Save Water With Every Shower If you are like me you have an older home and the shower head as well as all the other fixtures in the house are not exactly modern low flow models. Not to mention the cabinets and sinks and floors are not exactly modern either but that's for another post and another few thousand dollars. But, modern shower heads that actually save water and at the same time will give me a shower that really feels like a real shower and the water is not just dripping out that is what I am looking for. So, it has really taken a while but I have narrowed the list down to five modern low flow to save water yet they will still give you a shower that feels like the old fashioned shower head that just dumps water on your head. So here is my list of shower heads and one that I just couldn't believe the price this is the most expensive shower head I could find and no it's not low flow but I just couldn't believe the price. Old Style Shower Head Flow Rate So, if you just bought that old house or if you have had it for a long time and you still have those shower heads that you love because man they just put out a lot of water lucky you or not so lucky you. How much water does an old style shower head put out? An old style shower head puts out about 7 gallons of water per minute. Wow, can you believe that? How much water is seven gallons a minute. Well you can plug up your tub and turn on the water for one minute and see for yourself and hey by the way save that water and at least water plants with it or do something useful with it don't just let it go down the drain. Another way to picture it is you know at Home Depot those big orange buckets they sell? Those buckets are five gallons so if you run your old school shower head for one minute you will fill up one and a half of those buckets. Then hey it's at least easier to water the plants that way. Now how many minutes do we all usually shower for? I know I am bad I take about a 20 minute shower so that's about 140 gallons with the old style shower head. Low Flow Shower Head Flow Rate Now if you have been using the old style shower heads you see above how much water you have been just wasting. But when you see the low flow shower head flow rate you will see there is an answer because it's more than just water it's really money going down the drain every time we use more water than we need. So how much water does the average low flow shower head use per minute? Typically a low flow shower head flow rate will be anywhere from 1.25 gallons per minute to 3 gallons per minute. So as you can see it's quite a bit less than the old style shower head in the example above. Basically it's half and you still have a nice comfortable shower. So here is my list of five low flow shower heads that I recommend.
How the Size of Your Trash Can Affects Recycling Efforts
So I get my curbside trash service from Waste Management Inc. The behemoth trash hauling company that basically handles anything trash or garbage related. They also handle all sorts of recycling of many different household products and for this I applaud them. I have been living in my house for around three years and I had those little bins that you have to stack together for my curbside recycling for around a year or so and I have to tell you they were practically worthless especially on a windy day. Since then your recyclables would be flying down the street and do your neighbors really need to know what applesauce you buy? No, they don't, but they do if they live downwind from me. However soon we got the fancy rolling trash and recycling bins with the closing lids and all was well in the world until today. It didn't really bug me that all my trash didn't fit in my little trash can I just had to recycle more. I mean hey don't I have a blog about green living and all of that anyway well with this little trash can you need to recycle as much as you can or everything won't fit. So I was fine with the status quo and everything was great it would be nice to have a little bigger trash bin but hey who really cares until today when I noticed that everyone on my block has a bigger trash can then me. What is the world coming to? Did I not get invited to the big trash can party or what? I mean is it really a big deal? No, it's not really a big deal and I have been going along just fine until today. Yet, part of me is saying hey I am going to call Waste Management and get a bigger trash can. But, the bigger part of me is thinking hey I have gotten along just fine with this little trash can and recycling more for the better part of a year and a half so if I got a bigger can then I would probably just spend more money and not recycle as much as I am basically forced to now.
I have another question for you could you get by on a smaller trash can from your trash provider and how much do you pay for trash service monthly?
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Will Sequestration Affect Our Environmental Protection Efforts? The President and Congress could not get their act together and make rational decisions about the budget and spending in our country. Due to that the Sequestration kicked in which is basically across the board cuts to major programs and entities in government. I think somehow we will all feel this is one way or another. Be it personally or just a family member. So can the Sequester cuts affect our nations EPA or any other types of environmental protection efforts? The short answer is yes most definitely there will be direct cuts to the EPA's budget. What types of cuts am I talking about? The Environmental Protection Agency's 2013 budget will be cut by $472 million due to the March 1st Sequester order. Now that is just a direct budget cut. The other programs that are being cut are regulatory programs and also state Grant programs that help states implement EPA's strong federal environmental protection rules. These are the same programs that the states are all ready saying are currently underfunded at this level. So with these cuts I do believe that the Sequester order is going to have an adverse affect on how the EPA goes after companies and individuals that pollute and also the loss of grants to help the states enforce the Environmental protection rules will stop them from enforcing them as vigorously. So I think this all adds up to an environment where there is less money to monitor these programs and less money to help the states go after people who pollute the environment. If there is no enforcement you may as well not have the laws. Because without enforcement efforts the law is just a good idea. It has no teeth.
I had a discussion with a friend of mine the other day and he told me the story about how he bought the new Chevy Volt hybrid gas electric vehicle. Now this is a person who lives a sort of green lifestyle. What do I mean by that? Well he has cards on his washer and dryer telling the kids at what hours of the day they can wash clothes simply because it's cheaper. So, this friend of mine doesn't live a green lifestyle because he wants to save the earth and get rid of gas guzzlers but simply to save money. So he leased a Chevy Volt hybrid vehicle. Why lease the Chevy Volt I asked well for him the numbers simply worked better. The Volt lease was about $270.00 a month for three years. What really convinced him though was his daily commute from Salinas Ca to Monterey Ca is about 24 miles and in his vehicle that currently gets 18 miles to the gallon that works out to be 48 miles round trip and costs him $10.66 a day round trip to get from home to work. That is 213.00 a month in fuel costs alone that he spends with his current vehicle. So he replaced his current vehicle with the Chevy Volt. So I was asking him well how much fuel do you use in the Volt and he told me that the Volt goes about 40 miles on electric if you charge it up which he does at work for free and at home for a small cost. So basically he is still on his first tank of gas. So, there has to be a downside to all of this. He tells me that there are some downsides mainly that the volt while running on the battery if you use the heater it really eats through the battery so he tries to just use the seat warmers unless his kids are in the car. One of the other downsides is that in a gas vehicle he hates getting gas and with the Volt it's like getting gas every time you stop you need to plug in versus every week you need to get gas. But other than that he is very happy with his choice. Is this something you would think about? 2011 Chevrolet Volt - NRMA Drivers Seat, a photo by NRMA New Cars on Flickr.
If you are like me you have an older home and the shower head as well as all the other fixtures in the house are not exactly modern low flow models. Not to mention the cabinets and sinks and floors are not exactly modern either but that's for another post and another few thousand dollars. But, modern shower heads that actually save water and at the same time 
