Urban mining is the practice of recovering elements, compounds and materials from products, buildings and waste. Many metals can be mined, including, aluminum, copper, magnesium, titanium, lead, tin, and zinc and rare earths.

Little research exists about urban mining, and the method is one that hasn’t been exceedingly exposed to the public. The best way to clarify urban mining is to provide a paradigm.

Many everyday items contain elements that can be reused. For example, aluminum cans, or used beverage cans (UBC), are a very “refined form of bauxite ore”. Bauxite is an ore that is our key resource for aluminum. Our ecosystem is limited, decreasing and materially closed; and consumers are often unaware of how valuable this metal is, and the environmental and economic repercussions that can occur if we do not properly recycle UBCs.

Although the US aluminum can recycling rate is improving, it still hovers around 55%. This implies that almost half of all cans produced are lost to the recycle stream and end up in a landfill. It is practical for us to explore urban mining concepts to recover lost and buried aluminum cans. Our current efforts to gather aluminum UBC waste include the collection of “clean” UBCs; the collection of UBCs as commingled waste; and mining a preexisting landfill. Urban mining only supplements and complements these methods, and can help produce a desirable recycling rate of 95%.

Barriers

Much research and preliminary testing needs to be done before attempting to mine a landfill. First, we must seek a site with practical and profitable exploration, and recovery potentials; in order to fully exercise our methods, the landfill must contain an above average amount of UBC. Best methods and costs to loosen and separate material from soil still needs to be researched. In addition, we need to find solutions to:

• the degree of packing and overburden in the landfill;
• the amount of drying and cleaning required for UBC;
• the landfill timeline and the potential capital and operating costs;
• the potential value of the recovered aluminum;
• the economic, environmental and legal requirements and costs for opening and resealing the landfill following the recovery process.

Economic and Environmental Impacts

It is estimated that, nationwide, there are 20 million tons of UBCs that are sitting in landfills. Assuming a metal price of $2,500 per ton, this signifies a loss of $50 billion. If these cans were recycled, then the aluminum industry would gain 909,000 tons of metal per year. The advent of this metal would prevent the aluminum industry from having to build new bauxite mines, alumina refiners and aluminum smelters that extract metal from its ore through a process of mining, refining and smelting.  Additionally, recycling will lower capital and energy costs, as well as environmental releases of CO₂.

The aluminum industry—the use of smelters—leaves a large carbon footprint; contrarily, recycling only uses 5% of this energy.

Path Forward

All options should be explored in order to lessen the aluminum industry’s carbon footprint, and ensure better carbon neutrality for the global aluminum industry. Urban mining is currently one of our best unexplored options which must be rigorously bolstered with more in-field research.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Tara Mahadevan , May 3, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

See the embedded Power Point Presentation

Urban Mining – Carbon Neutrality for Global Manufacturing Industry

Cycle of Carbon Neutrality

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das  April 15 , 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

Last week we blogged on Tip #14: Insulate the Home. As part of our ongoing 15-week blog series promoting the United States Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Collection, this week we are blogging Tip #15: Maintain Tire Pressure.

Adequate Tire Pressure: More Than Just Hot Air.

Properly inflated tires can put you on the road to a greener lifestyle. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “You can improve your gas mileage by up to 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.3 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires. Properly inflated tires are safer and last longer.”

By properly inflating your tires, you can not only improve your fuel economy and save yourself some cash, but it may also save your life. CBS News reports, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 44 million people in the United States are driving with under-inflated tires. They can have a serious impact on a vehicle’s handling, its braking abilities, and its performance in wet weather.” Save your tires and your life—maintain proper tire pressure!

How Often Should You Check Your Pressure?

As a general rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to monitor and adjust your time pressure (as needed) every month. Monthly tire checks may seem like overkill, but consider this tip from Pepboys.com, “Seasonal temperatures change the air pressure in tires. Cold winter weather will cause the air pressure to drop. Warm summer temperatures will cause the air pressure to increase. Rule of thumb is a swing in temperature by 10 degrees will cause a 1 lb. change in a tires air pressure.”

How to Check Your Tire Pressure

 Not sure how to check your tire pressure? Watch this step-by-step tutorial video from Edmunds.com:

Conclusion

This blog marks the final blog in our U.S. Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Series. We hope you’ve found these blogs to both informative and entertaining. Did you miss any blogs in the series? Scroll back through our archives to read them all.

