What Form(s) of Waste, or Excessive Use of Resources, Gall You Most?

Eating when you have no real use for the calories. Is 3 meals, or even 2 plentiful meals a day even justified when one doesn't really exercise enough to burn it most of the time?

Planting water thirsty plants so you HAVE to water them.

Generating enough trash that you HAVE to put the trash cans out to the curb each week for the garbage pickup.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ghostofjk @ Jun 13 2006, 11:50 PM) [snapback]270972[/snapback]</div>

Top of my list for waste is the sale of water in plastic bottles. Grocery shops here are stacked with bottles of various sizes and it is obvious that many people buy this water instead of relying on the public system which supplies excellent water. I even heard of a woman who buys bottled water to wash in.
The "waste" is not the water itself, it's the plastic made from finite sources such as oil and coal and this waste only brings closer the days when these basics will run out or be far too expensive for most of us.

Next on my list is the excessive size and number of newspapers, magazines and books of trivia. Apart from the waste of paper it would be of much greater benefit if the so-called journalists who supply the words for all this rubbish, and the publishers, were to get proper jobs such as school-teachers, plumbers, nurses and other occupations which find it difficult to recruit.


The other side of the waste argument is of course that if society did not produce so much waste there would be a vast increase in unemployment.

 

F***ing Plastic bags!!!!

 

Leaving computers on when not going to use for a long time!!

 

Wasting water and excess packaging. A major convenience that is a waste is disposable diapers. Couldn't people just use them while out and about?

 

All the "hot air" that constantly emits from the officials of the US Government in Washington, D.C.! :angry:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Jun 15 2006, 11:43 AM) [snapback]271748[/snapback]</div>

Mine too!
But I think you missed the environmental impacts of transporting that water. If it is truly spring water, then often it is trucked to the bottling plant, then to the store, then to the home.

And then there are the really stupid ones . . . the 20oz bottles sold from an outside refrigerated vending machine. Think of the wasted electricity. Add this cost to those from above, then add profit. . . . I don't feel sad at all for the morons who buy that stuff. If that cool little refreshing bottle costs $1.50 . . . they are paying $9.60 per gallon!!!! I think that is even more than Europeans pay for their gasoline.

128ounces per gallon / 20oz bottle = 6.4 X $1.50 = $9.60 per gallon
If 99cents per bottle, that's still $6.34 per gallon!

Now you know why bottled water is such big business.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jun 20 2006, 11:10 AM) [snapback]274156[/snapback]</div>

I agree, it would be better for the environment to turn the computer off when not in use. It's not always practical to do so - so, I at least make my computer do something useful with that wasted time and energy . . .

My computer does medical research with Stanford's Folding at Home distributed computing project.
http://folding.stanford.edu/



You can set it to be autonomous and not to compete for computer resources if need be. I have mine running all the time the computer is on. I don't notice any degradation.

Wanna help to find cures for Alzheimer's Disease, Cancer, Huntington's Disease, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Parkinson's Disease or Ribosome & antibiotics investigations? Folding at Home could really use your unused computer time . . . it's not rehashing the same stuff over and over like some distributed computing projects, just to keep you busy, there is a real need . . . and they could do so much more.

It's kind of like carpooling for your computer.

 

Those "idle" desktop computers aren't just sitting there -- they're
collecting keystrokes and bank accounts, launching denial-of-service
attacks, and sending huge wads of spam! You wouldn't want to shut
them down and piss off the bulgarian mafia, now would you?
.
_H*

 

The human race somehow managed to grow long before we had air conditioning.
Anybody who has ever been to Japan probably has noticed they use much less sugar in their foods as a general rule than we do. And let us not forget our wonderful government structure who can find a way to add waste in every cost cutting measure. :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jun 20 2006, 02:10 PM) [snapback]274156[/snapback]</div>

I submitted a suggestion to my company about this. We have about 1000 employees at our location, and I know many of them do not turn off their computers when they leave for the day or end of the week. The response was that my suggestion is non-adoptive. :angry:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ScottY @ Jun 20 2006, 05:57 PM) [snapback]274300[/snapback]</div>

Network administrators typically do software rollouts, updates, and patches at night as part of an automated process and often companies are turningt to localized imaging backup plans as a way of automating the restoration process. It is now possible at a reasonable cost to recover an exact image from a computer and restore to dissimiliar hardware. Turning them off at night actually costs more than the savings in electricity.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jun 20 2006, 09:44 AM) [snapback]274042[/snapback]</div>

If, like me, you frequently stop at the store on your way home to pick up a few items, you absolutely must keep a canvas bag in your car. I figure that I average 3 or 4 stops at the store per week, and I'm saving 1 or 2 plastic bags per trip, so that's several hundred bags per year. They add up!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ScottY @ Jun 20 2006, 11:52 AM) [snapback]274074[/snapback]</div>

Boy, that is one or two with me as well. Wasting energy and wearing down their computer faster than necessary! I feel compelled to go and turn them off, especially when it is over a weekend.


Water sprinklers is up there as well, but when they are run during the heat of the day. Wasting water and money! Come on, get a clue people!

Wow, that felt very cathartic!


EDIT: After seeing yoru post tnthub, I felt obliged to say that none of those recovery/update practices are being done by the two places where I see the lack of computer turning offage.

 

7+ billion/month spent on war!

 

Bottles from bottled water EVERYWHERE. Even in areas with water fountains.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Jun 20 2006, 12:16 PM) [snapback]274202[/snapback]</div>

i agree that bottled water is a wasteful but profitable business. i only drink water and coffee and all my water comes from those 20 oz bottles but i only buy maybe a case every other month or so. (for some reason, i have to...) there is a artesian well in downtown olympia that i access about once every few weeks or so, (or when ever im in the neighborhood. there i refill water from a well that has been tapped that runs 24-7. (it has too or the pressure would force the water up somewhere else probably not nearly as nice.)