Good ol’ Wal-Mart and Costco have started using a new design for their milk jugs, and I think they’ve come up with a real winner. The new design has a whole mess of environmental and cost advantages compared to the milk jug design that you’re probably used to, but there are some people that jes’ plain don’t care for it. Here’s a brief summary of its pros and cons.
New Milk Jug Design Pros
Less shipping materials - The old jugs had to be packaged with heavy shipping crates. The new ones can be stacked with just a layer of cardboard between them.
More efficient transport - Less shipping materials means more milk jugs can be transported in each truck, so companies save money on gas and cut down on air pollution.
Shipping labor cut in half
Water usage cut by 60-70% - The old shipping crates had to be sprayed off after each run, since milk would spill on them and birds would roost in them
Amy Wise, a homemaker in Ohio, said the new-fangled gallon jug spilled milk everywhere. Judging from the picture, I’d say her main problem is that she’s trying to pour the milk into an imaginary cup in her left hand. No wonder she looks frustrated.
Many people say the new milk jugs are harder to pour. But I think with more practice, people will get used to them quickly. With all the benefits (less pollution, cheaper milk, easier transportation, and more efficient use o’ materials), methinks that the new milk jug may be here to stay.
* The bodacious picture of Amy Wise was taken by David Maxwell of The New York Times.
UPS has 93,637 vehicles (cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, and tractor-trailers) that drive over 2 billion miles a year, so they have had a lot of practice in finding ways to save gas, save money, and reduce air pollution. Here are three of Brown’s gas saving tips for any of y’all driving this holiday weekend.
Avoid left turns - UPS plans its routes to minimize left turns. This reduces gas usage because left turns generally mean you car has to sit and idle while waiting to turn. This helped UPS save $12 million last year!
Reduce idling - I did not know this, but UPS has a “no idling” policy, so no matter how short of a stop a UPS driver makes, they turn off their engine. This reduces idling time by 24 minutes per driver a day, which saves them $188 per driver per year!
Plan your route - UPS plans out its routes to be as efficient and direct as possible. Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!
If you can’t read that good, here are some gas saving tips from UPS… IN VIDEO FORM.
Now, you’ve probably all heard the big hullaballoo about the food crisis, what with food price inflation in recent months. It’s not that there isn’t enough food, it’s just that a lot of food ends up wasted (or diverted to biofuel, I know). In fact, according to a government study, the U.S. wastes a whopping 27 percent of food available for consumption!!
That’s a huge amount. Dang, just staggering. To put this number in Joe terms, it’s like if for every four apples you buy at the store, you have to throw one of them in the trash. It’s a waste o’ time, money, and natural resources. Of course, a large amount of the wasted food is not wasted by consumers, but by the food industry (mainly restaurants).
Most of that food, when thrown away, just ends up taking up space in landfills. Fortunately, good ol’ North Carolina is stepping up to the plate and leading the Southeast in “food waste source reduction and recycling, which includes composting”, according to Mary Beth Van Pelt, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist based in Atlanta. N.C.’s eventual goal is to ban food waste from landfills, just like they banned yard waste from landfills in 1993.
Many restaurants are taking their own steps to reduce food waste, both by improving efficiency and by composting their old food. Watch, if you please, this video on a restaurant in Portland that’s doing its own commercial composting:
If the world (not just the U.S.) can improve how efficiently it uses its food, prices would drop, everyone would have enough to eat, and we’d be filling up landfills more slowly. So por favor, the next time you’re about to buy some food, make sure that you end up eating it (or donating it to me).If you somehow still want to read even more about food waste (and what is being done to lessen it), lo recomiendo este sitio.
Dang, I just found out about a company in England called GreenWorks that sounds great. What happens is people or companies can donate old office or school furniture (desks, chairs, tables) and GreenWorks will fix them up.
Once the used-but-looking-like-new furniture is ready, it will either be sold (cheaply) to offices or charities (for a discount), or donated to an “orphanage in Romania and a range of NGO projects in Benin, Gambia and Ghana”.
So if you live in England and are thinking about getting rid of some used office furniture, por favor donate it to them. You’ll be happy knowing that your old furniture didn’t go to a landfill, and is being reused somewhere by some people who need it.
Also, does anyone know if something like GreenWorks exists in the U.S.? Dígame, because if not, I might have to start a company like this meself (since I am already an “expert” on recycling household junk into useful mess).
Back in December, I wrote that Design A Tea was offering free samples o’ their organic tea. I had long since given up on getting some free tea… BUT, Brian, the owner of that company, recently wrote and told me that they’d had over 10,000 requests for free tea in two days! Since they pack all their orders by hand, it’s going to take awhile for them to fulfill all those requests.
Anyhoo, Brian was nice enough to send me a lot of free samples of their tea; many different flavors and combinations, and I gots to say, I recommend it.
The good thing about their company is that it lets you combine different teas with different flavors. So far I’ve tried green tea with vanilla, and black tea with pecans. Both were too good.
So if you requested a sample from them, it is coming, fret not. One more good thing: their tea is organic and Fair Trade Certified. So give them a looksie, won’t you?
That’s right, folks, it’s movie time. So sit back, relax, and get ready for some surious learning as Amory Lovins narrates this neato video about Hypercars. All you have to do is ; look, here he is now:
Fun Facts about Hypercars
Very light weight, very strong (carbon fiber, the same as Formula One race cars)
Less wind resistance
More efficient electric accessories (A/C, CD player, etc.)
Increase fuel efficiency dramatically
Windows let in light, but not heat (reducing need for A/C)
Amory says it’s possible we’ll see hypercars on the market within 4 to 5 years. Hopefully my car can hold out that long, then I’ll spring for a crazy efficient hypercar and watch my gas savings pile up.
That’s right, it looks like good ol’ Google has turned off its lights to show its support for Earth Hour. What is Earth Hour? Welp, on Saturday, March 29 (today), at 8 P.M. (your local time), everyone is supposed to turn off their lights. More than 100 cities across North America will participate in Earth Hour in an effort to raise awareness of energy conservation.
Will it accomplish anything permanent? Nay. BUT, it should be pretty cool to see tons of cities go dark, plus it will be interesting to see how much electricity just a single hour saves.
Anyhoo, it’s neat to see Google helping out. Bravo, I say, bravo.
Good ol’ Wal-Mart and Costco have started using a new design for their milk jugs, and I think they’ve come up with a real winner. The new design has a whole mess of environmental and cost advantages compared to the milk jug design that you’re probably used to, but there are some people that jes’ plain don’t care for it. Here’s a brief summary of its pros and cons.
Now, you’ve probably all heard the big hullaballoo about the food crisis, what with food price inflation in recent months. It’s not that there isn’t enough food, it’s just that a lot of food ends up wasted (or diverted to biofuel, I know). In fact, according to a government study, 
