Go Flushless (conservative flushing - saves water)

http://www.goflushless.com/index.html

For less than 16¢ a day, you can save over 37 gallons of clean water EVERY DAY.*

 * These numbers are based on a household of 3 people. One 16 oz bottle will last 5 weeks on average.

how it works

GoFlushless® is made from vegetable based cleaners, essential oils, and food grade colors. It has been independently tested by an ACS Certified professional chemist. Apply two or three sprays of GoFlushless® in the toilet bowl before or after you use it . Add more GoFlushless as needed throughout the day to continue the neutralizing effect. When you spray GoFlushless® into your toilet bowl, the scientifically proven formula captures and neutralizes the odor of urine, replacing it with a pleasant citrus scent. GoFlushless® counteracts the staining chemicals in urine to help keep your toilet bowl clean. Finally, it leaves the water in the bowl an appealing blue-green color.

Saving Water Saves Energy
Water conservation isn’t just about having enough water. It also takes a lot of energy to treat and transport clean water to our homes. And it takes a lot of water to produce energy.

Pressures on our water and energy supplies are growing all the time. Population growth, increased droughts, environmental protections and more all require clean water. New technologies may help, but most use more energy – which will use more water. Conservation of the water we have is the only way to solve both problems without making either of them worse. GoFlushless® will help you and your family save water - and energy - every day without sacrificing anything.

Here Are Some Amazing Facts

• It takes more than 130 billion gallons of water a day just to
  produce half of the power in the US.
• In California, 20% of the state’s electricity is consumed for
  water-related uses.
• 1 ton of recycled paper saves 7000 gallons of water from
  being used and polluted.
• T. Boone Pickens, Warren Buffett, and Ted Turner see the
  urgency of clean water in the future. All three are now major
  players in the investment of water.
  These include major tracts of land that sit above the largest
  clean water aquifers in our country and systems that treat and
  purify water for human consumption.
• Just 2.5% of Earth’s water is fresh and only a tiny part of that
  is useable and renewable.

Collapsible Rain Barrel

http://www.greenhome.com/products/yard_and_garden/garden_accessories/116146

Good "green" deal (this week) from GreenHome.com.

Marcellus Shale links:

What is:  http://www.marcellusshales.com/

Drilling projects and other information:  http://www.marcellus-shale.us/

Combination of a web-based DataTool for tracking & visualizing data related to gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region:  http://www.fractracker.org/

Marcellus Shale Coalition:  http://marcelluscoalition.org/

Marcellus Shale Protest:  http://www.marcellusprotest.org/

Action alliance:  http://shaleshock.org/

Keeping the public informed:  http://themarcellusshale.com/

Neighborhood drilling:  http://www.lpactiongroup.com/

Additional Information on Natural Gas Drilling:

http://damascuscitizens.org/   - Damascus Citizens 

http://lpactiongroup.blogspot.com/ - LP Action Group Blog

http://shaleblog.com/ - Shale Blog 

http://threeriverswaterkeeper.org/maps.html - Three Rivers Waterkeepers 

http://www.chk.com/Pages/default.aspx - Chesapeake Energy

http://www.donnan.com/Marcellus-Gas_Hickory.htm - Bob's Blog 

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/ - Marcellus Shale US

http://www.pennfuture.org/default.aspx - Penn Future

http://www.propublica.org/ - Propublica

Book recommendation: Now or never

Do you care about climate change?  Read THIS book!  If you have any questions regarding the true crisis of today, you will find clearly defined the situation that we are in.

The latest research points to very disturbing possibilities if we don't act.

This is a book to get you called to action... a must read and a most important book to share.

MNN: Eco Home Guide

http://www.mnn.com/your-home/green-building-remodeling/photos/eco-friendly-home-guide-0

Thank you Mother Nature Network for this eco home guide!

"With the average family spending about $1,900 a year on home utility bills, it's unfortunate for both the environment and your wallet that a large portion of that energy is wasted. Taking a whole-house approach to saving energy will not only make your home more comfortable and eco-friendly, but also yield long-term financial rewards, such as reduced energy bills and an increased home value."

12 Toxic Fish! (humans and planet)

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/12-toxic-fish?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2FTheBlueMarble+(Mother+Jones+|+The+Blue+Marble)&utm_content=Twitter

Oil Found Deep in Gulf’s Water and Food Chain

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/oil-found-deep-in-gulfs-water-and-food-chain.html

Making your own laundry soap. It's easy...

