the House, Joe Hackney, who is an environmental advocate. I was not with the association at that time, but as I understand it, the legislation passed at the very end of session without a lot of input on either side"

2. ALE (Alcohol Law Enforcement) will check for this on routine inspections. Violations will be a class 1 misdemeanor with fines asociated. Establishments with no local market for recyclables will be exempt for the first year.

WRAL story on the new recycling law for bars, restaurants.

Edited January 4, 2008 by suburban george3

[smeagolsfree 11038]

Thats pretty exciting. I wish that would happen in TN, it woud make my life alot easier.

George, i have two questions for you;

1. How did the law come about? I would like to know how to get the ball rolling here

2. How and who do they plan on enforcing the law and making sure the trash is correctly sorted?

-Thanks

Sounds as if this could be the makings of a law in TN. Maybe we just need to contact out local legislators to get the ball rolling.

I live in Ashland City just outside Nashville and there are few options for recycling. I have to bring most of my stuff into Nashville to recycle.

[Nashville_maestro 2]

I talked to a friend of a friend who works at a company in atlanta that makes the machines that recycle glass and plastic a few months back. He said that for the past 2 or so years, production has gone up almost 300%! They've had to do a ton of hiring. Hearing things like that are very encouraging.

Folks, now is the time to buy stock in these buisness that are producing the technology to go green. You're almost gauranteed to make a ton of money sometime down the line. Especially in companies that develop renewable energy technology. I made the green power switch with TVA as soon as I moved to nashville this past may. I've tried to get just about everyone I know here to do the same.

[nashvillwill 1605]

I made the green power switch with TVA as soon as I moved to nashville this past may.

Yeah, it's nice that most power companies in Tn offer this option. I have 2 blocks (400kwhs per/month) myself, it only covers about 1/3-1/2 of my consumption, but it helps a little.

Did you know about MTSU's green power? Last year the students demanded a green power switch on campus. A vote was held to add $10 onto tuition to supply some green energy. The vote passed. However, the Tn. Board of Regents stepped in and said that MTSU could not approve this measure without it being a system wide policy. So whatever happened-happened, and now every school in the Tn. BofR system gets a major share of green energy.

I'm not sure of actual numbers or percentage of electricity, but if you figure MTSU alone is 30,000*$10=300,000 dollars per semester in renewable energy!

[Neo 199]

I just ran across a site that lists some things that companies will recycle that are a bit out of the ordinary such as used tennis shoes and toothbrushes.

http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/21Things.cfm

[neon9 0]

I talked to a friend of a friend who works at a company in atlanta that makes the machines that recycle glass and plastic a few months back. He said that for the past 2 or so years, production has gone up almost 300%! They've had to do a ton of hiring. Hearing things like that are very encouraging.

Folks, now is the time to buy stock in these buisness that are producing the technology to go green. You're almost gauranteed to make a ton of money sometime down the line. Especially in companies that develop renewable energy technology. I made the green power switch with TVA as soon as I moved to nashville this past may. I've tried to get just about everyone I know here to do the same.

'Green' stocks are an odd bunch. Read:

Green ETF's both out- and under-perform the general market

I would recommend an ETF or mutual fund rather than a single stock.

The First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge US Liquid Fund, for example, holds Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE), First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) and MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR), among others.

So owning shares of that ETF will give you exposure to LED lighting, thin film solar, silicon supply, advanced meters and even water.

but....

That's why Green Chip recommends going after individual companies. The upside, both in the short and long term, is significantly higher. And when you follow our recommendations, the higher risk that is associated with individual stocks is often negated, because we do the due diligence for you.

I personally think there is less risk in oil and gas trusts since I know that those items are getting more expensive, and won't come down. Most of them are already very high though so I don't know if you'll get much return, beside the 10-15% dividend they pay, which is the main reason to hold them. Of course I say that after PBT, (permian basin trust, they hold oil leases in Texas) has increased from 16 or so up to 25 so far this year. Sorry, correction, it's now at 27.

http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=PBT

I do not hold any of the aformentioned ETF's or stocks at the moment.

[suburban george3 1]

Just wanted other folks to read this, the town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet outside Barcelona was desperately trying to find ways to help power their community thru solar power. However, the town is so dense (124,000 in 1.5 sq miles) that there was little suitable land. A unique idea was found, they placed 462 panels on top of mausoleums in a local cemetery. The panels now feed power into the local grid and provide the energy needed for 60 homes removing 62 tons of carbon which would be produced to power said homes.

Read about it here.

[nashvillwill 1605]

Life after death i guess.