Thanks for reading. Stay Tuned.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on March 7, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

US Green Stamp Initiative

Last week we blogged on Tip #13: Let Nature Do the Work. As part of our ongoing 15-week blog series promoting the United States Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Collection, this week we are blogging Tip #14: Insulate the Home.

Living in Kentucky, we see every season. We know the bitter cold of winter, the sweet smell of spring rain, the stifling heat of southern summers, and the warm colors of autumn leaves. With so many changing seasons, it’s not always easy to maintain a comfortable temperature in our homes without breaking our energy budgets. By properly insulating your home, you can save big on your home energy costs, and greatly reduce your carbon footprint.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Energy Savers website explains how insulation works,

“Heat flows naturally from a warmer to a cooler space. In the winter, this heat flow moves directly from all heated living spaces to adjacent unheated attics, garages, basements, and even to the outdoors. Heat flow can also move indirectly through interior ceilings, walls, and floors—wherever there is a difference in temperature. During the cooling season, heat flows from the outdoors to the interior of a house.

To maintain comfort, the heat lost in the winter must be replaced by your heating system and the heat gained in the summer must be removed by your cooling system. Properly insulating your home will decrease this heat flow by providing an effective resistance to the flow of heat.”

Just how much can you save by properly insulating your home? Insulate.org observes,

“Insulation saves money, increases home comfort, and protects the environment by reducing energy use. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the typical U.S. family spends close to $1,500 each year on energy bills. DOE statistics show that, typically, 44% of a homeowner’s utility bill goes for heating and cooling costs. DOE states that homeowners may be able to reduce their energy bills from 10% to 50% by taking certain steps.”

How to Get Started

The prospect of insulating your home—especially if it is a larger home—may seem like a daunting task. Luckily, the team at HomeServe.com has developed this excellent instructional video to guide you through each step of the home insulation process.

We hope you have enjoyed this blog on insulating your home. Next week, we will conclude our 15-week USPS “Go Green” Stamp Series with Tip #15: Maintain Tire Pressure. Stay Tuned.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on

March 1, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

Journal of Metals February 2012

SUBODH DAS
Phinix, LLC, Lexington, Kentucky, USA , e-mail: skdas@phinix.net

In the 21st century, sustainability is widely regarded as the new corporate
culture, and leading manufacturing companies (Toyota, GE, and Alcoa) and
service companies (Google and Federal Express) are striving towards carbon
neutrality. The current carbon footprint of the global aluminum industry is
estimated at 500 million metric tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq),
representing about 1.7% of global emissions from all sources. For the global
aluminum industry, carbon neutrality is defined as a state where the total
‘‘in-use’’ CO2eq saved from all products in current use, including incremental
process efficiency improvements, recycling, and urban mining activities,
equals the CO2eq expended to produce the global output of aluminum. This
paper outlines an integrated and quantifiable plan for achieving ‘‘carbon
neutrality’’ in the global aluminum industry by advocating five actionable
steps: (1) increase use of ‘‘green’’ electrical energy grid by 8%, (2) reduce
process energy needs by 16%, (3) deploy 35% of products in ‘‘in-use’’ energy
saving applications, (4) divert 6.1 million metric tonnes/year from landfills,
and (5) mine 4.5 million metric tonnes/year from aluminum-rich ‘‘urban
mines.’’ Since it takes 20 times more energy to make aluminum from bauxite
ore than to recycle it from scrap, the global aluminum industry could set a
reasonable, self-imposed energy/carbon neutrality goal to incrementally
increase the supply of recycled aluminum by at least 1.05 metric tonnes for
every tonne of incremental production via primary aluminum smelter capacity.
Furthermore, the aluminum industry can and should take a global leadership
position by actively developing internationally accepted and approved carbon footprint credit protocols.
Das Feb JOM 2012 Carbon Neutrality for Aluminum Industry

Last week we blogged on Tip #12: Turn Off Lights Not in Use. As part of our ongoing 15-week blog series promoting the United States Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Collection, this week we are blogging Tip #13: Let Nature Do the Work.

