Use of biofuels for powering company vehicle fleets is becoming widely spread. Another US corporation to have recently made the switch to biofuel is UPS. The international courier company has announced its plans to use bio methane as the fuel of choice for their delivery vehicle fleet. To better understand the importance of using biofuels it makes sense to know what bio methane is and how it is produced. Bio methane, is usually a gas compound i.e. it is a mixture of different gases. Typically, bio methane is produced by harvesting, purification and liquefaction of different gases produced and emitted by the anaerobic breakdown of organic matter. In simple terms, these are the gases that form when organic rubbish decays naturally or is composted in special treatment plants. Bio gas can be produced from a variety of organic waste substances. It is considered to be a renewable energy source with very little carbon footprint. Basically, bio gas is produced when anaerobic bacteria digest decaying organic matter, in biology this is called anaerobic digestion.
UPS have signed a deal with another American company called Clean Energy Fuels – a refiner of renewable fuels, for the supply of bio methane for its delivery vehicle fleet across California. UPS also plans to gradually expand its use of bio gas to other states where the company maintains a vehicle fleet. The company’s own fuelling stations in Los Angeles, Fresno and Sacramento as off this month are now using RNG (renewable natural gas) fuels, also known as redeem. Bio methane is currently used in delivery vehicles as well as some of the service and maintenance vehicles in use at UPS sites. At the moment, the three fuelling stations are able to provide the equivalent of one and a half million gallons of normal LPG annually, enough to power four hundred delivery vehicles in California alone. The whole exercise is part of UPS’ plan to drive one million miles on alternative fuels by the end of twenty seventeen.
The production of renewable natural gas or bio methane is in a sense versatile as it can be done by decomposition of different organic waste, in landfills, waste water treatment facilities etc. This underlines the importance of effective rubbish removal and waste separation as the only source of redeem gas is organic waste. Company bosses say that UPS’ switch to bio methane is a logical step as the demand for the company’s services is growing each year, yet UPS wants to reduce its carbon footprint. The effective use of bio methane shows that it pays off – it is just as efficient as diesel, but it is cheaper and doesn’t pollute the environment (or at least insignificantly when compared to conventionally derived fossil fuels). All in all, use of bio methane proves to be cost effective solution for businesses, and companies should definitely look into it. At the moment, UPS in the United Kingdom operates a number of specialised service vehicles on bio methane, powered in conjunction with Mercedes Benz.
As you know, plastic bottles are one of the main sources of pollution, which is why it is highly advisable to employ ways for recycling or at least proper rubbish removal techniques when it comes to plastic bottles that you use in your everyday life. However there are more ways to make use of your old plastic bottles in addition to just toss them in the bin for the rubbish removal truck to come and collect them, or bringing stacks of them to the depot.
There are a number of DIY projects that you may venture on using old plastic bottles. Thus you will both contribute to the solution of the problem with littering the environment and make something that would be of handy in your everyday life. Let’s take a look at several ideas.
- If you cut out enough bottoms, pierce them and bind them together using a simple metal/wooden stick, you can make a stylish and very useful jewelry stand. You can never have enough of those, right?
- Some people clip the bottoms of plastic bottles and then string them together, thus making very nice looking curtains with two-fold purpose. On one hand, you add privacy to your home, or simply divide two rooms, and on the other – you do not block the light from entering – especially if you use the bottoms of transparent bottles.
- If you or your kids like painting, there is another wonderful use of the bottoms of plastic bottles – you can simply use them as paint stamps, thus creating even and beautifully looking patterns on your paintings.
- One of the oldest and most efficient uses of plastic bottles – besides storing liquids in them of course, is turning one into a garden sprinkler. You need a swivel hose adapter to attach the hose to the bottleneck and to cut some holes throughout the body of the same bottle and you are ready to water your garden/lawn/outdoor space during the heat waves of summer.
- You can tie two bottle bottoms together using super glue and stitching a zipper between them. Add a cushion on the inside and wrap an old inner tube around the zipper in order to make it water proof. Do you know what you have just made? The best protective camera lens case you can hope for!
- If you want to make your patio more vibrant and interesting for the outdoor party you are having Saturday night, remove the labels from colored bottles you have stashed away for the purpose and poke string lights through their bottoms – your outdoor space will be illuminated in a way you have never imagined it can be.