Homemade Laundry Soap comes in many varieties - hope you can find one that fits your fancy:

http://diynatural.com/simple-easy-fast-effective-jabs-homemade-laundry-detergent/

http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

http://greenliving.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_best_homemade_laundry_soap 

There is some work (not much) to making homemade laundry soap, but the money saved by using homemade laundry soap can really add up over the course of a year. 

That said, money is not (and should not be) the only reason to make homemade laundry soap. Using the links above to make homemade laundry soap reduces phosphates and other waste products that are dumped into the water supply. It also reduces the number of plastic bottles in use, and is biodegradable.

What is your footprint?! Great function to this one...

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

Footprint Calculator

How much land area does it take to support your lifestyle? Take this quiz to find out your Ecological Footprint, discover your biggest areas of resource consumption, and learn what you can do to tread more lightly on the earth.

The hand washing versus dishwashing feud cannot be answered in terms of black and white.

CONCLUSION: Variables in types of dishwashers, manner in which hand washing is done - lead to a draw in many cases. Each case is really different, hand washing while keeping the water running is going to use more water than a dishwasher. If you are conservative and wash dishes in a sink (or a 4 qt pot like I do at current) full of soapy water, you could be using less water than your dishwasher. 

*Not covered in any of the articles that I researched to compose this thread - From hand washing, reuse the water (commonly called greywater) by applying it to your yard/garden.  Make sure that you are using environmentally friend dish soap.  http://www.ukqna.com/garden/1369-2-home-ukqna.html

Many factors must be taken into consideration when determining between the two options, including how often you are washing dishes by hand, your hot water tank efficiency, whether you prerinse the dishes before loading them into the dishwasher, whether you are running a full load, whether your dishwasher itself is sustainable (or more so than most) and whether you are using the heated dry option on your dishwasher.  And we can't forget what time of day you are running your dishwasher. 

Energy/water usage aside - dishwashers are convenient in our busy lives and let us get on with life instead of being tied up at the sink.  Money vs time vs convenience.  We as consumers can make good choices with the type of dishwasher and how we use it.  There is also the part that dishwashers sterilize better.

(Semi-)CONCLUSION:
Although comparing hand washing and dish washing is difficult, I am sure we can agree on several things to stay more efficient and more eco-friendly. If you do use the dishwasher, make sure you:

• Always run a full load
• Skip the heated dry option and air-dry dishes by selecting the air-dry setting or opening your dishwasher's door instead of using the heat-dry cycle.
• Forgo needless pre-rinsing dishes before loading them in your dishwasher to save water
• Run the dishwasher when energy rates are lower (at night/early am)
• Try to upgrade to a more efficient model (if you have not already)

Just try and use less. Try using fewer items in general, such as reusing your cups throughout the day or wiping breadcrumbs off the plate that only carried a sandwich and popping it back in the cabinet.

***Here are some good arguments for both cases:

WINNER: HAND WASHING
http://ezinearticles.com/?Dishwasher-Vs-Hand-Washing---The-Green-Experiment&id=4015922

The Experiment
Several speculations have been previously noted regarding the efficiency of dish washing vs. hand washing. A study was conducted in Germany regarding the efficiency of both practices, which concluded that dish washing was in fact, the most efficient. Now, who exactly funded this experiment has never been disclosed. Could it have been a household appliance manufacturer? Many experiments are sometimes conducted to purposely skew in a specific direction. I decided it was time to do my own experiment and find out once and for all which of the two dish washing practices is the real deal.

To conduct this real life experiment I spent exactly one month washing all my dishes by hand and one full month running the dishwasher. I chose the month of February and March, which average similar temperatures in South Florida. I maintained my air conditioning system at a temperature of 76 degrees Fahrenheit throughout both months, and tried as hard as possible to eat-out or order in the same amount of times both months. Of course, there are definite inconsistencies in such a real-life experiment, such as how long you shower, how often you flush the toilet, the outside temperature, etc... but, my family and I just continued to go on about our lives exactly the same. The only difference was our dish washing ritual. Oh, and of course, February did have 28 days, while March had 30. The dishwasher used for this experiment is a Bosch Integra 300 series. This machine is about 5 years old and has the Energy Star qualification (Energy Star is awarded to those dishwashers who do not exceed 5.8 gallons of water per run).

Practices used for both methods of dish washing:

Dishwasher:
• Run it only when it is completely filled to its maximum capacity
• Keep rinsing to a minimal, just rinse the excess scraps. You defeat the purpose of using the dishwasher if you're spending gallons of water just rinsing your dishes.
• Rinse first... turn off the faucet... and then place in dishwasher (I have often seen people loading the dishwasher while the faucet is running full force just to rinse a fork).

