All Questions

I wonder of the impact ash (probably combined with still existing coal) might have to compost. I know that coal is used to clean water and air. But does it improve compost or does it reduce activities ...

I live in Devon, and tap water in my household does not taste consistently. When I moved in my current property, the neighbours warned me that they had been buying bottled water since 20 years, ...

I have a vision for a model of grocery store that would buy food in bulk and package on-site into packaging which is 100% reusable or truly compostable (unlike many types of so-called "compostable ...

Greetings Can we melt Alum and give any shape

Yesterday Kraft Foods announced that by 2025 all of its packaging will be recyclable. (Note that while they include "reusable" and "compostable" in the announcement, they talk almost exclusively about ...

I'm interested in the breakdown of energy production by individual EU country. For the EU I found this site, it's good, but it does not offer the kind of breakdown I'm interested in - I'd like to see ...

I'm thinking that it would be useful to have a pellet mill at home to turn biowaste into fuel pellets. It would be nice to turn sawdust and wood shavings into fuel pellets as well but that I think is ...

I am looking for an environmentally conscious replacement for white yogurt. I do have a couple of ideas for foods that could work well, but I have very little clue if they are a better choice from the ...

I know what is the irradiance in my region, therefore I know what is the maximum expected production when the solar panels are placed optimally (interestingly, the two links provide different optimal ...

This question prompted by discussion regarding this answer to a question about vegetarianism. I recently came across a U.N. review of studies seeking to determine the earth's maximum sustainable ...

Wondering how efficient different cooking methods are (for the sake of example, assume a dish in a cast iron pot heated by stovetop vs. oven). Stove seems to use less energy than an oven (as the ...

Is there an MPPT device which outputs exactly 12v DC? Most of my searches led me to 12v chargers, which output a (10% to %20 initially) higher voltage that is optimal for charging the battery type it'...

Of course buying used vs. new makes a big difference, but in any case, if one is set on purchasing a BBQ grill, is there less environmental impact in the production & use of a charcoal vs. a ...

I'm not asking what will happen if everyone in the world suddenly turned to vegetarian. In an ideal world with current population, can everyone follow a vegetarian diet (except for people who may need ...

A useful metric for vehicle efficiency is miles per gallon, kilometers per liter, or liters per 100 km. The amount of gasoline used by a given vehicle can easily be understood and compared. Energy ...

I am from India and planning to build a house with as little cement, steel and sand as possible. I am looking to keep the temperature inside the home to be minimal since temperature will touch around ...

THelper's excellent answer to the question "What is current best practice for setting up recycling?" includes a chart showing that New Zealand sends nearly 100% of its garbage to landfills. In a ...

Every here and there I hear sayings like "plastic is bad, because it only degrades in hundreds/thousands/gazillion years, while paper is much better because it degrades fast" which are followed by ...

During the summer is it more desirable to have storm windows open, partially open, or closed? I have old wooden, single-pane windows with aluminum storm windows and I have installed energy film on ...

A google search for "comparing LED, CFL, and, incandescent brightness" returns hundreds of charts showing what equivalent wattage of LEDs and CFLs are to match an incandescent bulb. This is fine for ...

I live in a second floor apartment with a small balcony. In my kitchen I have a small vented container where I place kitchen scraps as I'm preparing food -- like this: About once a week when this ...

I use up batteries (both recyclable and not) at an exceedingly slow rate. Stockpiling batteries for proper disposal is not realistic as I will do so for years, if not decades. All the more so, since I ...

There's a small piece of land used for burning tree branches on bonfire (because that's the easiest way to get rid of them). Most of the material gets burnt to ashes but some of it only turns into ...

We are looking at air to air heat pumps (aka reverse cycle AC units) to replace our existing electrical heaters. Air to air heat pumps claim a COP of 3 or 4 to 1 in the manufacturing literature. ...

I've heard that garden giant mushrooms will breakdown fecal matter, and was wondering if it would be a good idea to put some inside the septic tank to have it break down fecal matter to make it less ...

There seem to be a lot of resources out there for sourcing sustainably/ethically grown vegetables, but many of the ones I can find seem to be aimed primarily at vegetarians/vegans, and so don't have ...

