Archive for the ‘Eco-friendly’ Category

Renewable Energy from Watermelons?

Last weekend, my family did our normal Saturday morning routine which involves a trip to the Suwanee Farmer’s Market.  Among the many fruits and vegetables that we bought was one of the best watermelons that I’ve ever had.  In consuming this watermelon, I would’ve never pondered it as a source of renewable energy.

According to an article in the UK Telegraph, “the latest source of biofuel could be watermelons”.  Apparently, the sweet and refreshing juice not only tastes great but the sugar can be distilled into alcohol thereby creating a source of power for cars.

After reading that approximately 1/5 of watermelon crops are rejected as a result of blemishes or being misshaped,  I can only applaud the effort of making the best use possible with little waste.  According to the study, “watermelons could produce about 20 gallons of fuel per acre from fruit that would otherwise go to waste”.

**Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Are You Sorting Your Trash?

We are reminded constantly by “Go Green” campaigns and advertising the importance of recycling, therefore it is troubling for me to see so few people actually participate.  I live in a fairly small neighborhood, but I would estimate that only 10% of the homeowners actually recycle.  This is based on my own observations on trash days.  It’s all too common that I see trash cans overfilled with recyclables headed to the landfill.

Without further ado, I wanted to share some eye-opening facts about recycling and the impacts from A Recycling Revolution.

Plastic: Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour and most are thrown away.

Glass: Modern glass bottles will take 4,000 years or more to decompose and even longer in the landfill.

Paper: Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.

Aluminum: Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours.

The list could carry on with facts the continue to reiterate the importance of simply sorting your own trash for recycling purposes.  While it may be easy to simply discard  trash and forget about it, each decision that we make greatly impacts not only our own future but the many generations to come.  And lets not forget the impact on Mother Nature and the importance of preserving this beautiful planet!

**Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net