If you’re like us, your mailbox gets bombarded with unsolicited junk almost daily. Ads, flyers, leaflets, menus, catalogues etc. mostly printed in colour ink on high quality paper, and all of which you never look at other than to throw it into the recycling/waste bin.
900 000 Publi-Sacs are distributed weekly (more than 46million yearly) in their accompanying plastic bags. It costs the province of Quebec an estimated $1million a year to recycle all this junk-mail, which often arrives in the recycling bin straight from the mailbox un-read! And what’s more? According to our own McGill Marketing profs, unsolicited ads aren’t even an effective Marketing tool for many of the businesses who practice it. Considering most perpectives, these distributions are a waste and a nuissance.
If you’re of the rare coupon-cutting breed that finds these distributions useful, that’s fine, get your coupons and ads online www.publisac.ca. If you are of the mind that they are simply pollution and a bother there is an extremely simple way to reduce this waste and bother.
What you can do:
1) Get a sticker for your mailbox! We’ll be distributing stickers this week and next week at Bronfman so keep an eye out for us (we are Vaughn, Etienne and Phil)! Or go to your local “Eco-Quartier” to pick one up. To make your own, it needs to bear very close resemblance to the official city issued one that you can find at ungestesimple (you can also print this out if you want to), and be no less than 3.5 by 3.5cm, and no bigger than 6 by 6cm.
2) Stick it on your mailbox! You’re done; no more hassle, no more clutter, no more invasion of your space…
However, there is an IMPORTANT optional 3rd step:
3) Notify us of your postal code in the comments section of this post and we’ll contact Publi-Sac, through an alliance with Eco-Quartier Jeanne Mance, and tell them to actually stop printing packages for those on our list. You’ll also be entered into a draw on April 9th to win two meals at Lola Rosa’s restaurant on Milton and Lorne! We will contact you by email.
YOU’RE DONE!!! Tell a friend or your fellow apartment dwellers to do the same.
If you receive addressed advertising and want it to stop, register your name with the Canadian Marketing Association “Do Not Contact” Service
To find your ‘Eco-Quartier’ go to Ville de Montreal: Eco-Quartier
The availability of water will be one of the main issues of the 21st century. Water covers about 70% of our planet and is vital for all living things. 97.5% of that coverage represents saltwater, which is undrinkable by humans, and the other 2.5% is freshwater. However, of that 2.5% of freshwater, approximately 68% is trapped by the glaciers, so that leaves less than 1% (approximately 0.3%) as our supply of freshwater, which is either ground or surface water. This number seems alarmingly low, and with many in this world without access to drinking water, what we need to survive, we must modify our way of living and consume less in order to ensure that we can continue to have access to clean water.
The trend of water consumption in the 21st century is scary. Currently, in terms of litres/person a day, the per capita consumption of water in Canada is around 335L/day, about 300L/day in the US, and around 150 L/day in the UK. This represents a utilization percentage of 54% of the annual freshwater available for humans to be used. We may be thinking that these numbers aren’t a worry because this consumption pattern has remained constant throughout our recent past, but there may be a problem that will be encountered in future years.
Due to the expected increase in the world population over the next decades, the rate of water utilization could reach 70% of total freshwater by 2025 if the level of consumption per person stays constant. But, if less developed countries start to attain the level of water consumption of more developed nations, then we might be using more than 90% of the total annual freshwater available in 2025. Now, this is a statistic that leaves us in an alarming situation. So, what can we do to reduce our water consumption?
Let’s look at the different areas of water consumption in the residential domain. According to SoDCon, a comprehensive study of domestic water consumption patterns, in the United States, the highest usage of water for residential use was for toilets at 27.6%, followed by washing machines at 21.7% and showers at 16.8%. It’s not surprising to find toilets at the top of the chart for residential uses of freshwater when we consider the number of flushes that occur manually or automatically throughout the year which usually represents a volume of 6 litres of freshwater. If we want to reduce our residential consumption of water, we have to look at these areas.
