List Your Top 5 most wasteful & harmful enviromental things that we can do without

s10

I believe we are becommin more american than european most of the changes i see in dublin atm are wasteful and serve little or no purpose with the exception of very few(the luas to name one). i could go on and on
but keeping it short, what are ur top 5 most worrying factors as a nation/race, & do u actually care?

Mike_C

1. Lawns......too much time & fuel wasted on land that could be used to produce our own food in less time with many health benefits including excercise:rolleyes:

2. Detergents & Bleach ....we are not nearly as dirty as the advertising industry would have us believe. Our rivers are becoming polluted by overuse of these chemicals:mad:

3. Electricity.........nobody switches off lights when they are not in use or completely switch the telly off. but everyone complains about the bill:eek:

4. Wrapping........everything comes prewraped, the government bag tax has helped reduce our use of plastic but do our fruit & veg need to be prepacked into little bags.:(

5. Nappies...........disposable plastice nappies that never break down. We have switched to cloth nappies, they are just as convienient these days, no folding or safety pins, they work like "real nappies". We also use compostable nappies from ecobaby and are wonderful for babysitters. Using plastic disposables is like giving 3000 euro per baby to your local dump. Cloth nappy systems are about 600 euro per family as they can be re-used for ever

Capt'n Midnight

Mike_C wrote:

2. Bleach ....we are not nearly as dirty as the advertising industry would have us believe. Our rivers are becoming polluted by overuse of these chemicals:mad:

sodium hypochlorate breaks down very quickly to salt. Detergents are nasty all right

Mike_C wrote:

3. Electricity.........nobody switches off lights when they are not in use or completely switch the telly off. but everyone complains about the bill:eek:

we can't live without it. - maybe you mean devices without power saving like that ad with all the red lights.


1/ USA.

2/ consumersion based on built in obsolesense and disposability and changing fads. using Stainless steel / aluminium in cars would increase the price a bit. But trams and trains last far longer. Buses do far far higher milage than cars, it's not rocket science.

3/ the Petrol engine. even using diesel would have been better, we'd have never have needed to ad lead to the fuel

4/ airlines avoiding fuel tax - at take off the fuel can weigh as much as the aircraft, passengers and cargo put together.

5/ additives in plastic that prevent their being recycled

dragonkin

Good post I look forward to reading other peoples replys

1) Terrible urban planning
Encouraging bicycles (bicycle points like in france), tram/bus transport, green parks, actually making people want to be outside instead of inside cars as apposed to the 'greedy developer' model we currently use. Spend time creating a balanced working and living environment. Compared to most western european cities Irelands are a disgrace.

2) Low electricity and petrol prices
Increasing energy prices coupled with government grants for insulation/kitchen meters would increase awareness and look for ways they could cut consumption eg. smaller cars, turning off light bulbs, unplugging electronics when not in use etc.

3) Overly centralised electricity grid system
Smaller micro grids need to be developed within the larger so that a local renewable energy source could be used to provide electricity (replacing the central power plant) when conditions are right. Solar, Windmill, Biomass etc.

4) Overuse of Roads for heavy freight and intercity travel
Inland waterways and rail need to be heavily developed to start replacing trucks for heavy freight. Heavy taxes on intercity roads to encourage people to use rail network or heavily subsidised rail network like in France/Germany with electric engines.

5) Consumables
Need to become reusables, glass bottles again, reusable tuberware to replace energy expensive and wasteful plastic packaging, people will think of alternatives to plastic chocolate bar wrappers etc.. pastic taxes if shop provides packaging you pay a euro for a reusable container.

There are a few things there that cause a bit of hardship but nothing serious, there is always another way eg. video confrencing instead of flying.

I think Ireland can only implement a certain amount of the above on our own but at an EU level it could be very effective.

Sustainable development must be an area that ireland can become a world leader in?

Pocari Sweat

1. Lawns. Goats should be used on all lawns.

2. Cleaning products. Ban all cleaning products. Use vinegar for everything.

3. Electricity. Rig an excercise bike to a dynamo and cylcle for 3 hours from 5am to 8am to reduce yer electric bills and stop being fat. Strap yer goats to dynamos whilst they trot around the lawn.

4. Wrapping. Sell everything in Tescos frozen. Shove it all in re-usable bags and store it in yer freezer. Defrost in microwave, using exercise cycle and goats.

