Just out of curiosity, to get a somewhat correct picture of America & Americans...
How aware are Americans when it comes to being environmentally friendly?

Reason I ask this is because all the chit we get rammed down our throats over here via the EU that is far from ecological and environmentally friendly comes from the USA.
We had a lot of laws in my country concerning a great many things being forbidden, think pesticides, now they are suddenly allowed and/or mandatory to be used, because of pressure from the US. Basically many things are going to throw us back to the 50s & 60s when we didn't know any better. Unfortunately now we do, yet we have to now use it again.

Now I also understand there can be a vast gap between the American people and the ones in power who enforce all that BS, hence my question:
How aware is the average American and what do you do towards keeping the environment healthy?

I know from my girl you do separate plastic collecting, I was surprised by that. Yes, my view is skewed, that's why I'm asking you guys directly.
Do you use LEDs instead of normal light bulbs?
Do you think about not wasting petrol?
Are electric cars & buses becoming a hype over there?
Is there large scale investment in wind farms & solar panels? Possibly subsidized like over here?
Do you all do separate waste, bottles, plastic, cans, green stuff?
Do you have mandatory MOTs for cars so at least things like exhaust fumes are monitored and cars with bad exhaust are either taken of the road or repaired?
Shops not handing out those thin, free plastic bags anymore, but offering a durable alternative for a small fee.
And so on...

Also, are there big variances in all this in the different states?

Please don't take it judgemental, I'm really genuinely curious.

judge me all you want. The place i work for has a strict recycle regiment. The first year we started we went to 93% landfill free.

As for me personally?
I drive an almost 25 year old pickup.
Most plastics , cans, and paper products czn be seperated and recycled. I do not do as much as i should.

Yes there are smog standards in quite a few cities. Not all.
No thd gas stations stopped handing out those trash bags that slip on your radio dial ages ago.

Windfarms are mostly in west texas here. There are a couple of incentives for a person tk get one. But you have to own a lot of land .


I do not use thd led bulbs yet. I use those low wattage florescent bulbs. The ones that look like a spring.

I do not reload my ammo. But i do pick up the brass.

I believe it was Agent Smith in the movie the Matrix who best describes us as a whole "Humans are a Virus"...In my opinion for all the good we do pales in comparison to all the damage we have done..and if one was to look at Fukushima for what it really is an "Extinction Level Event" we would come to the realization that we are well pass the "Tipping Point"...and if that isn't enough ask yourself "What are those chemtrails all about?"...But what do I know..eh..as far as the EU..maybe they shouldn't worry so much about us because in just what I've said it's really not going to make a difference as to what we do now..maybe they should worry more about what is happening over in Japan..or at any other nuclear facility for that matter..It's what they aren't telling us that will wind up biting us in the butt..feel free to look any of this up..and you will see for yourself..sorry to be the bearer of bad news..but someone has to put it out there..The EU may want to worry more about that collapsed mountain over there in N.Korea..do they honestly think that all that radiation has been contained..

Smog standards in cities... what does that mean exactly?
I know over here in a few cities you cannot enter the center in a petrol/diesel car anymore. Electric only. Means that I cannot get in, haha, but I don't know the exact perimeter.

Is it similar over there?

Can-recycling isn't done over here -at least not where I live that is-, but I think most drinks are sold in plastic bottles, not cans.

Do you use LEDs instead of normal light bulbs?
My apartment was equipped with all fluorescent bulbs and energy efficient appliances. I converted my lamp bulbs to fluorescent as well.
I use LED night lights so I save on lighting bills at night. I use ceiling fans to circulate the HVAC so it doesn't work so hard. I change the HVAC filters fairly often. I use blinds to control the solar heat thru the windows to help warm the room in the winter and cool the room in the summer. I keep my thermostat at one setting for summer (79 deg) and one setting for winter (82 degs). If I feel cold, I wear more clothing, if I feel hot, I go outside and come back in to cool off.

Do you think about not wasting petrol?
I track my mileage with my trip odometer. When I reach 100 miles I fill the tank again. This leaves me with a fuel tank that is always full (for the most part).
When I go someplace, I plan my routes in a circular pattern to save fuel. I no longer just go on drives (more because of my health than a fuel savings). I never let my truck sit and idle for long periods of time once it reaches operating temp. I never drive more than 5 mph above the posted limit (mostly to prevent speeding tickets). Unlike most working people, I am usually not pressed for time, I'm never in a hurry anymore.

Are electric cars & buses becoming a hype over there?
I have been seeing more electric cars in the area in the last few years and the city has started an electric trolley service for public transportation. There are a great deal of golf cart in use on the roads here as well. Some are decked out and some are just basic models but there are a lot. At the larger mini-malls and malls I see electric charging stations in the parking lots.