Hand-Washing:
• First, wet all the dishes rapidly and turn OFF the faucet
• Using a sponge, soap all the dishes, glasses, etc... get a little more water to wet sponge, if needed, and turn off faucet again.
• After all dishes have been soaped, rinse them off and set them in dish drainer.
• Faucet does not have to be at full force and it is not necessary to wash the dishes with burning hot water. Turn off faucet often, while placing dishes in rack.

The Conclusion
Ironically, my experiment proved that responsible hand washing was the winner. During the month of February, when I washed all dishes by hand the electric reading was Kwh 19,973, while in March, when I strictly used the dishwasher responsibly the electric reading was Kwh 22,294. I saved $16.55 in the electric bill in February. The water bill showed a usage of 3,142 gallons in the month of February and 3,105 in the month of March. In conclusion, there was a very small significance in water usage when comparing both practices but a slightly higher significance in electric consumption. Personally, I wash my dishes by hand most days, but do still enjoy the convenience of my dishwasher on those days that I'm feeling a bit tired. Although, the results may not seem very alarming, I do want to emphasize that when thousands of people are responsible in the simple household tasks it does make an impact.

WINNER: DISHWASHER
http://www.greenyour.com/home/kitchen-cooking/dishwashing/tips/run-your-dishwasher-instead-of-hand-washing-dishes

Run your dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes

Hand-washing dishes often results in several gallons of water running down the drain each day. Running your dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes can help reduce your water usage by about 35 percent.

How to save more water and energy when using your dishwasher

Yes, you can be an eco-friendly dishwasher by using your automatic dish washing machine! So boost your dish washing efficiency with these energy- and water-saving ideas:

   1. Run your dishwasher only when it’s full to save up to 400 gallons of water per month.
   2. Air-dry dishes by selecting the air-dry setting or opening your dishwasher's door instead of using the heat-dry cycle. This can cut your dishwasher’s energy use by 15 percent to 50 percent.
   3. Forgo pre-rinsing dishes before loading them in your dishwasher to save up to 25 gallons per load.

Want to save even more by using your dishwasher? Replace your old dishwasher with an ENERGY STAR dishwasher. These dishwashers are at least 41 percent more efficient than minimum Federal energy consumption standards. Not only do they use an average of 1,000 fewer gallons of water per year, but they also use significantly less electricity, mainly by heating water more efficiently.

Look for a dishwasher with a built-in hot water booster to bring additional energy savings. This raises the water temperature inside the dishwasher to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (recommended for optimal cleaning), allowing the main household water heater to be turned down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit or less. For every 10 degrees a water heater's thermostat is lowered, the water-heating bill drops by up to 13 percent.
Running your dishwasher instead of hand-washing dishes helps you go green because…

    * It uses significantly less water, particularly if it's fully loaded. By contrast, hand-washing often means the faucet runs continuously, allowing gallons of water to pour down the drain. Water use is even higher if dishes are hand-washed multiple times per day.

On average, hand washing dishes uses significantly more water because most people tend to leave the faucet running or wash dishes several times a day. Running a dishwasher fully loaded, particularly if dishes aren’t pre-rinsed, uses about 35 percent less water than washing dishes by hand.

One study by researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany found that hand-washing dishes uses between five and 86 gallons of water compared to four to five gallons for the average European dishwasher. Americans didn't participate in the study, but statistics show the average US dishwasher uses nine to 12 gallons per load (less for energy-efficient models) versus up to 20 gallons for hand-washing. With American households running a dishwasher only four or five times a week, on average, that represents a considerable savings over washing by hand, particularly when dishes are hand-washed once or more a day.

The only time that hand-washing dishes uses less water than a dishwasher is when a dishpan or sink basin is filled and no additional water is run. This method consumes about half of what a dishwasher uses per load.

Built In Dishwashers vs. Hand Washing: Which is Greener?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/built-in-dishwasher-vs-hand-washing-which-greener.php

Bottled H2O - From footprint to tap. Check it out.

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/

Get the Facts before you tip that bottle!
 
THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER

    * Bottled water is not safer than tap water.

    * Bottled water creates mountains of garbage and causes other major environmental problems.

    * Bottled water is thousands of times more expensive than tap water.

    * Bottled water companies mislead communities into giving away their public water in exchange for dangerous jobs. 

Drink tap water.
    * Sign the Take Back the Tap pledge to show your commitment. Dine at restaurants that have pledged not to serve bottled water.
    * Find out how to choose a filter and read your water quality report in our Guide to Safe Tap Water
    * Hosting an event? Make it bottled water free with the help of our guide: Free Your Event from Bottled Water.

Help others break their bottled water habits.  Get the facts...

 Facts/habits information courtesy of: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled/