Black bin bad: green bin good. That's Repak's message as its Recycling Week gets under way. Tim O'Brien has some tips on how to go green
There is no such thing as rubbish any more. It is a resource. It is time to live The Good Life. Waste is the new big sin. If this is all a bit, well, green, and the very thought of hugging a tree is embarrassing, how about money? Money is a powerful incentive, even in chunks of 15 cent, as we have seen with the plastic bag tax, and it is all pervasive. Since the introduction of pay-by-weight and pay-by-volume bin charges, a lot more people are finding out where the bring centres are located.
Ireland has successfully exceeded its EU target for recycling packaging by 14 per cent, with latest Repak figures suggesting we are now at around 70 per cent. Put it in the black bin, it costs you. Put it in the green bin, it's free. What are you going to choose? Around the house there are many ways you can hold your head up as a PC person - and snaffle the savings. Remember, when it comes to resources it's now cool to be mean.
The following are a few pointers to live with minimum waste:
SMALL STEPS
RECYCLING CENTRAL The first thing you must do is rename the utility room the "Recycling Room". Install a series of cartons or plastic boxes costing around €10 and separate your waste. Most county and city councils will now take a wider range than the usual glass, newspapers and cans. Cooking oil, bicycles and textiles are now catered for almost everywhere. Go down to your local bring centre and have a look.
LIGHTS It may seem obvious but compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) save money because they use less electricity. A 16-to 18-watt bulb will give out about the same light as a traditional 60-watt bulb. You should get about 6,000 hours from a CFL bulb. Look for CFLs with a European "A" rating on the box; these have a guaranteed long life. The Natural Energy Foundation in the UK claims running costs for 1,000 hours with a traditional bulb are about €100, whereas CFLs cost about €35. So you could reduce your electric light charges by almost two-thirds.
BATTERIES For the television clicker, toys and all those other devices around the house. Four AA batteries generally cost about a fiver. A recharging pack with four batteries included will usually cost about €15. Do the maths.
KETTLES Electric kettles are huge energy gobblers, using as much energy per boil as 150 low-energy light bulbs. Most people boil more water than they need but the Eco-kettle, available from the Cultivate centre in Temple Bar, Dublin, is designed to reduce wasted energy by giving better control over how much water is boiled. In consumer trials run by the UK Energy Saving Trust, the Eco-kettle used on average 30 per cent less energy than standard kettles.
WHITE GOODS Check the energy ratings on kitchen white goods before you buy. Look for the energy rating label that shows the star rating and other useful information about energy consumption. Choose an appliance with a high star rating and add the purchase cost and the lifetime running cost to get a more accurate picture of the total cost of an appliance.
GADGETS AND GIFTS Here we have to be careful. A solar-powered mobile phone charger costs around €18 and is kind of cute. So too are solar-powered torches, radios, and other gizmos. But they vary in their ability to save you money, much less the planet. For example, a solar-powered mobile phone charger is unlikely to pay for itself anytime soon, while the energy it took to make the gadget is probably much more than it will ever generate. This is called being "energy negative". Wind-up radios and torches cost about €20 at Cultivate.
DETERGENTS/WASHING POWDERS Mutter "clean seas please!" to your friends as you go to the Eco Shop in the Glen O' The Downs, on the N11 near Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, to buy eco-friendly washing powder, dishwasher liquids and cleaning creams. Bring back the empty packaging for refills and save money on the supermarket prices.
MEDIUMSTEPS
HEAT PUMP Assuming that you have a good insulating jacket on your hot water tank and that your home is properly insulated, the next step is to install a heat pump. These gadgets can extract heat from the ground, water or even the air. They typically provide at least three units of heat for every one used from the normal power source. The Government has recently announced grants under the Greener Homes Scheme which cover solar heating - for space and/or hot water heating; heat pumps; wood chip or pellet stoves and wood chip or pellet boilers. The cost of the installation varies considerably but a rule of thumb is that grants are generally about one third of the cost of the item. The payback in terms of cost and savings should be about five to seven years. Then you are laughing.
THE GARDEN Get a composter for all vegetable waste. Don't put cooked food into it, in case of rodents. The cost in shops can be as high as €150, which is plain silly. Local authorities normally sell them for between €50 and €100, depending on the model.
CONVERT THE CAR You can now buy a hybrid Ford Focus for about the same price as an ordinary Ford Focus, about €20,000. The advantage is that it runs either on petrol or bioethanol. Bioethanol is available at about 85 cent a litre. Ford claims that the bio-ethanol fuel, a byproduct from cheesemaking, produces 70 per cent less carbon dioxide than petrol. Pricier hybrid cars include the Toyota Prius and Lexus RX400h models.
Peter O'Neill of ecomotion.ie converts diesel commercial vehicles and an increasing number of private cars to run on vegetable oil. You should buy the oil from a supplier exempt from excise duty - the Government has nominated a few in a bid to increase our renewable energy targets.
The vegetable oil is usually Irish-grown rapeseed oil, which supports indigenous industry and you don't have to invade Iraq for it. A conversion costs about €1,500 plus VAT for a car and O'Neill reckons that you need to run up about 30,000 miles a year to make that pay. Depending on the supplier, the oil sells for about 75 to 84 cent a litre.
BIGSTEP
Move. Build an ecohouse. With a windmill on the roof (now appearing in suburban homes in Edinburgh), a heat pump in the ground and triple-glazed windows. Save yourself a lot of hard work choosing builders, technologies and products by investing €4.75 in Construct Ireland's Green Pages, a guide to sustainable construction and development.