24
votes
Accepted
How to avoid buying planned-obsolescence products?
Warranties
Keep an eye out for products that have long warranties. When the warranty is short you can expect a short average time until failure.
Parts
Look for products that have generic parts, ...
- 8,725
12
votes
Pros and cons of bamboo clothing compared to cotton?
Bamboo Pros
Bamboo is a perennial grass.
You don't need to put annual effort and energy into it's cultivation.
You don't need to disturb the soil, so the soil ecosystem stays intact.
NO Soil Erosion!...
- 862
9
votes
Are kill switches used for planned obsolescence?
Yes - but not in the way you describe. First of all, planned obsolescence refers broadly to intentionally designing a product so that it will have an artificially short life-span, which can include ...
- 11.3k
8
votes
Accepted
What chemicals are used to replace BPA in plastics?
First of all, in many products BPA has not been replaced at all. It is still present in many types of food packaging, especially in canned foods. AFAIK the main exception is baby bottles which are ...
- 14.1k
7
votes
Accepted
cost of energy for old crt vs new flatscreen
One of the key considerations here is how much time the appliance will spend turned on. If an old CRT TV is hardly used, then the environmental footprint of continuing to use it is very low, even if ...
- 8,725
7
votes
How to avoid buying planned-obsolescence products?
In France they're trying to build a site referencing planned-obsolescence products: http://www.halteobsolescence.org/ . Maybe we could build the same or help them go worldwide (at least by translating ...
- 1,365
6
votes
Are luxury goods more sustainable than supermarket brands?
No. Sometimes yes, but often enough no - so that looking at whether a brand is 'luxury' or 'supermarket' is not a good replacement for looking at the actual sustainability of the product.
I can't ...
- 2,816
5
votes
Is there any way to recycle air-pollution into fertilizer?
You can use scrubbers to remove NO2 (or better NOX) and SO2 from exhaust gas emissions.
Scrubbers are used in large industrial facilities, power plants, and large ships to clean-up the exhaust gas ...
5
votes
How can consumers persuade manufacturers to make their products more sustainable?
Lobbying for legislation is the best way. Barring a few conscious ones, producers are generally interested in money, and with such a huge population and market, they will always find customers who do ...
4
votes
How to avoid buying planned-obsolescence products?
Before you go shopping – whether on-line or bricks-and-mortar – inform yourself about the product in question and keep an open mind about alternative ways of achieving whatever it is you ultimately ...
4
votes
Pros and cons of bamboo clothing compared to cotton?
From a wearing standpoint:
Bamboo is extremely stretchy - if the garment you are looking at is
made of bamboo, you need to consider if you are expecting any
support; because from my experience there ...
- 41
4
votes
Is there an "energy returned on materials invested" index for energy sources?
Measuring impact
I've yet to see a meaningful metric that relates directly to materials, other than the EROEI (Energy Returned On Energy Invested); and there's discussion about whether or not EROEI is ...
- 14.6k
4
votes
Accepted
How efficient are tiny cars compared to others?
In the USA the Daimler/Mercedes "Smart" Fortwo car is the obvious choice, rated at 41mpg on the highway. Those look silly but are quite safe and very fuel efficient, as well and being ridiculously ...
- 3,755
4
votes
Accepted
Do totally Chlorine free (TCF) toilet papers exist?
The table on this Conservatree.org webpage explains that Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) means it's Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) plus it has recycled content. So all the PCF papers you found are also TCF....
- 14.1k
3
votes
Accepted
What are the carbon emissions from the manufacture of the hybrid components of a Prius?
Update. In my original answer I inadvertently divided at one point when I should have multiplied -- I found the mistake thanks to comments from Frank and THelper. So here's a new tl;dr:
By mile 4,000 ...
- 11.3k
3
votes
Can the production of herbal supplements (pills) be sustainable?
They definitely can be sustainable.
The crops themselves can easily be grown in a sustainable manner.
The plastic containers can be replaced with biodegradable containers, such as those made with ...
2
votes
Are luxury goods more sustainable than supermarket brands?
Re "...the higher price of prestigious brands is usually dictated by costs such as craftsmanship, design and marketing...", I have to disagree, at least as a general rule. Perhaps more is spent on ...
- 309
2
votes
Rule of thumb for estimating the carbon footprint of a manufactured good
Great question, difficult to answer.
There's a great deal of variation in the CO2 footprint of manufactured goods. So we can compare many different goods, I suggest we use Kg CO2 per £1000 cost of ...
- 1,230
2
votes
Accepted
Which type of BBQ grill has less of an environmental footprint, charcoal or propane or what?
Propane releases 59 kg CO2/GJ, which works out to ~0.06 g/BTU.
On a 70000 BTU grill, that's 4000 g, or 4 kg, or 8.8 lbs CO2 per hour.
Natural gas releases 49 kg CO2/GJ, or about ~0.05 g/BTU, or 3500 ...
- 136
1
vote
How can alum stone be melted and molded into small shapes?
There are a bunch of different materials called alum. The most common, is potassium aluminum sulfate.
KAl(SO4)2 * 12 H2O
The material is very soluble in hot water, and melts at 92.5 C (less than ...
- 7,009
1
vote
Is there any way to recycle air-pollution into fertilizer?
Just found a patent for this: https://www.google.com/patents/US20070154374
Method for removing sulfur dioxide and other acid gases, mercury, and nitrogen oxides from a gas stream with the optional ...
- 189
1
vote
Pros and cons of bamboo clothing compared to cotton?
I had bamboo pillowcases before, they are very soft but not very durable. So I have to disagree with the con No 2 in Sempie's post. I do know that bamboo fabric need more water to produce, which ...
1
vote
How to avoid buying planned-obsolescence products?
As mentioned by other members there are some websites that do the selection for you. One that isn't mentioned yet is BuyMeOnce.
Please note that this a commercial webshop that has found an ...
- 71
1
vote
How to avoid buying planned-obsolescence products?
I'm a newbie, so please forgive my just dumping a few ideas here...
The hinge on the freezer department/ice tray door in the top of your fridge is a weak point, no-one ever defrosted the freezer box ...
- 21
1
vote
How to filter/dewater water mixed with water-based paint
This is easy, but it means additives and process.
1% Ferric Sulphate or Ferric Chloride w/w,
5% lime solution w/w (50grm/ltr solution,
1.5% Bentonite solution (50gr/ltr solution),
1% Perlite body aid ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible