Dim Bulbs, Old Clothes, and Hairballs

Three questions .......... 

Do I save electricity when I use a dimmer switch on my lights? Or am I using the same amount of electricity no matter where I have it set?

Unless your dimmer dates to the 1970s, it will save some energy. The more you lower the lights, the less power they use—although the savings won't be as large as the reduction in brightness. (At a light level of 50 percent, you'll be using more than half the electricity.) If you're using incandescent lights, a dimmer switch can also extend the life of your bulbs. According to Francis Rubinstein, a lighting researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an incandescent bulb that's kept at 50 percent brightness should last roughly 10 times longer than one burning at full capacity.

Things are a little different with compact fluorescent bulbs. In the first place, not all of these work with dimmers. Among those that do, the energy savings are a little better, but you won't get any extension in bulb life. At the lowest dimmer settings, an incandescent bulb will cast an especially warm glow, but the quality of light from a CFL remains the same no matter how it's set. There may also be some flickering with the fluorescents. However, if saving energy is your main concern, ditch the old-fashioned bulbs: An incandescent will always be less efficient than a CFL, no matter what kind of light switch you're using.


Can you recycle clothes?
Yup. Textiles that are still relatively intact can be cut up into wiping rags, which are sold to gas stations and paint shops. Ratty clothes are shredded, and the resulting fibers can be used in things like carpet padding or soundproofing insulation. Some fibers, like wool, can be re-spun, re-dyed, and re-woven into brand-new clothes.

Unless you live in one of the handful of counties that has curbside textile recycling, it may be tricky to get your closet cast-offs to the people who recycle them. Many organizations that collect used clothing, like the Salvation Army and Goodwill, have relationships with textile recyclers, which take anything the charities can't sell in their stores. But it's not always a good idea to drop a bag of single socks or tattered gym clothes at your local charity shop. For one thing, not all of them have agreements with recyclers—which means your discarded duds could end up in the trash—and second, overtaxed workers might not appreciate being asked to sort through your detritus, only to discover that they can't sell any of it. (Stained or unstylish clothing is usually OK, but a sweater your dog mauled probably isn't.)

If you can't find ways to reuse the clothes in your own home, the Lantern recommends calling the shops in your area to see which ones recycle their unwanted donations and whether they'd be willing to take what you have. Sometimes you can send your stuff directly to a recycler by using their 24-hour drop-off bins in parking lots and other central locations. You can find local listings for both charity shops and drop-off bins on Earth911.com. (Meanwhile, if you have old, hole-y athletic shoes of any brand, Nike will take them off your hands.) Just make sure your clothes aren't moldy, smelly, or wet—even recyclers will toss those in the trash.

What's the most environmentally friendly way to get rid of the hair from my brush or comb? In lieu of trashing it, I've been flushing it down the toilet, but something tells me that can't be right.
Trust your instinct: The toilet is not the proper place for hairballs. First of all, it could lead to
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Trash To Energy

When it comes to environmental discussion, waste management is an environmental concern that many feel needs to be addressed. Many also feel that clean energy innovations are needed to ensure a greener earth. Yet, what many fail to realize is that the solution to the garbage and clean energy problem may be garbage itself.

Denmark has installed a number of garbage plants that take trash and make it into energy. These plants are at the forefront of waste/energy technology. How they operate is that the waste taken into the plant is incinerated which creates heat that generates steam for a turbine that goes on to run generators that create electricity and even heat. Statistics have shown that plants like the ones in Denmark, while creating new forms of energy, also help to cut down on waste caused emissions. 0.56 metric tons of CO2 is emitted from these conversion plants, which is considerably smaller than the 3.35 metric tons of CO2 that is emitted from landfills. Denmark has shown that there are other answers to waste problem than the common practice of landfills, but some countries like the United States are still hesitate to make the change.

There are over 13,000 active and inactive landfills in the United States alone. These landfills make up 54% of the nation's waste management, which compared to the 4% in Denmark shows the differences in the way garbage is taken care of between the two countries. The negatives of landfills are that they take up space, have been known to leak toxins, and have almost six times the emission rate than that of trash energy plants. So what is stopping the United States from embracing the change? Well, it may be coming from an unlikely opponent: environmentalists.

Some environmentalists feel that incinerators, even ones that help to create energy, are counterproductive to the cause. In their opinion, incinerators promote a waste culture instead of a culture based around recycling. Yet, many American organizations like the Clinton Global Initiative (an international aid and philanthropy organization started by former President Clinton and advisor Doug Band back in 2005) see carbon emissions as the true environmental problem regardless of where it comes from. This is why CGI has worked tirelessly to create green initiatives that cut down on CO2 emissions.

What the waste conversion plants in Denmark have shown is that there are plenty of solutions to environment worries around the world waiting to be utilized. The United States may not be eager to join just yet, but the victory is that the world is thinking of ways to create cleaner energy even if it's from a trashy source.

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