5. Nappies. Fit wooden floors around the house and clean up sh*te with pooper scoopers, get used to the smell.

6. USA. Deport all american men to antartica to live on fish. Move all african men to USA to knob all the women. Move European men to africa to work on the economy and fix stuff. Let European women sort out Europe for a while and let the men who do well, back in Europe if they make good progress.

7. Use wood to build cars for sustainabilty, and bamboo for bikes.

8. Eat more chips and use old chip fat to power cars, but ban cars for people earning over 20,000 euro per year and replace with bamboo mopeds.

9. Ban planes and use solar powered balloons instead.

10. Ban plastics and use bamboo instead.

11. Send urban planners to antartica to plan igloos and stuff for americans.

12. Apart from goats, use sheep also in front garden to grow wool for extra attic insulatiion.

13. Ban pylons and deliver electric in rechargeable batteries using bamboo mopeds run on chip fat.

14. Build a network of underground roads and ban all overground roads, except roundabouts, so you can pop up every now and then to see where you are.

15. Ban tupperware and bring back potatoes as a major crop, using spare potatoes, carved out to replace cups and the larger potatoes for beakers.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

1 - Politicians

Everything else I can think of has already been mentioned

boomshackala

1 Tax consumer goods according to their life cycle costs by giving them an A to D rating like you see on fridges. That way manufacturers will stop using planned obsolescence.
3 Abolish motor tax and transfer onto the price of litre of fuel, further encorouging fuel efficiency.
4 Tax food packaging like plastic bags
5 Abolish VAT on sustainable fuels, and equimpent used in connection with sustainable energy.
6 And here's one I'd really like to see; Use some of the above revenue to develop our beautiful country side with bike paths and mountain bike trails, which would give the following benefits;
Bring in huge tourist revenue into the country
Get people hooked on riding bikes more
Get people out of the shopping malls and into the countryside for the weekend:)

lostinsuperfunk

1. Apples from New Zealand, pears from South Africa, peas from Africa in the supermarket. This is just madness.

2. Abuse of the urban environment by developers. I don't know how to fix this, but it seems that the most profitable use of urban land at the moment is apartment building. That's fine, but what about the shops, pubs, cinemas and public open spaces that people (especially apartment dwellers) need? People are being forced to drive to the edge of town for these services (see #4).

3. Industrial peat extraction. Maybe the peat-fired power stations could be powered by waste or biofuel and maybe compost or agricultural wastes could be used instead of milled peat for agriculture/horticulture.

4. Out of town malls and retail parks. These enjoy a false competitive advantage because some of the transport costs are offloaded onto the consumer, who drives to get to them. A tax on parking spaces might address this.

5. Overuse and misuse of phosphorus and nitrogen fertilisers in agriculture. Excess nitrogen use leaches nitrates into groundwater, phosphorus runs off into surface waters, causing eutrophication. Ammonium nitrate fertiliser breaks down to release nitrous oxide (a greenhouse gas).

SeanW

1: Plastic bottling of drinks. All drinks should be in wax-cardboard cartons like milk is/used to be. Including bottled water.
2: Fossil fuel power generation. Power demand and wind plant output both vary wildly, and looking at Eirgrid portal figures, there are times (especially windy summer nights) when less than 2 GW seperates Ireland from having 0 CO2 emissions from electricity generation. Ditching fossil fuels entirely or almost entirely in power generation is possible IMO if want it to be.
3: SUVs on city streets, and the ignorant, arrogant twats who drive them. Both, IMO are surplus to requirements.
4: Politicians. Self explanitory.
5: Edited to add: Incandescent lightbulbs.

Some things we COULD use.
1: Water Fountains in public places like the U.S, I don't mean decorative gizmos, but devices where a person presses a button or lever, and a stream of drinkable water comes up. An example is this, and operates like this. Would reduce dramatically the demand for bottled water, a concept which makes almost no sense to me.
2: Renewable AND Nuclear power. So many people are so afraid of the dreaded N-word they stick their heads up their rear ends when it's mentioned. Yet, nuclear power is the only safe, clean, CO2 free power form capable of reliable, large scale, generation.
I would like to see a moderate (perhaps 1-2GW) programme of nuclear power combined with at least a doubling of wind capacity, and a trial of wave power.
See point 2 above.
3: Recycling. We could be doing worse in this field. Could be doing a lot better though.
4: Biofuels. Keep farmers on the land, and reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, help meet Kyoto targets, all at the same time. And some of this stuff can be used in existing engines, such as biodiesel (up to 100% in some cases) and ethanol (up to 10% can be added to petrol) which can be made from sugarbeet. Should be a no-brainer right? Unless your a goverment politician and have no-brain. The loss of the Mallow beet plant is all the proof that's needed on that point. Even WMD/Oil "Bring It On" George W. Bush is more Green on this score than Bertie. As is Tony Blair, Angela Merkel ...
5: Better urban planning and public transport. Self explanitory.