In the toilet department, the best solution would be to implement a water saving device in the cistern, which is where the water is being stored, to reduce constant leakage throughout the day. And when you need to replace your old toilets, opt for dual flush models which use much less water. For the washing machines, use them only when they are at their full capacity. The same goes for dishwashers if you absolutely must use them. In the shower department, quite simply, take shorter showers of (5 minutes max), buy a timer to help you with this, and stay away from baths. All of these actions are absolutely painless and will go a long way towards conserving more of our most precious resource.
Clean water will only continue to be there if we take pro-active action to reduce our consumption levels and to be responsible.
- Étienne Lemay
Filed under: Tips
Tips for saving energy
Simple steps to reduce energy use and costs
To save energy, set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter and as high as is comfortable in the summer. You save 3 percent on the day’s heating or cooling costs by setting your thermostat back one degree (higher for cooling, lower for heating) for that 24-hour period. Maintain those settings and you save 3 percent all season!
Clean or replace heating and cooling filters once a month or as needed. If your filter is in a cardboard frame, it needs to be replaced monthly during the heating season. If your system doubles as a central air-conditioning system, also clean or replace the filter monthly while the cooling system is in use.
Clean air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed. Make sure they’re not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
Bleed trapped air from hot-water radiators once or twice a season. If in doubt about how to perform this task, call a professional.
Use kitchen, bath, and other ventilating fans wisely. In just one hour, these fans can pull out a houseful of warmed or cooled air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done the job.
During the heating season, keep the draperies and blinds on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow sunlight and heat to enter your home.
Close drapes at night to help reduce heat loss.
During the cooling season, keep the window coverings closed during the day to prevent the sun from heating your home.
Make sure drapes don’t block registers and air returns.
Close off unoccupied rooms.
Install individual room controls to heat and cool rooms only when you use them.
Have your heating and cooling systems serviced once a year to ensure peak operational efficiency.
Saving water and water-heating energy
Install low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators.
Insulate long runs of hot-water supply pipe, especially sections that pass through unheated spaces.
Repair or replace leaky faucets. The drips add up fast and represent dollars going down the drain. A hot water faucet that leaks one drop per second wastes more than 2,300 gallons of hot water per year, which could cost as much as $36. The replacement washers needed to repair a leaky faucet costs only a few cents.
Lower the water heater thermostat to 120°F., or raise the temperature and install a cold water-mixing valve to the line. Water reaching your tap will be 120°F., will be safe enough to avoid scalds, and will save you money.
Laundering
Wash with cold water whenever possible.
Wash and dry full loads to maximize efficiency.
Don’t overload dryers. Overloaded dryers use more energy, cause clothes to wrinkle so they may need to be ironed, and wears out clothes more quickly.
Use suds savers and front-loading washers for maximum efficiency.
Always adjust the water level to fit load size. Overloaded washers don’t clean clothes as effectively so they even may need to be rewashed.
Clean the lint filter after each drying cycle to maintain dryer efficiency.
Energy-efficient lighting
Use task lighting to target work and leisure activities. This lets you reduce your overall room lighting levels.
Use energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs—especially in fixtures that operate more than two hours a day. They cost more initially but use 75 percent less electricity and last about ten times longer than incandescent bulbs.
Open shades and blinds to take advantage of natural light.
Select bulbs carefully. Look for the highest lumens at the lowest wattage. Wattage is the power needed to make a bulb work. Lumens measure brightness.
Long-life bulbs emit less light than standard incandescent bulbs of the same wattage. Use long-life bulbs only in hard-to-reach places.
Keep light fixtures clean to gain the most illumination.
Test the tightness of the door seal on refrigerators and freezers. If the seal doesn’t tightly hold a dollar bill when the door is closed, it’s probably time to adjust or replace the gasket.
Replace old refrigerators. A 1980s-era refrigerator will cost up to 75 percent more to operate than a new super-efficient model.
For greatest efficency set refrigerators at 40º F. and freezers at 0º F.
Use your oven instead of your cook top to cut cooking costs. Surface units heat continuously, but an insulated oven normally heats one-third of the time it’s in use.
Don’t peek. Cooking temperatures can drop as much as 50º every time the oven door is opened, causing the oven to reheat.
Use the oven’s self-cleaning cycle only for big cleaning jobs. Start the cycle while the oven is still hot from baking.
Use small appliances such as crockpots, electric frying pans, toaster ovens, and microwave ovens to save when cooking.