Is there large scale investment in wind farms & solar panels? Possibly subsidized like over here?
Not sure about subsides but I have seen more and more electrical generating windmills lately but nothing local, yet.
Much of the electrical grid has been buried in this area tho, probably as a storm preventative measure. I know they cut back all the trees away from all the overhead wiring as well.

Do you all do separate waste, bottles, plastic, cans, green stuff?
I use to recycle and separate but not since I lived here. The trash service is part of a city contract and recycling is reserved for on businesses. I do crush my trash and cut plastic rings but more because of the impact on animals than landfill preservation.
I used to have to go to landfills sometimes to fix trucks. They are highly regulated and isolate ground water contamination and tap gas pockets.

Do you have mandatory MOTs for cars so at least things like exhaust fumes are monitored and cars with bad exhaust are either taken of the road or repaired?
I worked as a car and heavy truck DOT inspector for decades. Most states have strict rules for emissions and use testing stations, often at a separate place than the safety inspection stations. In Missouri, they actually put your car on a dynamometer and take operation readings of your emissions.
Working on both trucks and off-road heavy equipment I know there is a regulation on the sulfur content of diesel fuel as well.
At the shop, we had Safety-Kleen come in and haul out our used oil and recycle our antifreeze. Oil and antifreeze spills in the parking lot had to be cleaned up before it hit the land and not only did we have containment docks we had isolation drains that led to rainwater runoff sludge pits that had to be pumped out. Out refueling station had 5 levels of containment with emergency gear to absorb any spill that got thru.
Our monthly CMS (Compliance Management System) made sure everything was constantly checked and maintained to company, OSHA and Federal Register standards.
Most auto parts stores will recycle your used oils for free.
Gas stations have containment and spill stations, underground tanks require an inspection and certification.

Shops not handing out those thin, free plastic bags anymore, but offering a durable alternative for a small fee.
All the stores in my area still use plastic bags primarily.
Some stores have recycling bins at their entrances for plastic bags.
I put all the bags inside a bag and crush it down as small as I can get it before I throw them away. I also have a bag of plastic bags. I use plastic bags for packing material as well.

I've seen what I call "Plastic Bag Bushes" in the past but not much anymore.



In the 80s I rode a bus thru Washington DC and the streets were lined with hills of trash but I think that has also been cleaned up.
All in All, Where I live now there isn't much litter (tourist town?) and I do see crews in prison outfits doing clean up.

here in the states florescents were pushed real hard and leds were extremely expensive with poor light quality. then the fed epa declared dead florescents hazardous waste because of the mercury. which means specials collection not just a toss in the bin. leds are coming on real strong now. at basically the same light for 1/10 the electricity of an incandescent bulb and peeps are really starting to get it.

as for trash in new hampshire anything any thing from single stream recycling here in my town, that's all paper plastic class and metal all in one bin at the curb. to littleton were my mum is, which hand recyles at a collection station and separates everything... glass by color, plastics by number and color, metal and paper by type.

here in nh all cars must have a safety inspection brakes tyres etc. but smog checking is only done til the age of 20 and is not a tailpipe test but a computer check to make sure not stored codes which would indicate a system failure and a dirty tailpipe. some states do use a tail pie check for emmisions even some counties in the same state can have more stringent testing.

as for plastic shopping bags, we have stores starting to refuse to use them. and forever cloth bags have been available for many years

Thank you, Tom & Eric

I'm not sure I know what fluorescent lights are. Tube light?
I've had a few energy saving lights, these ugly big things that cost a bomb. Until I heard they emit very toxic gases. I replaced them right away.
Most of my lights are LED, just a few old light bulbs left upstairs and if they go they'll be replaced with LEDs too.
I've had halogen for a brief period in one light in the living room. They got stinking hot, still used a lot of electricity.
I did get the more expensive LEDs in with a better than average chip so you have a warm light colour. The first LEDs were more like blue. Horrible to have in your living space, hihi.

AH, I now get that a fluorescent light is indeed what we call TL, tube light.
I bleeping hate those things, haha. Horrible light, they tend to flicker, which most don't see, but I do.
Colour is horrible, if you sit in it for hours you end up with red eyes (I remember that from when I was working in a TL-lit office all day while wearing contacts).
I got one in the garage, don't want them indoors, poxy things, hihi.
They're very bad for your aura too They actually damage it.

here they even made them to go in a screw in fixture like an old incandescent bulb. they usually have a spiral tube on top of the screw base. blech

How aware are Americans when it comes to being environmentally friendly?
i think everyone knows about it ,i think about everyone recycles
i know here when ya get trash service , they give you 2 containers , one for trash and one for recycling

Reason I ask this is because all the chit we get rammed down our throats over here via the EU that is far from ecological and environmentally friendly comes from the USA.
We had a lot of laws in my country concerning a great many things being forbidden, think pesticides, now they are suddenly allowed and/or mandatory to be used, because of pressure from the US. Basically many things are going to throw us back to the 50s & 60s when we didn't know any better. Unfortunately now we do, yet we have to now use it again.
Don't get me started , g.m.o. made by same company that made DDT, agent orange , etc etc etc