saibhne

1. An electrical grid that doesn't facilitate the addition of renewable sources.
2. Plastic in general but particularly plastic bottles and the plastic tops on tetra paks and those little plastic windows on envelopes drive me mad
3. supermarket packaging and the international import of items available locally
4. The necessity to drive a car in a small city like Dublin - more public transport.
5. Concrete built houses

Cabaal

SeanW wrote:

Some things we COULD use.
1: Water Fountains in public places like the U.S, I don't mean decorative gizmos, but devices where a person presses a button or lever, and a stream of drinkable water comes up. An example is this, and operates like this. Would reduce dramatically the demand for bottled water, a concept which makes almost no sense to me.

Not a chance in hell that'll happen, the bottled water companys would be very very very upset if the gov started installing them around the country.
imho their a very good idea but not going to happen

My biggest annouyance at the moment is the huge waste of electricity lighting motorways and other roads that remain empty for most of the night....what a waste of power.

Capt'n Midnight

Cabaal wrote:

My biggest annouyance at the moment is the huge waste of electricity lighting motorways and other roads that remain empty for most of the night....what a waste of power.

It should all be downlight low pressure sodium, but the firebrigade don't like since fire engines look black. Buying reflective strips for the engines would be an idea ?

Then again on our road a human life is valued at around €1m each so lighting is cheaper than cloverleaf junctions. ( pity they don't investe a fraction of that on primary schools or driver training/testing)

randomname2005

SeanW wrote:

Some things we COULD use.
1: Water Fountains in public places like the U.S, I don't mean decorative gizmos, but devices where a person presses a button or lever, and a stream of drinkable water comes up. An example is this, and operates like this. Would reduce dramatically the demand for bottled water, a concept which makes almost no sense to me.

Unfortunately although a great idea which i used a lot when I was in the states,these wouldnt last long in this country <not going to start a rant!!>

But lots of good ideas from people, and I would have to agree with Mike_C I know my brother has nearly all the lights along with television, computer etc in his house all the time with no concept of conservation.

Anyway, my list.....

1. Excess heating. Most houses you go into are ridicluously hot further increasing the demand for fossil fuels.

2. Cars with engines over 2l and people (including our politicians!) changing them every year.

3. Not recycling and reusing goods - every time I go to the recycling facility in Ballyogan there are cars throwing reusable items which look in very good condtion such as furniture etc into the skips. Obviously they are not all reusable, but I dont think people ever stop to think if somebody else could make use of it.

4. Wastage of water and not using rainwater etc for watering plants, lawns etc during the summer.

5. All the other stuff that everyone else said!
R

EcologiKids

packaging - crazy amounts of packaging on EVERYTHING - sadly even on the organic foods in some supermarkets. we have become a disposable society. Not enough people know about the plastic recycling schemes (and there are not enough of these).

Nappies - I would have to say this wouldn't I? but up to 5% of landfills are taken up by disposable nappies, over 200 million per year and how many years are they hanging around for?

electricity wastage - do you leave your 'puter on standby? how many things at this moment are on standby in your home? The average home has 12 things on standby at all times...crazy amounts of energy being wasted on printer, computer lights, televisions not fully turned off, plug switches etc.

fossil fuels - if you're cold - PUT A JUMPER ON - don't jack up the heating or better yet switch to wood pellet or geothermal (where possible) - demand sustainable alternatives from your local politicians (another waste of energy??) - if you need something from the shop - walk there - we completey overuse our cars - no wonder we're getting overweight.

um how many is that cause I can go on and on and on....

i guess all the other stuff everyone else said is my last one - great points made..if only we could all make these small differences it would definetly add up. ho hum.

Nicky (the idealist living in not an ideal world)...