Have in mind that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Use your imagination and come up with more creative ways to reuse your plastic bottles. It is fun and it is good on so many levels – help the environment and help yourself by making the place you live in more functional and green.
The title is self explanatory, right? So let’s just move on to the list of some of the largest music events that you can go to when wondering what to do with your vocation time:
1) 
Exit Fest in Novi Sad, Serbia. This was the venue that brought Serbia back on the cultural map of Europe. Over 200 000 people and more than 300 acts perform every summer on the largest music festival on the Balkans. In the 2007 it earned the UK Festival Award for Best Major European Festival. Every hot name in the world of music performs there.
2) Paleo is held in Nyon in Switzerland. The interesting thing is that most of the work on the festival is done by volunteers and rumor has it that this is the largest festival in the world with such a limited budget. There are usually between 100 and 200 acts on 6 stages every year, and around 230 000 people come. What is more, Paleo has traditions – 2015 will see its 40th edition. It is truly heartwarming, especially bearing in mind the fact that names such as Arctic Monkeys and other artists of their caliber are to be seen every year on this event.
3) Another major European festival at an unlikely place in Sziget in Budapest. Over 170 performers, 15 stages in total, and 385 000 attendants in total as of 2013. Just like Exit was meant to be the big thing happening in Serbia after the political turmoil of the 1990s, Sziget was a result of an uncertain age – the local youth needed a summer outlet that was up to the current trends in the gloomy beginning of the 90s in Hungary – and they got Sziget, which already has a UK Festival Award for Best Major European Festival and the reputation of being a must for festival goers from all over the world.
4) Rock in Rio is a legend. And how could it be otherwise, when frequently rock bands perform here before an audience of more than half a million people? Since 1985 Queen, AC/DC and Iron Maiden were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of big names playing at Rock in Rio. Tickets go for sale two years before an edition and are usually sold out within days. In addition to the 75 bands performing in the festival area, a special Rock Street is made in Rio de Janeiro where 500 acts more can be seen.
5) The king of them all however is Donauinselfest in Vienna, Austria. Are you ready? 21 stages, over 2 000 acts, 3.2 million people and counting every year. Imagine how much work for rubbish removal companies is there after it is all done. This is by far the largest music event annually organized anywhere in the world. The largest stars in Austrian music, as well as international musicians play here, on a 6.5 kilometers stretch next on the Danube Island – and it all takes place in just 3 days. Donauinselfest is a feast of the senses, and it is organized in one of the most beautiful European capitals.
Your guest room must be cozy and welcoming, so that your visitors can feel comfortable during their stay at your place. Here are several guest room decoration tips which you may find extremely helpful.
Start by painting the walls in a calming colour such as beige, white, sky blue and etc. Opt for neutral and soothing colours as they are well accepted by everybody and because they always give a more relaxing atmosphere to the room’s ambiance. Avoid using vibrant tones as they are energising which means that some of your guests may feel agitated during their stay.
Flank the bed with glass top bedside tables. It is preferable that use such tables as your guest won’t feel uncomfortable with the fact that they may leave water rings on the table’s surface. Also place lighting fixtures on each bedside table, so that your guests can find easily the bed when they turn of the main lighting source of the room and more importantly so that they can read in full comfort before going to bed.
Near the bed place a carpet or rug. The floor feature will give a warmer feeling to the room and more importantly will add to the comfort of your guests. However don’t choose a light coloured rug or carpet as it will soil too quickly.
Always place a full-size mirror into the guest room. The mirror will give a more contemporary look to the interior and we will allow your guests to get ready in the morning more easily. Near the mirror you can place a makeup table with a smaller window, so that women can put their makeup without trouble.
Place a large wardrobe in the room and stock its bottom drawers with towels, blankets and other amenities that your guests may need during their stay. Leave the top drawers empty so that your visitors can unpack their clothes and arrange them properly. Also make sure that there are enough hangers.
Add the aforementioned cozy and welcoming ambiance to the room by using decorative throw pillows. Make sure that they are in neutral colours and arrange them all over the room. You can also hang one or two posters, paintings or photos on the walls. However don’t hang anything that is too personalised, instead opt for something that everybody likes such as a landscape, graphite composition and so on.
In one corner of the room place a small table and flank it with two chairs. On the table place a glass vase with perennial flowers in it. This way your guests will have a private corner where they can sit down and discuss the events of the day. Also hang a clock on one of the walls.
