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By Green Living Tips

When we think of waste, what usually springs to mind is tangible waste – but one of the biggest waste products of our society is heat. For example, the combustion engine of a car is, even now, terribly inefficient – so much energy is lost as waste heat rather than being used for mechanical work.

Another example is the incandescent light bulb, currently being phased out in many countries. Around 90% of the electricity consumed by an incandescent light bulb is emitted as heat.

New technology is also being developed at Oregon State University to capture and use waste heat from cars and diesel generators. The “thermally activated cooling system” prototype is converting 80 percent of every kilowatt of waste heat into a kilowatt of cooling capability. With air-conditioning systems in vehicles stealing from a vehicle’s power (and therefore gas), such a system might not only help address the heat issue, but crude oil consumption as well.

You can learn more about Oregon State University’s efforts in putting waste heat to work here.

Read about Putting Waste Heat to Use at Green Living Tips

By Green Living Tips

There’s a common perception the tires we put on our vehicles are made of rubber, a renewable resource. Unfortunately, well over 90% of all tires are made from synthetics – and they have certainly proved to be an environmental headache.

Once tires have reached the end of their serviceable lives, they tend to be dumped in huge piles. If these piles should be set alight, the smoke is an extraordinarily toxic cocktail and the runoff from melted residue can contaminate groundwater.

Tires left sitting around in the open also collect rainwater and become perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos.

In the USA, about 300 million tires are scrapped or dumped per year. While there’s been a lot of talk about recycling tires, 25% still wind up in landfills and nearly half of reclaimed tires in the USA are utilized as “Tire Derived Fuel” (TDF), usually burned alongside other fuels such as coal.

Burning tires creating huge amounts of air pollution, containing toxins such as:

– benzene (carcinogen)
– lead
– polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
– butadiene (central nervous system damage, carcinogen)
– styrene (potential carcinogen)
– dioxins
– furans

So unfortunately, taking tires to recycling centres mightn’t be that earth friendly after all. Check with the centre that you go to regarding what happens to the tires they collect.

Read Tips on extending tire life at Green Living Tips:

 

The Environmental Protection Agency today finalized widely anticipated Clean Air Act regulations on pollution that crosses state lines.

In an announcement shortly before noon Eastern, the EPA said the Clean Air Transport Rule will cut hundreds of thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions that form soot and smog. These threaten the 240 million Americans living downwind of smokestacks, the agency said.

It predicted that the rule, along with other state and EPA actions, will reduce SO₂ emissions by 73 percent from 2005 levels. NO_x emissions will drop by 54 percent, the agency said.

The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, as it is formally known, replaces and strengthens the 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered EPA to revise in 2008. The court allowed CAIR to remain in place temporarily while the EPA worked to finalize today’s replacement rule, the agency said.

Under today’s rule-making, 27 states in the eastern U.S. will work with power plants to cut air pollution.  The EPA said the rule ensures flexibility by helping states to develop cost-effective emissions-reductions actions.

And in a supplemental rulemaking, the EPA is also proposing to require sources in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin to reduce NO_X emissions during the summertime ozone season.

The EPA said that the regulations announced today will prevent up to 34,000 premature deaths, 15,000 nonfatal heart attacks, 19,000 cases of acute bronchitis, 400,000 cases of aggravated asthma, and 1.8 million sick days a year beginning in 2014 – achieving up to $280 billion in annual health benefits.

“These clean air standards for power plant pollution will provide some of the greatest human health protections in our nation’s history,” Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp said. “Today’s clean air protections will help eastern states restore healthy air in communities hard hit by air pollution, and will help all of us live longer and healthier lives.”

The proposal is open for public review and comment for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register.

More information on the regulations is available here.

 

Action aims to promote economic, environmental and public health benefits of waste recycling

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing new safeguards for recycling hazardous materials to protect public health and the environment. Today’s proposal modifies EPA’s 2008 Definition of Solid Waste (DSW) rule, which revised hazardous waste regulations to encourage recycling of hazardous materials.  Today’s proposal will improve accountability and oversight of hazardous materials recycling, while allowing for important flexibilities that will promote its economic and environmental benefits.  EPA is opening up this proposal for public comment.

EPA is also releasing for public comment its draft expanded environmental justice analysis of the 2008 DSW final rule, which evaluates the rule’s potential impact on low-income and minority communities.  EPA is also requesting public comment on the environmental justice analysis as well as on suggested changes received from peer review.  The analysis and peer review comments will be available in the docket for this rulemaking once the proposal is published.

“Safe recycling of hazardous materials conserves vital resources while protecting the environmental and economic health of our communities,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.  “Today’s proposed enhancements show EPA’s commitment to achieving sustainable materials management through increased recycling, while retaining safeguards to protect vulnerable communities and the environment.”

EPA’s re-examination of the 2008 DSW final rule identified areas in the regulations that could be improved to better protect public health and the environment with a particular focus on adjacent communities by ensuring better management of hazardous waste.  Today’s proposal includes provisions to address those areas through increased transparency and oversight and accountability for hazardous materials recycling.  Facilities that recycle onsite or within the same company under the reduced regulatory requirements retained under the proposal would be subject to enhanced storage and recordkeeping requirements as compared to the 2008 rule.  Companies that send their hazardous materials offsite for recycling would have tailored storage standards, while being required to send their materials to a permitted hazardous waste recycling facility.   The proposed rule also creates a level playing field by requiring all forms of hazardous waste recycling to meet requirements designed to ensure materials are legitimately recycled and not being disposed of illegally.

EPA will accept comment on this proposal for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.  The docket for the rulemaking is EPA-HQ-RCRA-2010-0742 and can be accessed at http://www.regulations.gov once the proposal is published.

By Leslie Guevarra

Published June 30, 2011

San Francisco took the title as the greenest city in North American in a study of the environmental performance and commitments by 27 major metro areas in the U.S. and Canada. To claim the top spot in North America, San Francisco bested contenders that included Vancouver, New York, Seattle, Denver and Boston.

The 27 cities examined in the study were ranked based on scores in nine areas — CO2, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air and environmental governance. Thirty-one indicators were evaluated across the nine categories, as shown in the chart at the foot of the page.

Here are the rankings for the cities and their overall scores:

Read the list at GreenBiz:

June 30, 2011

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a new report showcasing numerous energy-saving products and technologies, made possible through DOE research and development, which are currently available in the market or projected to enter the marketplace in the future. Because buildings consume roughly 40% of the nation’s energy, more than transportation or the industrial sector, improving buildings with energy-saving products is one of the most beneficial ways to reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The report, titled Buildings R&D Breakthroughs: Technologies and Products Supported by the Building Technologies Program (BTP), informs government professionals, architects, designers, manufacturers, and energy efficiency advocates about DOE project successes and next-generation innovations.

Full story