I don't know much about photovoltaics, but it seems like 462 panels would provide more energy than required for 60 homes. Maybe they are very small panels to not disrupt the serenity of the cemetery(i guess i should read the article!). Either way, a very creative use of space. Which brings me to another topic....

Cremation. The dedicated environmentalists' choice?

[Neo 199]

At the very end of 2007 I replaced our standard thermostat with a programmable one (7-day). My home is almost 2100 sq. ft. and has a natural gas furnace and hot water heater so electricity is only used by standard appliances, lights, etc. and the A/C unit. Keep in mind that nothing was changed between 2007 and 2008 other than the programmable thermostat. I have been using CFL's since they were available to consumers en masse. No appliances such as fridge or oven were replaced during the two years I'm comparing.

I have the programmable thermostat set to go up to 82 degrees during the day while I'm at work during the summer (65 during the winter) and 78 degrees overnight while asleep (67 during the winter). All other times it is set for 72 degrees during the winter and 76 degrees during the summer.

Want hard proof that installing one of these programmable thermostats will pay for itself during the first year and save you money in subsequent years? I put together this chart showing the comparison with and without a programmable thermostat. FWIW, the average temperature per month when comparing 2007 and 2008 didn't noticeably change:

[suburban george3 1]

Effective October 1st, 2009; it will be illegal to dump plastic bottles into any landfill in NC. They must be recycled. Of course, it will be virtually impossible for many cities and counties to police this...

[Neo 199]

Effective October 1st, 2009; it will be illegal to dump plastic bottles into any landfill in NC. They must be recycled. Of course, it will be virtually impossible for many cities and counties to police this...

Unfortunately it will be just a law for law's sake and won't be enforceable. Are they going to have garbage collectors write tickets when they pick up your trash?

The best way to handle the illegal dumping of items in landfills is to make recycling of illegal goods super easy. My city accepts everything from computers and any other appliance (i.e. fridge) to plastic bottles and cardboard. We don't have to separate anything, just set it out on your trash day and the city takes care of it. They of course do want you to call if you have a major appliance out, but they make that super easy. We also have a $15/mo charge for an extra garbage bin beyond the first one (which is free). They will give you as many recycling containers as you need at no charge.

[lime light power 0]

I wanted to back this up a little more with the following from Consumerist.com:

"For drivers in everyday situations, a manual transmission is not likely to provide any difference in fuel economy over an automatic transmission. The reason is that to achieve the optimum fuel efficiency a driver has to execute shifts at precise engine rpms (revolutions per minute). Given the challenges of city driving conditions, most drivers won't be able to realize greater fuel economy with a manual gearbox."

Maybe a year or so ago I was at the Miami Beach auto show and was chatting with the Porsche rep. We were talking about this exact topic and basically he said, these days the computer shifts better than any human possibly can. Almost every major high performance vehicle manufacturer has racing paddle shift for the extra oooumph when you need it, but leaving it in automatic for the daily driver is going to give you the best performance from your auto...

[nashbill 82]

Dedicated a few days ago. TN 3rd 1MW solar farm. It is quite impressive. I of course am biased, because I work here. Here is the report from the Tennessean.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110725/NEWS11/307250019/Smyrna-solar-farm-will-learning-lab-?odyssey=mod{sodEmoji.|}newswell{sodEmoji.|}text{sodEmoji.|}News{sodEmoji.|}s

It seems very expensive. But our plant manager said we built a Ferrari when a Volkswagon would do. The dual voltage 600V and 1000V cost an additional $2,000,000. USA uses 600V and most of the rest of the world uses 1000V. It also is designed to allow portions to be used for experimenting and lab use, to allow us to understand how to use it most effectively. I am not an electrical engineer, so I am not the right person to try to explain. Our company, which is global and we export product from here. As you can see I am very proud of the company for putting out this much money (with help of the government). We need to use the energy we currently consume more effectively and make use of alternate energy sources. The more this is used and the more companies joining in to make the parts needed will drive down costs by more competition. I know that a lot of folks don't like the government give aways, but I think in many instances, it does help alot. Manufacturers like Nissan and ours will perhaps make the Smyrna area a good area for start-ups to join in.

[Shakman 185]

Going green has become quite affordable:

www.viridian.com/sbelectric

[Yuvakat 0]

Great post! I didn't know it isn't necessary to wash/rinse your recyclables (e.g., cans and bottles). Did not know that the lids to jars and bottles may not be recyclable. Appreciate the website for getting off of junk mail mailing lists. Thanks.