Walter's ecology blog

My theory is that ecology is one of the most important things to defend in the world today but it is only possible if it is made possible for human beings and not only for perfect people. That's why I start this blog. I would like to share what I do and hopefully get cool input from you on what you do for a better planet. That is what I call ecology for normal people. :)

Monday, August 21, 2006

Collecting Organic waste: how does this work

That's quite easy if you have someone taking care of weekly taking away the waste.

I have a small green can on my balcony, put the vegetables and other organic waste in it and throw that out in a bigger can that is taken away once a week. No special problem and a lot of kilograms of waste transformed into soil instead of burned in an incinerator.

What do I do currently as ecological things

I try to do as much as possible in daily life but here are the major things. I would be interested in feedbacks on your favourite tricks.

Waste optimization
  • Separate glass
  • Separate organic waste
  • Separate PET/plastic when possible
  • Separate aluminum
  • Separate batteries
  • Use as much as possible accumulators and not batteries
Energy sparing

  • Eco light bubles. Cost 12x more, last 12x more and spare 70% of electricity
  • No car - use as much as possible public transportation
  • Completely turn off heating in the summer
  • Water reduction elements in sinks, shower, toilet
  • Shower and no bath

That's all for the moment, what I'm thinking about is:
  • Improve insulation of my apartment (roof insulation, ventilation instead of open windows)
  • Solar heating for warm water and/or electricity production

Sunday, August 20, 2006

No car. Is this an option?

18 months ago my wife had an accident with my car. She wasn't hurt but the car was destroyed. I decided to start the experiment of living without a car. Frankly up to now it proved to be cool. No stress for parking, for refuelling, for being stuck into traffic jams.

Ok now I will most probably soon have to buy one again because child n°2 is arriving in our lives. I'm thinking about buying a Toyota Aygo because it only burns 4.1L/100km in mixed mode (diesel version).

But think about it. Do you really need a car?

Save water and energy

I started thinking lately, also because the energy prices are climbing, how to spare energy and fossil energy especially.

A friend of mine recommended me the following website. It's in Switzerland but I will try to find out about other countries.

The WWF is sponsoring a program for reduction of water consumption through specific gears to connect to your shower, sink or toilets. They are called Aqua-clic and can spare you up to 50% of your water (and what you use to heat it):

http://shop.wwf.ch/fr/category.cfm?uCat=135

I just installed the little stuff for the sink and the shower and ordered the reducers for the toilet. I will keep you posted on how much I spare.

My other blog: walter's finance blog

Just a word about my other blog and why I think it related to this one: human beings got richer than ever in the last century and this due to market economy and finance. At the same time they pose now, due to uncontrolled resource usage, a threat like no other before to the planet.

As we say in French: let's not dump the baby with the bath water. Markets are not the problem and also not the solution but they helped people get more freedom than ever. Now they have to be responsible for themselves and the others.

walter's finance blog

Ecology for normal people

My theory is that ecology is one of the most important things to defend in the world today but it is only possible if it is made possible for human beings and not only for perfect people.

That's why I start this blog. I would like to share what I do and hopefully get cool input from you on what you do for a better planet.





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