Per capita CO2 emissions are several times higher in the "red" states of the West and South than it is in the Northeast. I cannot imagine why. From "List of U.S. states by carbon dioxide emissions"...

I΄d like to package load of different hazardous wastes in compliance with ADR 2007. So, depending on the waste I use the labels that are pictured below. How can i label the packages of some wastes ...

Greetings Sustainable Livers! 🌱 I am on a quest to discover which is the most sustainable sheet material for making furniture. Found this article on Bamboo Plywood: "Is Bamboo Plywood an Eco-...

I have following components :- – 2 * 250 watt solar panels v-guard – 1 * 12 volt, 150ah battery mtekpower – 1 * 900va inverter v-guard – 1 * 12/24 volt , 50amp charge controller v-guard the ...

I'm building a solar installation for a summer camp, and we were looking at the following kit (1000W, 12V) We wanted to have the regulator+inverter in a closed little stall, but that stall is usually ...

I've just read the article Microsoft sinks a data center off the Scottish coast (The Verge, 6 June 2018) I understand that the cooling of a data center is a problem. Data centers produce huge amounts ...

Biogas seems to be a really great idea but I'm wondering how much energy you get out vs. what you need to put in. I know natural gas is around 10.0 and I was wondering how biogas stacks up by this ...

We need to replace our (tank) propane water heater. We'd like to switch to a tankless heater, but we're waffling between propane and electric. I saw this question, which was really helpful, but we've ...

We see more and more trucks riding through our streets delivering individual items. This hardly looks sustainable. I wonder how the transport footprint compares with the 'old' delivery model of ...

According to Wikipedia, a meal-kit is... ...a subscription service that sends customers pre-portioned food ingredients and recipes for them to prepare homecooked meals. Well-known examples include ...

Asphalt and concrete are substances where a lot of heavy metals and other materials being hazardous to one's health are being "deposited". But what to do with them when concrete and asphalt have ...

I currently am a recent graduate and I am living in a place that does not have AC. I am looking to buy a portable AC or to buy a dehumidifier. I currently live in Minnesota and sleeping at night when ...

USB cables seem to be a small but relentless part of throw-away culture. Inevitably, cables stop working well and/or get lost, and a new one is needed. Are there any USB cables produced with minimal ...

My understanding is that many disposable pens use non-renewables like tungsten and polystyrene. Pencils use graphite which is carbon but can be depleted faster than it is used. What are the good and ...

I'm considering vermicomposting as a next step to hot composting, and plan to release the red worms directly into my garden bed (using a worm bucket), but wanted to check before ordering a batch of ...

I have a sealed tumbler compost bin because I read that the high heat can help neutralize seeds from weed cast offs, that said I've also been considering the benefits of vermicomposting. As I pay more ...

Except generating a different kind of "money value", what is the sustainable value of crypto currencies compared to the energy consumed to generate them? Compared to currencies working with ...

My community has single-bin recycling. Most consumer-level metal, plastic, and paper can go in there to be sorted at a recycling center. They don't take plastic grocery bags, cellophane, paper towels, ...

I should like to buy some attractive go equipment and am wondering which choices are ethically acceptable, whereby I imagine that sustainability of ecosystems is more or less the only significant ...

In previously sustainable countries, westernization brings unmanageable waste: We get flooded with plastic but don't even have garbage collection. Apparently the result is that 40% of the world's ...

Please comment on which design is more thermally efficient. They are roughly the same. The apt is 2' shorter on the out (left) as space is not need for stairs. It is a cooler climate with 70" of ...

Sometimes produce is packaged in mesh bags, such as the bag of oranges shown below. What are these bags made of, and can they be recycled? If they cannot be recycled, can we do something else with ...

From the press release (emphasis added): Moving to cut energy use in new homes by more than 50 percent, the California Energy Commission [CEC] today adopted building standards that require solar ...

PTFE-based coating seems to be potentially harmful to humans and mortal for birds. PFOA, which is used for making teflon, persists in the environment and our bodies for long periods of time (see ...