Once you are done decoration your guest room, call a rubbish removal company to clear accumulate waste. You will need such services as you will be too tired to remove the junk on your own. Don’t worry about price of waste clearance services as nowadays most rubbish removal contractors work with affordable fees.
Bonus tip: Stock the room with interesting books, just in case your guests have forgotten to bring their own reading materials.
It is safe to say that waste management and rubbish removals are just as old as humanity. But while our firts ancestors practiced waste management techniques of the type dig-a-hole-and-bury-the-trash, the modern era, the one we live in today, requires a much more responsible attitude.
Human activities directly affect nature and bear the potential to tip the fragile balance of the environment in an unpleasant direction any minute now. No other age required a more responsible attitude towards rubbish removals than ours, because today we create and accumulate more trash than ever before.
Garbage causes not only environmental issues, but can also bring harm to the individual’s health and overall quality of life. Everyone likes to live in a clean home, and the first step to achieving that is through proper waste management. It does not take much – just to take out the trash regularly and to have a trusted contractor, no matter whether hired by you or your local council, to collect and dispose of it on a regular basis.
The other important thing to remember is that the collection and disposal should be done proper if they are to be truly effective. As we have already had the chance to say, it is not enough to simply haul the rubbish on a truck or skip, and then drive it to the landfill. Landfills might have worked before, but the truth is that they have always been dangerous for the environment and the general population of the cities they have serviced.
That is why recycling has become so common today. There are dozens of depots on the territory of London alone. Recycling is great for so many reasons that we are more than likely to forget some:
- First, through recycling no trash is accumulated. All materials are re-used, so all the unpleasant long and short-term effects of the accumulation of rubbish are eliminated.
- The re-used materials make the production of new ones from raw materials unnecessary. This means that lots of fresh water is also saved – paper and plastic require tons of fresh water for the production of minimal amounts of the respective goods.
- As a direct effect, the prices of products made out of recycled materials considerably drops down.
So, to summarize, recycling is good for you, for the environment and for the economy. There is just not a single logical reason why you should not make the necessary arrangements and start recycling today. Millions of people do it, and the positive effects of the process are already clearly visible. Imagine what a great change for the world it would be if more people have joined.
Waste management truly matters. And if you are a responsible conscious citizen – not of the UK, not of Europe, but a citizen of the world – you already realize that. And you make your contribution. Good rubbish removal companies just help you optimize the process and make it far more efficient so that more results are achieve with less resources – which is the key concept in waste management as a whole.
All household features and appliances have a lifespan and when they reach a certain age they must be replaced. Here is a quick tutorial on approximately when you should replace some of the items within your home.
People generally replace their kitchen appliances long before they are worn out due to the changes in technology that make the appliances more functional and energy efficient. Still your oven has probably the longest lifespan of all kitchen appliances as experts suggest that ovens can be fully functional for an estimate of 15 years. The refrigerator has a slight shorter lifespan which experts say is about 13 years. Other appliances such as microwaves and dishwashers should last for about 9 years while the compactor is the appliance with the shortest lifespan, approximately 6 years.
Unlike your household appliances, your home cabinetry is made to last. For example kitchen cabinets are expected to last for about five decades, while medicine cabinets have a lifespan of about 25 years. The most enduring household cabinetry is the garbage and laundry cabinetry as they both have a lifetime of over 100 years. Closet shelves are also very durable as they are expected to last for over 60 years. Note that if the time to replace your cabinets has arrived, you should book in advance the services of a rubbish removal company, as the replacement project will generate a lot of waste which you cannot clear on your own.
Masonry features are one of the most durable components of a household. Fireplaces, chimneys, brick faux walls and etc, have a lifespan of over 100 years. So rest assured that you won’t have to replace these features during your lifetime unless some incident happens. If the latter scenario occurs make sure that you use professional waste clearance services to remove the rubbish once you have replaced the damages masonry feature.
If your countertops are made out of natural stone, then they should easily last for your lifetime. On the other hand if your countertops are fabricated from marble, they shouldn’t last more than two decades. This is quite odd as natural stone countertops are by far less expensive than their marble counterparts, which ultimately makes them the better investment.
Regardless of the material from which they are made, decks have a lifespan of approximately 20 years. It is like this because of the fact that decks are exposed to a wide range of different weather conditions. Please note that wooden decks rarely last their full lifespan.
There is a big different between the lifespan of exterior and interior doors. Generally interior doors tend to last longer as they are not exposed to the weather. The materials from which your doors are made also plays an integral role into the life expectancy of your doors. For example fiberglass, steel and wood doors tend to last from 80 to 100 years and more, while vinyl doors will last at best for about three to four decades. The same principal applies to the windows of your home.
It doesn’t matter whether you are building a new house or you are remodeling your current one because you can always plan the project in a manner that will allow you to live in an eco-friendly and energy efficient household. Here are several house design tips which you can use to create an eco-friendly home.
Build or remodel your house in regard of the position of your backyard trees. By deciding to spare the trees you will do yourself a big favor as for one you will have a nice looking garden and two the trees will provide shade that will keep your house cool during the hot months of the year.
Opt for angled windows instead of the traditional vertical windows. Angled windows allow maximum natural light to enter into the household and have special panels at their base that when opened allow the air to circulate and therefore eliminate the necessity of an AC system during the summer months. If angled windows are above your construction budget, you can always opt for a combination of French windows and an energy efficient air-conditioning system.
If the area around your backyard pool is too hot, simply cut some window-like openings into your fence. The opening will allow the breeze to enter into your garden and cool it down. Make sure that you mount metal or wooden blinds on the openings so that you can keep them closed during cold days.
Choose a strong and durable material for your patio or backyard deck. For instance you can use cedar plans. Cedar planks are water and pest resistance and require a minimal amount of maintenance. To only downside of the material is that it tends to generate a lot of timber waste during the building process. However you can easily deal with the garbage by using the services of a rubbish removal company. Note that you won’t have to break bank in order to benefit from quality rubbish removal services.
Instead of using common paint, use paint that has a low rate of volatile organic compounds (VOC). These paints are as good as their traditional counterparts but emit fewer harmful particles into the air while a room or household feature is being painted.
Do not hesitant to implement an open room design into your living room, kitchen and dining room. By removing the walls that separate these three rooms, you will not only allow more light to enter into your home but you will also have one room which is much easier to cool or heat.
If the trees in your backyard are tall, flip the layout of your home by moving the bedroom to the lower level and the living areas in the higher level. This way the bedrooms will benefit from the shade of the trees while the living areas will be well illuminated and will provide to you and your family an amazing view.
As you can see there are numerous tricks to build or transform a household into an energy efficient and eco-friendly home. So now choose the tricks that you like the most and implement them into your project.
Many people dream about having a house with a big and beautiful outdoor space where they can grow flowers, trees, and create intimate and comfortable territories for recreation with family and friends. A well-kept garden can turn a house into a home, and in case you have such an outdoor space on your property, there is no excuse for you not taking good care of it.
On the other hand, gardening is a pretty strenuous and time consuming task that not everyone is up to. Even when you have the skills and actually the desire to take up gardening seriously, you might just not have the time, because you are busy with work and all the other things the modern man is usually occupied with 24/7.
Gardening however can be a much more hassle-free task if you plan it properly. Naturally the first thing you are going to be advised to do is contact your local rubbish removal contactor and check out if they offer garden junk clearance service. Once all the trash if taken out of your outdoor space, it will be much easier for you to proceed with the task of turning your garden into a dream place.
Take your time. It is not said that you have to finish everything within a couple of days or a week. It may take you up to several months to complete your garden. And it is actually a very good thing. Taking things slow is something we have forgotten somewhere along the way of living in the contemporary digital world. And the purpose of gardening is to reconnect you with a much more peaceful and slow, if you will, time, when you have had the opportunity to see the slow changes and accomplishments of your work, which however lead to a permanent positive change to your world.
Plan carefully what you want to do with your garden and how you are going to accomplish it. Get yourself all the necessary supplies and then proceed to tackling the individual tasks – building and planting flowerbeds, cutting the branches of the trees, laying paths etc. Remember – do not rush things. After all, you do all of this for pleasure and fun, and you want results you will be thoroughly satisfied with. A couple of hours a week would be more than enough for you to get good results.
If you want immediate results, you might just hire professional gardeners to do the job for you. But the point of gardening on your own is that the process comes with a number of positive effects. Studies show that gardening reduces stress levels. It also leads to a sense of accomplishment which is very fulfilling. Thousands and thousands of people have taken up gardening in recent years because it helps them forget about all the pressure and strain of everyday life. It is a lifelong hobby and a very pleasant one, so why don’t you consider taking it up yourself too. You will definitely not regret.
Rubbish removals in London, as in anywhere in the world, are very important for keeping the city a nice place to live and work in. London is one of the most important commercial, entertainment and residential centers in the world, so it is only nature that people living and working here expect the highest quality of waste management services both from local councils and private contractors who are carrying out the task. The industry of rubbish removals in London is constantly advancing and searching new ways for optimizing the services provided, so that better and more efficient results are achieved in every situation.
In the past several years specialists are debating more and more on the topic of route optimization and how waste management can benefit from that. The majority of the waste management companies that operate on the territory of the capital today incorporate route optimization methods, thus saving on the resources consumed for the delivery of the service, from which both companies and clients benefit greatly.
Route optimization is basically picking up the minimum quantity of possible routes for servicing as many clients as possible. It minimizes driving time as well as the number of vehicles required for carrying out a junk removal service, which naturally means that the company doing the job has to invest less in covering a wider area. This makes rubbish removals more efficient and drops the price of the service considerably – a fact which on the other hand makes the clients more satisfied.
In order to achieve proper route optimization, special software is developed that takes into account:
- The map of the city
- Traffic information released by the authorities
- GPS map points
- The amount of trash every customer on the route needs to get rid of
- The average weigh of the trash to be collected
- The frequency of the service
- The place where the fleet of disposal vehicles in stationed
- The time needed for unloading a truck at the depot or landfill
- Speed limits at different segments of the streets the route takes
- Pre- and post- collection inspections
All of these variables, and a growing number more are taken into account. Software engineers work constantly on improving the algorithm and providing junk collection companies with more advanced tools for better calculation on the routes that are to be taken in order to make full use of every single trip of each individual driver on the team. The route optimization methods are a perfect example of the benefits that technology presents to the industry. It is good for the specialists working in the field, it is good for the clients, who receive more for the value of their money, and let’s face it – it is good for the environment too. It enables more junk to be collected and properly disposed of in less time and with fewer resources spent on the job. In short – route optimization is good news for everyone.
There are many alternative or innovative waste management methods and procedures out there, but recycling of metal through use of crab shells is totally out there. Of course, it is not as clear cut as mashing up metal scrap with crab shells and hoping for the best. The technology is still in the making but so far the outlook has been good and R&D is going on full steam. So what it is all about?
A leading printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer has joined a collaborative project aiming to introduce seafood industry leftovers into PCB metal recycling technology. Since there is a lot of effluent (production waste water) in manufacturing of printed circuit boards, the project also aims to treat effluent using the same technology derived from seafood industry waste.
The project’s full name is Sustainable Treatment of Waste Using Recycled Chitosan or STOWURC for short. The initiative was planned and launched by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. Project participants explain that the UK’s seafood industry generates large amounts of shellfish waste on an annual basis. This also includes shells leftovers from crabs and other crustaceans. Here is where things get interesting – from an economic point of view, recycling shells is expensive and inviable. However, these shells contain substances called chitosans which are known to absorb different metals.
In the next two years, the STOWURC project will focus on turning crab shells into useful granulated material with highly increased metal absorption properties. This will be done through a serious of mechanical and chemical alterations in order to achieve full conversion. The main metal component in painted circuit boards is copper so the new recycling material will emphasise on absorption of copper. A range of tests and experiments will be devised and conducted as to determine the effectiveness and absorption capacity of the new material.
In terms of technology, the recycling process involves saturation of the new material with copper, retention of copper, and then release of copper through de-absorption which happens in special chemical solution allowing copper to be harvested as metal from the liquid – this is known as electroplating. In addition, scientists are looking to make the chitosans reusable so that once copper is de-absorbed and removed, the chitosans can be used again.
The PCB manufacturer who is backing the project says the technology is still in its early stages and that lots of testing needs to be done in order to optimise the process itself and make copper recycling more efficient. Of course the second key aim is to achieve chitosan reusability and to also develop the technology further so it can be used for recycling of other metals, not just copper.
If you are a business or commercial establishment generating metal scrap, organise for a specialised rubbish removal by a qualified service provider who is authorised to transport and dispose of such waste. Perhaps recycling metal through use of crab shells is still some time away, you can still do your bit in raising the UK’s recycling rate.