China should increase public awareness of the toxicity in used energy-saving products, according to an investigative report.
The report carried by the Economic Information, an economy news daily under Xinhua, said that 0.5 milligram of mercury, the average amount contained in a used energy-saving fluorescent tube is enough to pollute 180 tonnes of water and surrounding soil.
In 2008, energy-saving lights were included in a national list of hazardous waste. People are aware of their energy-saving function without knowing much about the poisonous dangers, said experts.
Broken energy-saving tubes will lead to seriously excessive levels of mercury content in the air. A human being's nervous centralis will be damaged, once the mercury is in the body.
Jin Min, associate professor with the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said that using energy-saving lamps has boosted China's energy conservation and emission reduction.
"But the recovery of those lamps has become a glaring problem in handling electronic waste," she added.
The "green lights" project, launched in 2008, has led to the use of 150 million energy-saving lighting products nationwide. This has helped reduce 29 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and 290,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide.
With the life of energy saving lamps being around three years, the 150 million products are entering into retirement.
Industry experts suggest that permanent recovery stations should be set up in communities, enterprises as well as environmental protection organizations. They said that material rewards should be provided for those who hand in used energy-saving tubes.
Producers of energy-saving lights should highlight the potential dangers in commercials, product packaging and sales activities, experts said.
In 2007, China implemented a regulation to control pollution caused by electronic devices, limiting or forbidding the use of toxic matters in products, including lead, mercury and cadmium.
The regulation is only an industry recommendation. The country could look to establish a mandatory standard within the energy-saving lights industry, experts said.
2012年10月29日 星期一
2012年10月23日 星期二
Easy tips for green remodeling
One of the hottest trends in home improvement is remodeling with green or sustainability in mind. Going “green” means using building methods and environmentally friendly building materials that reduce your home’s impact on the earth, while enhancing the health of your home for you and your family.
In a nutshell, remodeling your home to make it more green means reducing your home’s impact on the environment (using less resources such as water and energy); using building products that are made from sustainable or renewable materials; enhancing the health of your home (improving indoor air quality, removing mold and rot); and using long-lasting, low maintenance building products that don’t require paints and chemicals to maintain or won’t end up in the landfill after only a few years of use.
“The important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have to do it all at once,” says John Gardner, director of marketing for APEX Siding System, which makes sustainable siding and trim. “You can make your home greener over time, project by project, as your budget allows, to increase its efficiency and quality, while reducing your home’s impact on our environment.”
Go green today. You can start going green today by replacing all of your old incandescent light bulbs with florescent or LED bulbs, or installing rain barrels under your gutters to capture rain water, which you can use to water your flower or vegetable garden, while reducing your water bill.
Audit your home. A home inspector trained in green building practices can help you identify what parts of your home are already green, how energy efficient your home is today, and what improvements you could make so your home runs more efficiently. Consider taking this step before conducting a major remodel.
Experience in green remodeling and building. Hire a remodeler or design/build firm that is experienced in green building techniques or holds a certification from a reputable organization such as from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Stamp out moisture. Rot and mold caused by moisture is a big problem for many homes because it can compromise the structure of your home and can create an unhealthy living environment. Keep moisture out and increase the air flow of your home with low-maintenance siding such as APEX siding and trim. APEX siding is pultruded-fiberglass siding with Ultrex, a long-lasting, durable material designed with a unique airflow system that reduces the occurrence of moisture and mold problems.
Bring in natural light. New energy-efficient windows can reduce your heating and cooling bills while maximizing natural light to reduce your use of artificial light in your home. Integrity windows from Marvin, for example, exceed federal Energy Star guidelines and are also made of long-lasting Ultrex fiberglass.
Insulate to keep your home warmer and cooler. Make sure the insulation in the ceiling of your home has a minimum R-38 rating (for cold-weather states), and an R-13 rating in the exterior walls of your home. Green leafy trees provide long-term shade during the summer months, and evergreens on the north side of your home block out cold winds during the winter.
Reduce home maintenance. By remodeling your home with higher quality, sustainable building materials, you not only can reduce the time spent maintaining your home, you can reduce your use of paints, household cleaners, and other products for upkeep. For example, choosing siding made with Ultrex, will not rot like wooden siding and will not need to be painted because the color is embedded right into the pultruded-fiberglass material.
In a nutshell, remodeling your home to make it more green means reducing your home’s impact on the environment (using less resources such as water and energy); using building products that are made from sustainable or renewable materials; enhancing the health of your home (improving indoor air quality, removing mold and rot); and using long-lasting, low maintenance building products that don’t require paints and chemicals to maintain or won’t end up in the landfill after only a few years of use.
“The important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have to do it all at once,” says John Gardner, director of marketing for APEX Siding System, which makes sustainable siding and trim. “You can make your home greener over time, project by project, as your budget allows, to increase its efficiency and quality, while reducing your home’s impact on our environment.”
Go green today. You can start going green today by replacing all of your old incandescent light bulbs with florescent or LED bulbs, or installing rain barrels under your gutters to capture rain water, which you can use to water your flower or vegetable garden, while reducing your water bill.
Audit your home. A home inspector trained in green building practices can help you identify what parts of your home are already green, how energy efficient your home is today, and what improvements you could make so your home runs more efficiently. Consider taking this step before conducting a major remodel.
Experience in green remodeling and building. Hire a remodeler or design/build firm that is experienced in green building techniques or holds a certification from a reputable organization such as from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Stamp out moisture. Rot and mold caused by moisture is a big problem for many homes because it can compromise the structure of your home and can create an unhealthy living environment. Keep moisture out and increase the air flow of your home with low-maintenance siding such as APEX siding and trim. APEX siding is pultruded-fiberglass siding with Ultrex, a long-lasting, durable material designed with a unique airflow system that reduces the occurrence of moisture and mold problems.
Bring in natural light. New energy-efficient windows can reduce your heating and cooling bills while maximizing natural light to reduce your use of artificial light in your home. Integrity windows from Marvin, for example, exceed federal Energy Star guidelines and are also made of long-lasting Ultrex fiberglass.
Insulate to keep your home warmer and cooler. Make sure the insulation in the ceiling of your home has a minimum R-38 rating (for cold-weather states), and an R-13 rating in the exterior walls of your home. Green leafy trees provide long-term shade during the summer months, and evergreens on the north side of your home block out cold winds during the winter.
Reduce home maintenance. By remodeling your home with higher quality, sustainable building materials, you not only can reduce the time spent maintaining your home, you can reduce your use of paints, household cleaners, and other products for upkeep. For example, choosing siding made with Ultrex, will not rot like wooden siding and will not need to be painted because the color is embedded right into the pultruded-fiberglass material.
2012年10月11日 星期四
Outdoor lighting, health and neighbours
The town is reviewing its policy of outdoor lighting to reduce waste and improve its effectiveness.
A few weeks ago I gave a presentation to members of the Planning and Environment Committee about outdoor lighting and they suggested it would be helpful if I submitted an article on the topic to the Chronicle Guide EMC to help inform the public on some aspects of outdoor lighting.
Outdoor lighting serves an aesthetic and a practical purpose and both affect our quality of life.
But you don't get something for nothing. As with any technical advancement, they can also cause unsuspected problems.
The aesthetics of outdoor lighting is somewhat controversial. One person's art is another's eyesore.
Municipal bylaws attempt to define a compromise. This usually means that outdoor lighting should not shine across a neighbour's property. The light fixtures should be shielded and not so bright that scattered light causes glare along streets and into windows.
In fact, a number of European countries have strict limits on the use of outdoor lighting.
On the practical side, product development throughout the 20th century has been minimizing the costs, and maximizing the light output and area of coverage. However, new scientific knowledge can take a decade or more to make its way onto the education system - for it to become 'common sense'.
It is generally believed that light is good because it makes dark places safer, and brightly lit cities look beautiful. Indeed light has become synonymous with urban prosperity.
But there can be too much of a good thing.
What was not popularly known in the 20th century was the link between light at night and our body's reduced ability to overcome disease, infection, stress - in fact most things that we value as our quality of life.
These are not recent findings, they have been accumulating over the last century but this data has been re-interpreted by the science of scotobiology (the biological need for darkness). This new interpretation reinforces the "common sense" that all life forms have evolved to take advantage of their local environment.
More than half the animals take advantage of the anonymity of darkness at night to avoid predation as they forage for food. Both plants and animals subconsciously interpret the lengthening night-time darkness as a cue for the coming of winter, and they begin to prepare by storing food, accumulating fat, or migrating.
For us, when it gets dark, as determined by the fading daytime blue light, our bodies release hormones to initiate and carry out tissue repair, and fight infection and disease.
But blue is a main component in artificial white light that is emitted by new outdoor light fixtures, television and computer screens. We also use white compact florescent bulbs and LED night-lights.
What is not printed on the boxes of white-light bulbs is that the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have concluded that white light at night poses health risks and contributes to the formation of cancers.
These findings do not undermine the aesthetic and safety benefits of appropriately shielded lighting, but it does suggest that we should use light much more sparingly that we have in the past.
A few weeks ago I gave a presentation to members of the Planning and Environment Committee about outdoor lighting and they suggested it would be helpful if I submitted an article on the topic to the Chronicle Guide EMC to help inform the public on some aspects of outdoor lighting.
Outdoor lighting serves an aesthetic and a practical purpose and both affect our quality of life.
But you don't get something for nothing. As with any technical advancement, they can also cause unsuspected problems.
The aesthetics of outdoor lighting is somewhat controversial. One person's art is another's eyesore.
Municipal bylaws attempt to define a compromise. This usually means that outdoor lighting should not shine across a neighbour's property. The light fixtures should be shielded and not so bright that scattered light causes glare along streets and into windows.
In fact, a number of European countries have strict limits on the use of outdoor lighting.
On the practical side, product development throughout the 20th century has been minimizing the costs, and maximizing the light output and area of coverage. However, new scientific knowledge can take a decade or more to make its way onto the education system - for it to become 'common sense'.
It is generally believed that light is good because it makes dark places safer, and brightly lit cities look beautiful. Indeed light has become synonymous with urban prosperity.
But there can be too much of a good thing.
What was not popularly known in the 20th century was the link between light at night and our body's reduced ability to overcome disease, infection, stress - in fact most things that we value as our quality of life.
These are not recent findings, they have been accumulating over the last century but this data has been re-interpreted by the science of scotobiology (the biological need for darkness). This new interpretation reinforces the "common sense" that all life forms have evolved to take advantage of their local environment.
More than half the animals take advantage of the anonymity of darkness at night to avoid predation as they forage for food. Both plants and animals subconsciously interpret the lengthening night-time darkness as a cue for the coming of winter, and they begin to prepare by storing food, accumulating fat, or migrating.
For us, when it gets dark, as determined by the fading daytime blue light, our bodies release hormones to initiate and carry out tissue repair, and fight infection and disease.
But blue is a main component in artificial white light that is emitted by new outdoor light fixtures, television and computer screens. We also use white compact florescent bulbs and LED night-lights.
What is not printed on the boxes of white-light bulbs is that the American Medical Association and the World Health Organization have concluded that white light at night poses health risks and contributes to the formation of cancers.
These findings do not undermine the aesthetic and safety benefits of appropriately shielded lighting, but it does suggest that we should use light much more sparingly that we have in the past.
2012年10月8日 星期一
warehouse solar system
Wakefern Food Corporation and NJR Clean Energy Ventures (NJRCEV), a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, have begun installing a rooftop solar system at a Wakefern distribution center in Keasbey NJ. The 2.4-megawatt solar system will supply power to a refrigerated warehouse, helping lower Wakefern’s long-term electricity costs and its greenhouse gas emissions.
“Wakefern has been committed to reducing its impact on the environment for more than 30 years,” said Joe Sheridan, president and chief operating officer of Wakefern. “Generation of renewable energy is a natural next step in our commitment to sustainable business practices. We are delighted to partner with NJR Clean Energy Ventures to bring the power of solar energy to our perishable warehouse in Keasbey.”
The solar array is expected to produce nearly 2,900,000 kilowatt-hours annually, eliminating 2,000 metric tons of carbon-equivalent emissions from the atmosphere. This equates to removing the carbon dioxide emissions produced by approximately 390 vehicles.
“Together with Wakefern, we are making renewable energy and its benefits a greater piece of our energy future,” said Laurence M Downes, chairman and chief executive officer of New Jersey Resources.
Based on the findings of a study by Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, up to 35 jobs likely will be created as a result of this project.
NJRCEV will invest $6.9 million to develop and install the state-of-the-art, solar array across the 300,000 square feet of rooftop. The system will be installed by Advanced Solar Products of Flemington NJ and is expected to be operational by December 31, 2012.
The Wakefern solar project is one of the latest installation projects in the NJRCEV commercial solar portfolio, with commercial ground-mounted and rooftop solar projects totaling 27.6 megawatts in commercial operation in Monmouth, Mercer, Middlesex, and Cumberland counties.
A retailer-owned cooperative founded in 1946, Wakefern consists of 47 members that individually own and operate nearly 250 supermarkets under the ShopRite banner in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. In 1996, Wakefern introduced PriceRite stores, extending the company’s reach into Rhode Island and Massachusetts. There are now 49 PriceRite stores in six states. Wakefern also distributes products to other supermarkets throughout the northeastern United States and Bermuda.
“Wakefern has been committed to reducing its impact on the environment for more than 30 years,” said Joe Sheridan, president and chief operating officer of Wakefern. “Generation of renewable energy is a natural next step in our commitment to sustainable business practices. We are delighted to partner with NJR Clean Energy Ventures to bring the power of solar energy to our perishable warehouse in Keasbey.”
The solar array is expected to produce nearly 2,900,000 kilowatt-hours annually, eliminating 2,000 metric tons of carbon-equivalent emissions from the atmosphere. This equates to removing the carbon dioxide emissions produced by approximately 390 vehicles.
“Together with Wakefern, we are making renewable energy and its benefits a greater piece of our energy future,” said Laurence M Downes, chairman and chief executive officer of New Jersey Resources.
Based on the findings of a study by Rutgers University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, up to 35 jobs likely will be created as a result of this project.
NJRCEV will invest $6.9 million to develop and install the state-of-the-art, solar array across the 300,000 square feet of rooftop. The system will be installed by Advanced Solar Products of Flemington NJ and is expected to be operational by December 31, 2012.
The Wakefern solar project is one of the latest installation projects in the NJRCEV commercial solar portfolio, with commercial ground-mounted and rooftop solar projects totaling 27.6 megawatts in commercial operation in Monmouth, Mercer, Middlesex, and Cumberland counties.
A retailer-owned cooperative founded in 1946, Wakefern consists of 47 members that individually own and operate nearly 250 supermarkets under the ShopRite banner in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. In 1996, Wakefern introduced PriceRite stores, extending the company’s reach into Rhode Island and Massachusetts. There are now 49 PriceRite stores in six states. Wakefern also distributes products to other supermarkets throughout the northeastern United States and Bermuda.
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