Humanity, despite its thousands of years of scientific development, innovative engineering, and creative design, still has a tough time competing with the wonders of Mother Nature. For example, consider spider silk, which is five times stronger than steel. Yet, as Tucker Norton, a ballistics expert with DuPont, observes, “If you look in a spider web, if you just took one single strand of that spider silk, that strand is stronger than steel as well – a lot like Kevlar,” said Norton. “The problem is, we haven’t figured out how to make that commercially at a large scale.”

There you have it, millennia of human progress instantly trumped by an itsy bitsy spider. While we may never be able to operate as efficiently and powerfully as nature, we may be able to harness some of its power and put to work for us.

Consider the story of Ben & Jerry’s, the popular ice cream company…

When Ben and Jerry’s needed to drastically reduce its wastewater emissions, the Vermont-based company came up with some unconventional solutions: First it purchased about 300 pigs and fed them ice cream slop – the same gooey stuff it had previously fed to the sewers. Then it started processing other liquid wastes in a “solar aquatics system” – a big greenhouse that sent wastewater through a series of tanks filled with a variety of plants, bacteria, snails and fish that absorbed, broke down or otherwise consumed the former wastes. The strategy is part of a broader trend of harnessing nature to reduce water pollution.

Of course, you don’t need a complex strategy to start letting nature do the work in your life. Working with natural, sustainable power can actually be fun. Looking for a new way to cook your next meal? Why not pick up a Sun Oven?

Even though it is called an oven, food can be baked, boiled, and steamed at cooking temperatures of 360° F to 400° F. There is no movement of air in a SUN OVEN®, allowing food to stay moist and tender and flavorful. Sun-baked roasts are tastier and more succulent, and sun-baked bread has unparalleled taste and texture. The aroma of food sunning itself in a SUN OVEN® is sure to please your senses.

There are tons of ways to put nature to work! What ideas can you think of? Share your ideas with us by commenting below!

Next week we will be blogging on Tip #14: Insulate the Home.

Stay tuned.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on February 16, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

Processing involves a series of mechanical processing operations designed to recover one or more of the following: recyclable materials, a combustible fraction, soil, and landfill space. The combustible fraction can be used to generate electricity. LFMR can be used as a measure to remediate poorly designed or improperly operated landfills and to upgrade landfills that do not meet environmental and public health specifications. [World Resources Foundation, undated, http://www.enviroalternatives.com/landfill.html ] Though not widely practiced, LFMR has gradually been gaining acceptance since the 1980s.

In 1997, the EPA published an 8-page brochure on landfill reclamation that summarized potential benefits and drawbacks. [ http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/landfill/land-rcl.pdf ] Benefits include reducing pollution or the risk of pollution from substandard landfill or dump sites, reclaiming soil for use at the landfill (as a cover material) or offsite, extending the life of the landfill by reducing the volume of waste on-site and/or reducing the area of land the landfill occupies, recovering materials such as aluminum and ferrous metals, or producing energy at municipal waste-to-energy facilities. Drawbacks include the risks of uncovering hazardous wastes or releasing flammable gases such as methane or hydrogen sulfide. The EPA document includes representative case studies of LFMR projects in Collier County, Florida (starting in 1986), Edinburgh Landfill in New York (1990-1992), and the Frey Farm Landfill in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (1991-1996).

In October 1993, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation included landfill reclamation in that state’s solid waste management regulations. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection published a guidance document on the disturbance and use of old closed landfills or waste disposal areas in 2001 and updated it in 2009 and 2011. [ http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/quick_topics/publications/shw/solid_waste/Dump-Guidance-03Feb11.pdf ]

Typical equipment used in simple LFMR operations includes excavators, screens, and conveyors. Higher-tech LFMR operations recover additional materials and improve the purity of recovered materials, and therefore require more equipment than simple operations.

A LFMR project that has attracted a great deal of attention recently is being implemented at the landfill site of Remo Milieubeheer NV in Houthalen-Hechteren, Belgium. A waste-to-energy company, Advanced Plasma Power (APP), based in the United Kingdom, formed a joint venture with Group Machiels, a global waste management firm.

[ http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waste-management-world.waste-to-energy.2011.05.Plasma_Power_Goes_Large_at_Landfill_Mining_Project.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html ] The process to be used is called the “Gas plasma process,” a gasification and plasma conversion technology that converts the waste stream into a clean, hydrogen-rich syngas and a vitrified recyclate product called Plasmarok that can be used as a building material or replacement aggregate. According to APP, the process destroys harmful gases, leaving the high-quality syngas to be used to generate electricity.