I know from my girl you do separate plastic collecting, I was surprised by that. Yes, my view is skewed, that's why I'm asking you guys directly.
well i dont , the trash / recycling people do , and yes there are many different types of plastic

Do you use LEDs instead of normal light bulbs?
mixed, i still have a few of those worm like bulbs but the rest are LED ... and still have a few packs of those filament light bulbs as well in a box lol

Do you think about not wasting petrol?
tank of gas lasts me a month , give or take ... i dont think that is too bad for a 1985 camero v8 engine

Are electric cars & buses becoming a hype over there?
For the most part , i think California will do like over there , take out gas automobiles all together

Is there large scale investment in wind farms & solar panels?
no idea , but with that being said i have seen a lot of solar panels around ... problem is cost

Possibly subsidized like over here?
no idea, i do remember hearing that you get tax breaks and it as well as money back from the electric company if you are still on grid(meaning tied to the lines of the power company , so you can share electric , sunny days you make more then ya need you trade to them , winter / no sun, you trade with them etc etc etc)

Do you all do separate waste, bottles, plastic, cans, green stuff?
To put in a recycling can yes, they hall it away and separate it where they drop it or before they put it in the truck (depends on the company)

Do you have mandatory MOTs for cars so at least things like exhaust fumes are monitored and cars with bad exhaust are either taken of the road or repaired?
here yes , they get inspections every year , every other year exhaust (i think its 25 or 30 years here they dont do the every other year exhaust but they have mobile testers that they set up all over the place on the roads)

Shops not handing out those thin, free plastic bags anymore, but offering a durable alternative for a small fee.
some places have stopped here not all , they have boxes outside you can put the old bags in to, if ya dont just put them in the bin at home <shrug>

Also, are there big variances in all this in the different states?
a lot of states have there own laws, but i know that Florida and Virginia do .... Florida when i was there , as long as your car was not falling apart while you where driven down the road , they didn't car but that was 30 some odd years ago <shrug> so could have changed

Please don't take it judgemental, I'm really genuinely curious.
i didnt take it ya was being judgemental
<shrug>

Right before my career ended I saw a change to LED truck lights.



The lights in my apartment are twisted tube lights that screw into the incandescent light fixtures.



I know you can buy installation LED lights at Home Depot to use as accent lights and many of the new construction homes use LED indirect lighting.
As for purchasing LED replacement lights that screw into the old incandescent sockets, haven't really seen them at the stores I frequent, they're probably available at the big box home improvement stores tho.

Back in the early 90s I lived across from a GE light bulb factory that made incandescent bulbs. It closed down and never reopened.

In the early 80s, I had a short term part time job while I was in the service where I sold "Solar Therm" solar panels. At that time, they were very expensive and not many people were buying.

My sister's father in law built a solar home in the late 70's and sold his surplus electricity back to the electric company.

Nearly all the road lighting has solar panels to supplement their power requirements.

Nearly everything...everything can be recycled.
When I first started turning wrenches I rebuilt nearly all components.
Now, its cheaper to just throw away or send it back for a core to a separate company that rebuilds them.
"Mechanics" have become basically 'parts changers' now. There are few mechanics nowadays that know how to rebuild a master or wheel cylinder. Its just easier and cheaper to toss it and put in a new one.

Awhile back (years ago) I proposed a National Recycling Center. Just another Mega-Scale idea I was toying with concerning recycling.
It basically recycled anything and everything. It was labor intensive but it created jobs that last for centuries.

Thanks!
Funny you and another mention different types of plastic. We have just the one plastic bin, not sort it out by colour or type.
Since this year we got a 3rd rolling bin, so now we have one for plastic -that's the new one-, one for garden / greens stuff, one for whatever is left over. Paper and glass we gotta take away ourselves, like we had to do with plastic until January this year. Now plastic gets collected too.

Solar panels are indeed expensive. The stimulate ppl doing it you could get a special subsidy thing.
The other day I heard that pretty soon they're going to charge you more by law if you still run heating on gas and so on. And that the cost of it will be going up. All to try and force ppl to get solar panels etc.
Not sure how that would work out for me, I got a rental from council, I'm not gonna put solar panels on a rental. I cannot afford that, nor can I afford a higher utility bill if they up the prices.
Wait and see...

ah, them spiral lights. That's what I meant with the energy saving lights. Apparently they emit a very toxic gas or something. I got rid of them. (not in the bin of course! They gotta go with chemical waste).
We do have LEDs with screw thingie that fit in a normal lamp. Took a few years before we got those, but now most if not all lights are LEDs, either with the 2 pins or with the screw thing.
Really neat, I got 2 in the kitchen the other day, 6 Watts each which is close to 60 Watts in rendition (is that the right word for it?). Helluva lot of light (120 Watt) while running 12 :)

Buying a light bulb is rocket science though, as LED boxes now mention Lumen which means jack to me, haha. Then there's Kelvin for light temperature...
I used to just go to a shop to buy a light bulb, now I first have to do research online, hihi.

