Radical Recycling

[Craig Bergland]

1/26/2009

We don't have a lot of time to waste. With a global economy in free fall, and facing the double barrels of Peak Oil and Climate Change, I thought I'd start a thread on Radical Recycling. We have to start using all our tools, and since Billy has given us this nice place (a tool) to put ideas up on I'm hoping you can build on some of my ideas and enlarge this concept of radical recycling/re-use.
I've written about some of this stuff before, and you can find more on my site www.votebergland.org, and the old website www.NNEMA.org. Please ignore the political stuff on these pages, I lost the last two elections and am no longer a candidate, but am keeping the sites up and running because there has been some traffic on it, especially from overseas.

Obviously I'm a Peak Oil Doomer, and became more so after reading Kunstler's "The Long Emergency".
I've also got some posts on two of the Peak Oil sites, www.theoildrum.com, and www.doomers.us. They're very educational sites, and my few posts on there are under the names renofreepress, and renobergie, respectively. I hope you have time to browse these great websites. Of course I hope to participate more fully now in our very own washoegreens webpage. Good job Billy, thanks!

As I see it we've passed the Golden Age of America and are now on the decline. On one hand it may be a good thing because we'll be trashing the planet less, and be forced to use our very creative minds to adapt to the new age. On the other hand it is going to be very hard for many of us to adapt to new conditions. Our salvation may the electronic communications and our togetherness.

So anyway, my recent efforts have been towards re-using tin cans.
My favorites are the Carnation Evaporated Milk cans, and that's because they are nestable, (explain later), tho' any tin cans will work for most of these projects.

Cans for cookers.
The first can-cooker I built was a Rocket stove. Do a search on internet for more details.
Here's a pic, and the advantages are that the firebox is doubled (thus insulated) allowing more heat to be captured. It works OK and allows continuous feed of wood, but I like the wood-gas stoves better.

Wood Gas stoves are my favorites. Do a search on how to build, they're pretty easy and do produce a real nice flame.

I've also designed one for wood-pellets (it'll use twigs, too). The difference between mine and others is in the placement of the air intake holes.
Generally holes are evenly distributed over the bottom and lower 1/3 of the can. Mine however leaves the center of the bottom edge without holes.

This allows IMHO a full burn around the perimeter, and an unburnt source in the middle which feeds the fire longer. Don't know if that's actually true, but it seems so.
Also I made the addition of a large hole midway up which is used for lighting the thing, and also seems to provide extra air to allow the unburnt gasses to vortex before hitting the top combustion holes.

Test results so far are that it will burn 4 oz of pellets for 20 minutes. After starting it it is relatively smoke free, and you get a little smoke only after 20 minutes when the flames start to go out. It will stay hot for another 20 minutes. Not bad for 4 oz of fuel.

I'm currently designing a series of Food Tubes for my disaster preparedness efforts. A good idea for us all to think about. Check the blog on my site for Bug Out Tubes for more info and uses of tin cans.
These Bug Out Tubes provide a portable stash of foods and also you can make stuff from the cans.
You can cook in them
You can eat from them
Make stoves
Filter water
Sprout seeds
Make heat tubes
etc. etc.

Rather than use cans just for survival kits, they also make great solar hot air collectors.
Here's one I made for our house. In theory it will kick out about 1KW of heat on a sunny day. More if it were to track the sun, but that's another project. It was made using scrap glass, wood and a can of black spray paint. It'll reach over 180 degrees (more if fine tuned) and also I used it last year to dehydrate tomatoes from the garden.

I'm also building one from aluminum beer cans and will post if there is interest on how to make one.

Well, that's it for this post. I hope you get some ideas from it for Radical Recycling, and will add to our group knowledge.
Thanks,
Craig

[Craig Bergland]

A couple of comments. First, the 2nd picture from bottom is upside down. Second, should I in the future upload these as snapshots (is that the word, smaller photos, you know...)
Third, is this the right place in this webpage to be posting this? I hoped it would be in the area where Billy and I were talking about breads, but to tell the truch, I'm not so good on this webpage stuff and don't know how to get it over there.
Perhaps Billy could transfer it???
Thanks,
Craig

[Billy]

I long ago forwent bringing metal cans into my household. Golly, like back in 1986. We do have plenty stored around for a short or long-term necessity and many of those are boxes. Otherwise they just didn't come in to our house until 5 months ago when I adopted our dog Brooks. Now I've got two a day but I'm looking into making his food for him. Hey! I can cook his food in one of these brilliant contraptions!

I do find, however, that even shopping for things in bulk like I learned to do at the CoOp in Santa Cruz back in '86, a ton of plastic crap still makes its way into the house.

We have a lot of plants in the house so a good portion of the plastic goes under them as watering troughs. I double them up where the bottom layer is full of small stones and then I add another plastic for the plant. Both get filled with water to keep the plant's and our home's humidity high with the plants, the veggies, the animals and we enjoy immensely.

[Billy]

This is, Craig Bergland, the absolute perfect place for this material. Definitely a thread unto itself. Thanks so much for getting this discussion going. Lots to talk about. Packaging is strangling us, literally.

Craig Bergland said:

A couple of comments. First, the 2nd picture from bottom is upside down. Second, should I in the future upload these as snapshots (is that the word, smaller photos, you know...)
Third, is this the right place in this webpage to be posting this? I hoped it would be in the area where Billy and I were talking about breads, but to tell the truch, I'm not so good on this webpage stuff and don't know how to get it over there. Perhaps Billy could transfer it??? Thanks, Craig

[Craig Bergland]

Radical Recycling 002

While this post doesn't blatantly deal with recycling, it does with conservation.
Conservation IS recycling, in a sense.
A BTU saved is a BTU earned, and we're burning BTU's way too fast.
This also deals with conserving other things like your time and money.
The latter is important to many of us in this era of shrinking employment and collapsing dollars.
The former is important to anyone caught in the rat race.
We've got some harsh times coming soon IMHO....

In 2002 I sold The Car and bought a $2,000 moped (scooter) that gets 80-100 mpg and requires no license plate, tags, or insurance.
It has served me faithfully for these nearly 7 years, and maintanence costs have been under $200.
I never have to get into a hot car, the wind cools me while driving, and parking is INCREDIBLY easy.
Fillups are just over a gallon a week (I live close to work), and I can carry 2 bags of groceries (without a supplemental backpack or optional rack).
It goes about anywhere, and a couple of years ago I drove it offroad up to the Hunter Lake area. No problems.
It is the ultimate PMSUV (Personal Minimal Sports Utility Vehicle).
And, being a Peak Oil Doomer, it provides me the means to scoot past the lines of 4-wheel vehicles exiting the cities if a disaster happens.
Let's hope not.

I'm saving about $600 a month over the cost of a new car. This includes monthly payments, interest, license and tags, mandatory insurance, half as many tires to maintain, maintanence service contracts, radically lower fill-up costs, and etcetera.
That equates to at least one day a week of hours that I don't have to work.
That's 10 hours or so of time that I have to myself, and still can maintain my level of quality of life.
Actually I work less than 5 days a week, earn less money, but also ergo have less expenses.
It works out equally, almost, but because I have an extra 'free' day a week I can in theory get more done in life.
This is a win situation for me, and I'd like to share it.
Could be for you, too.
Especially in these exasperatingly uncertain times....
Could be a good primary vehicle for you. Or even a supplemental one that will pay for itself in under 4 months.
I do drive mine year round. When it snows, I just slow down and put my feet out. Works great!
Now, if I had been smarter when buying this, I would have instead gotten an electric motor retrofit kit for my bicycle.
Much more green, however mopeds can be fitted with small trailers which may allow hauling and some form of local commerce in the coming uncertain future....

Thanks
Craig

[Craig Bergland]

Pressure cookers.

A good non-aluminum pressure cooker should be a part of your daily life and/or your survival kit.
It is amongst the most efficient ways to cook foods, especially long-cooking ones like beans, etc.
It is by virtue of that lower energy use, alone, worth the cost.
And it also frees up a little time used cooking longer in regular pots and pans.
Also it preserves more available nutrients due to less water needs to cook.

I've cooked in them over electric, gas, wood, and parabolic solar mirror. I'm going to try to see if a wood-gas stove will bring it up to pressue also.
They're wonderful, and while not as quick as a microwave, are very fast.

For us hyper-conservationists, here is a little device I'm building to further expand its efficiencies.This is a cardboard/glue 'blanket' which makes my cooker less energy using.

After bringing the cooker up to steam, I place it in the blanket and cover the top with a second piece. This helps give extended pressure time with no fuel use. The blanket hold the cooker up to pressure for about 20 minutes. After 40 minutes the temp is still 150 degrees, and that is time enough to cook a pre-soaked batch of beans or other foods.

Often, when cooking in pressure, the blanket is not even needed. Potatoes seem to get cooked by bringing to presssure, and then turning off the fuel without putting into a blanket. By the time the cooker naturally loses its pressure, they're done.
I would guess that most foods can be cooked this way, but for those times you need a little longer pressure, the blanket seems to provide that.

Sorry, the pics came up sideways, and I don't know how to correct that.

Thanks

[Craig Bergland]

3/12/2009

Prudent Recycling Meets Enviable Food Storage.

As ancient lore suggests, we should stash foods for those 'one of seven' years of drought and famine.
Buying bulk grains is an excellent move, and the grains/beans not only provide future-food, but also provide living seeds for gardens, and as sproutables to enhance nutrition.

It benefits us all to take a bit of our meagre earnings and buy a supply of storable foods, enhancing our and our neighbors security against hard times.

We also have a criminally inefficient recycling system.
Some of us take our plastic/metal/glass food containers and:
1. Throw them in the trash.
2. Rinse them and put into recycling bins.
3. Rinse them and re-use for storing grain-based food stashes, etc.

There was an article about a guy in NYC who has no trash.
But that takes a lot of work, and a good deal of planning.

If one takes into account the EROEI of our typical container, and the huge waste of throwing these higly energy intensive products into our landfills, then certainly it makes immediate sense to start recycling properly.
I recycle by filling by disposable containers with the bulk foods that I routinely buy.
The typical glass screw-top container can be cleaned and then placed in the sun for a day or two to sterilize it. Then, it makes a great container for long-term food storage. I use some of those fruit juice containers (12 oz) that we buy. Clean them, fill them with grains, screw on the cap tightly, and then store them in the basement, crawlspace, or shed out of direct sunlight.
Plastic containers work well, too, but be sure to get them secured from rodent intrusion. Hang them with strings from a beam or bury them.
My favorite as of late is tin cans. Specifically nesting tin cans.
I'll do posts later on using these excellent tools.

It is of prime importance that we all start thinking about a sudden interruption in our food supply, and make preparations.

It is folly (as I've read by some who want to) to put out the money for solar panels to power our freezers so that we can store our spoilable meats when the power goes out.
Meats offer less efficiency than grains or beans.
Meats are disease causing.
You can't grow a new cow from a steak, as you can grains from seeds.
Freezers are pretty stupid devices for many reasons.
The whole concept is insanity and mass psychosis.
But then, that is the world in 2009.

I hope that you will put out the small funds to buy 5 lbs of rice and 5 lbs of beans for each person in your household for emergencies. You can provide future food. The survival gene is pre-programmed.
You WILL be part of the solution, especially since we have only a 3-day supply of 'just-in-time' foods in our supermarkets.
What a crazy planet....

Thank you,
Craig B.

[Craig Bergland]

3/12/2009


Biofuels Done Right

Biofuels and annual biomass in addition to being somewhat carbon-neutral, seem to be also sustainable endeavors.
For those liquid fuel needs, alcohol can serve many duties. While I do not suggest we run our 'mobile parking lots', (highway system) on them, certainly alcohol fuels can play an important function.
It is almost obscene to run our transportation system on food-crop growing lands with starving billions. And yes, I do realize that #2 grade corn IS usable by humans after grinding....
And also the EROEI may be suspect of growing corn to fuel our cars.
Alcohol fuels have advantages that they are storable, potentially home-grown, and give pretty much instant heat.
Disadvantages are that it takes (your) time to make, is hard to see burning, and most importantly is ILLEGAL.
Unfortunately it is illegal to distill things, even water according to my read of the laws. This is one of those crimes where 'they' can take away everyting you own. If caught distilling the Feds can seize your house, car, bank account and firstborn and their firstborn.
This is an old law. While we can make beer and wine to the tune of several hundreds of gallons a year, we cannot distill even one ounce of ethyl alcohol.
Pretty much a bummer.

With legally locally produced ethanol we could:
Use it for cooking
Emergency heat
Locally added to auto fuel tanks
Drinking
Antiseptic purposes
Barter and trade
Possible thermal/cooling/refrigeration purposes
Add to local/community and national energy stockpiles

But we first have to convince the Feds to let us patriots pursue that adventure.
That's where you come in, write a letter.

The ban on distilling came about because ancient empires wanted a tax on easily-portable concentrated alcohol. Brandy was much more EROEI than wine, so the powers that be decided to get their cut. And it has stood ever since.

Among the great characteristics of ethanol production is that it might be possible through solar stills.
Having worked with solar for this purpose, and having read and experimented somewhat, I am convinced that solar distillation is a practical means for producing nearly-off-grid energy.
While I have not pursued it due to my lack of desire to lose all my possesions, I have given it some serious thought.
If our present Peak Oil, Climate change, economic woes lead to semi-collapse, then you might want to consider making your own still.
Purely for educational purposes, of course.

To carry this out a bit further, perhaps there might be good value in growing the cannibus crops on our homesteads and mini-farms. Hemp is known to be beneficial in many respects.
It improves soils, and is drought tolerant.
It requires little or no pesticides and fertilization.
If provides valuable fresh cooking oils and edible oils.
Our forefathers used it for paper, cloth, and smoking and medical purposes.
It is reputedly a DIRECT replacement for diesel.

We do not only have to start thinking outside the box, but outside the video-screen that gave us 'the box' in the first place.
Our times are much too precarious to not consider all possible options to sustainability.

Also, perhaps it is time to stop flushing our crap into the local water supply and learning how to distill those methanes generated by anaerobic decomposition of human feces. In India they have for some time been using methane generators for cooking fuels.
And yet here we are, the greatest nation, flushing all that good crap down the toilets.
Humanure, methane production, and even pee'ing on trees if far preferrable to flushing.

Pee on a tree, help save us all.

Thanks,
Craig B.

[Billy]

I notice the list of "With legally locally produced ethanol we could" is not necessarily in order of importance.

Neither is the "Hemp is known to be beneficial in many respects" list which should include all manner of rope and twine, even thin amounts of string are quite strong which can be spun into very durable fabrics for clothing or on a large scale for a shade/UV screen.

My 89 year old Mom has always wanted us to grow a marijuana or hemp plant. That WWII ARMY Nurse Corps Veteran has never understood why the government wants to regulate the plants we grow in our yards no matter what use we put them to.

Here's a Google search return for the string, "Composting Toilet. In addition to your unordered list of things human manure can do for us, these systems would reduce the need for effluent water treatment which is a big source of carbon emissions. The manure of vegan humans is excellent in the garden.

You are the second person this week to recommend voiding in the backyard for its organic benefits. I don't think I'd do it on the tree trunk as so many tress in the Truckee Meadows don't belong here and are victims of sun scald and/or weed whacked or mower smacked and their bark layer is damaged. I'm not sure how the fleshy cambic layer beneath would react.

I'd pee in the soil around a tree or, better, in the compost heap. Especially if you've been drinking organic beer, ale, mead, or kambucha.

[Craig Bergland]

3/20/2009
Radical Recycling

Plastic VS Paper

Most who know me agree, I'm pretty Basic-Serious-Green.
But in the debate of paper over plastic bags, I have to lean with the latter.
Yes, it's true.
And I am in agony because of my Green deep roots, and my sometimes-seemingly opposed scientific bent.
So here is my rationalle:
A bag of plastic is one that is not burned for (pre) petroleum fuel. It takes oil to make plastic.
I am convinced that the environmental and monetary costs of plastic PER UNIT is exponentially less than that of wood.
It's far lighter and less bulky than paper.
There is some serious current interest in re-using plastic by melting at low-temps to use for raw tooling materials, construction materials, clothing, waterproof and long-lasting shingles/coverings, castings for obsolescent or broken parts, and a myriad of purposes in our coming new post-oil world.
Including, as read in a peak oil doomer post once, -- burning it for fuel and to keep warm.

Whoa, whoa,
I am in the firm forefront of the antithesis of burning plastic. It is horribly terribly ugly-nasty, but in some starvation countries on our planet, people sift the landfills and burn it to cook and keep warm.
This is our world.
What would YOU do in that position?
It also has a very high BTU/efficiency for pound.
IF... you were lost in a snowstorm, and stuck, with a family, nearly out of gas, and miles from the nearest help, what would you do?
Think about it....
This is a survival question.

How would you get help?

For myself, I'd probably take the spare tire out of the trunk, place it away from the car, (and from any combustibles) and then light it. Two reasons. The horrible smoke might well alert rescuers to your plight. And, the tire will keep you warm in subfreezing temperatures if you huddle on the upwind side of it. And, as it burns out, you will probably be warm enough to take off one of your other tires and plop it on the first one to continue burning. Etc.
Pretty nasty but in survival mode it might help save your ass.
Just like creative plastic re-use may help us all in our uncertain future.
I will admit, I have never set a tire on fire, but it's probably pretty darned hard, unless you have an accelerant.
Gas in your car is a good one. Pop the fuel line on your gas tank and drain out enough to fire up that tire. And if the tank is empty, perhaps you can get enough from the fuel line or carbuerator to get a fire.
Or, use anything flammable, car seat covers, whatever burns. Plastic burns.
Hopefully someone will see that smoke, and until you are rescued, you can stay from freezing.
Un-hopefully, you'll freeze.

Plastics IMHO are terrribly potential materiels. I truly believe the 'oil fields' of the next 100 years are going to be our landfills and all the goodies we now daily dump there.
The serious Plus here is that in theory plastics can be re-used using solar focussing mirrors for proper non-volatile melting and casting.

Paper of plastic?
Give me plastic, I can find a use for it.
And with our scary world future, we need - all - the tools we can get.

I'm sure I can come up with even more reasons to favor plastic, but the EROEI is in my mind far superior to that of paper. And it lets that CO2 absorbing tree get older and progressively more efficient at its task.

I appreciate your inputs. Maybe you can convince me to switch.

Plastic doesn't have to be burned or landfilled. It is stored, highly-concentrated solar energy. It is many aeons old, and a generous gift from our Cosmos. It is nature, and tho' we misuse it, it is our fault, not plastics.

You know, we really don't have time to get sidetracked over P VS P at this point in our mortal and moral history.
We're all going to get into survival mode pretty quick, and we'd best prepare and preplan.
IMHO.

And, to end, yes, cloth bags are superior -- especially if they are woven locally from locally grown hemp.

Yours in Peace,
Craig B.

[Natalie Webb]

really awesome & thoughts good o have such idea on recycling of wastage materials. i read the content written here is to tell the visitors know about what happening & would to happen next; recycling is to keep the Waste Stickers paper decals, anything which spoil our environment & we reduce it by reuse such all trash . .