Oh, as for the wind farms... we got loads over here these days, they keep building them so I think at some point in the very near future we will have all electricity that way.
Good thing I don't freak out anymore when I see these things, cos then I couldn't go anywhere anymore. I seriously got panic attacks when I had to drive past these wretched things.
My ex once managed to have me stand right up against one of them mills so he could take a photo. I was chitting myself. that constant 'whoooshhh whoooshhh.." Brrrr...
And even though I don't get a real panic attack anymore, I wouldn't dare stand up against one still, not when alone. I do not go near one if I can help it, hihi.

lumens is how much light comes out watts is just how much electricity it uses (know idea why it became to way to size a light bulbs
kelvin is rating for the lights color. if memory serves, warm yellow light light an old filament light0 is a lower number than the bluer light (which is a more natural daylight type color)

Kelvin is a scale of temperature with absolute zero as zero, and the triple point of water as exactly 273.16 degrees.

Hue is the term for the pure spectrum colors commonly referred to by the "color names" - red, orange, yellow, blue, green violet - which appear in the hue circle or rainbow.

Soft White/Warm White (2700 Kelvin): Best for bedrooms and living rooms; providing a traditional warm, cozy feel to them. Bright White/Cool White (4100 Kelvin): Best in kitchens, bathrooms or garages; giving rooms a whiter, more energetic feel.

The virtually extinct 50 watt and not so popular 75 watt bulb were “supersized” versions of the 40 and 60, designed to get people to buy more electricity. The watt rating was an old standard for incandescent bulbs, whose light output (lumens) was roughly proportional to the bulb's wattage rating (power consumption).

A kilowatt is using 100 watts 10 times. If you have 10, 100 watt lights operating for 1 hour that is 1 kilowatt per hour. Most electric bills show usage in kilowatts. The usage is tracked cumulative over the billing period. All electrical devices add to your kilowatt usage.
Devices that use less wattage to operate save you money. Not using any devices using wattage saves you the most money.
At one time, there was an old wife's tale that told it costs more money to turn a light on and off than to just leave it on which is untrue.

Most electronic devices have a fast start feature that keeps it powered up. Some have indicator lights and some don't. This is why to save the most money it is good practice to unplug electronic devices that are not being used a lot. In recent years, the power requirements to keep those devices in ready state use very minimal power requirements so with the newer stuff, the cost is insignificant. Think .05 watts or less.

thought it was that direction, tho it seems backwards the way they name they light color lol

what's the triple point tom when it gets too hot to be steam???

Sure, I'll do what I can for the environment.
But, I'm also a fan of science.

LED lights, aren't allowed in my home,
or on my property.
Sure, they're a little brighter, and last a
little longer than standard bulbs.
And that, makes them really convenient
and 'trendy'.

But, the science is;
LED lights contain mercury.
A toxic poison, that can cause birth defects,
long term illness, and death.

Mercury, already contaminates soil, groundwater,
lakes, streams, and every ocean on the planet.

Do you eat fish, or any kind of seafood?
Are you aware of the levels of mercury contamination
in foods, we already ingest, daily?

Scientifically, using mercury to help the environment,
is akin to taking cyanide to cure a headache.
Sure, the headache is gone, but so is tomorrow

actually rock led's never had mercury
it is the florescents that have mercury

Indiana has one of the largest wind farms in the world, producing electric. There is roughly 1063 turbines in use, in an area northwest of Indianapolis, that extends to the Indiana-Illinois boarder. These, are BIG ones. Towers roughly 400 feet tall, with 3 blades about 125 feet in length.

Problem- your average wind turbine will never pay for itself in electricity. They claim 20 years, but with maintenance cost, It's debatable if they will. Farmers get $8,000 a year per unit installed, so it's a "Windfall" for them. (Feel free to groan now)

Yeah, I recycle. But when I generate about a bag full of trash in three weeks time, then it's almost not worth it. But I do pickup scrap steel, like water heaters and appliances on the side of the road. Hey! Park a twenty dollar bill at the end of your drive- I'll gladly stop and take it.

No AC for me. Love it when it gets hot. For heat, I use recyclable wood pellet fuel. I went green, and found out that heat now runs me about $800 a season. Mine goes on sale! Does yours?

Indeed no mercury in LEDs. They're the safest thing apart from the old-fashioned light bulb but since these aren't manufactured anymore as they aren't allowed no longer, the LED is the only/best option.