As fossil fuels become increasingly scarce and more expensive, the first and most cost-effective response of the waste management system is likely to be to boost the rate of recycling, especially of metals and plastics, before they reach a landfill. This is because the process of landfilling materials degrades their purity and economic value. Increased mining of landfills may be a secondary effect, depending on the net energy balance of the LFMR process and the potential to generate electricity from combustible waste materials.

Stay tuned as we extend our thoughts to recovering valuable metallic products from landfills or ‘Urban Mining”.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Geoff Young, Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on February 10, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

Last week we blogged on Tip #11: Adjust Your Thermostat. As part of our ongoing 15-week blog series promoting the United States Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Collection, this week we are blogging Tip #12: Turn Off Lights Not in Use.

We’re all guilty of it. How many times have you left a light on when you were leaving a room? Though it may seem insignificant, many energy savers find that shutting off lights when not in use is one of the easiest ways to save energy and lower your carbon footprint. With a simple finger flick, you can seriously lower your carbon impact and live a much greener lifestyle.

Lights Out on Wasted Energy

Just how much energy can you save by turning out the lights? Green571.com observes, “A normal bulb will use 60 watts of energy an hour, meaning that you could conserve nearly 22,000 watts of energy per year by just switching off one bulb for one hour every day. That’s enough energy to power your television for a month.”

Green571.com also suggests re-evaluating when electric light is really necessary, “Also try to consider how many lights you need on, or if you need one on at all. Is a lamp really necessary in a sunlit room? Do you need three separate sources of light in your kitchen? By making small changes like this you’ll soon be saving energy and money.”

Eco20-20.com produced this video observing how much money you can save simply by turning off the lights:

Not all Bulbs Are Created Equal

Although it’s generally a good practice to always turn out the lights when not in use, it’s important to know that the rules don’t exactly apply the same way for all light bulbs. To help alleviate this confusion, the U.S. Department of Energy provides the following guidelines:

Incandescent Lighting

Incandescent lights (or bulbs) should be turned off whenever they are not needed. Nearly all types of incandescent light bulbs are fairly inexpensive to produce and are relatively inefficient. Only about 10% of the electricity that incandescent lights consume results in light—the rest is turned into heat. Turning the light(s) off will keep a room cooler, an extra benefit in the summer. Therefore, the value of the energy saved by not having the lights on will be far greater than the cost of having to replace the bulb.

Fluorescent Lighting

The cost effectiveness of turning fluorescent lights off to conserve energy is a bit more complicated. For most areas of the United States, a general rule-of-thumb for when to turn off a fluorescent light is if you leave a room for more than 15 minutes, it is probably more cost effective to turn the light off. Or in other words, if you leave the room for only up to 15 minutes, it will generally be more cost effective to leave the light(s) on. In areas where electric rates are high and/or during peak demand periods, this period may be as low as 5 minutes.

Fluorescent lights are more expensive to buy, and their operating life is more affected by the number of times they are switched on and off, relative to incandescent lights. Therefore, it is a cost trade-off between saving energy and money by turning a light off “frequently” and having to replace the bulbs “more” frequently. This is because the reduction in usable lamp life due to frequent on/off switching will probably be greater than the benefit of extending the useful life of the bulb from reduced use. By frequent we mean turning the light off and on many times during the day.

We hope you’ll keep these tips in mind the next time you pass the light switch. Turning off lights when not in use can save you money and reduce your carbon impact.

Next week we will be blogging on Tip #13: Let Nature Do the Work.

Stay tuned.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on February 2, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

Last week we blogged on Tip #10: Plant Trees. As part of our ongoing 15-week blog series promoting the United States Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Collection, this week we are blogging Tip #11: Adjust Your Thermostat.

With Winter now in full force, most of us have our thermostats cranked up to heat our homes. Unfortunately, generating large amounts of heat also contributes to a larger carbon footprint and high energy costs. This blog will discuss some options for conserving the energy in your home, and hopefully, dialing down your thermostat.

According to earth911.com, adjusting your thermostat by even a small figure can have a dramatic impact, “In the winter, turn your thermostats down to 68 degrees or below. Reduce the setting to 55 degrees before going to sleep or when leaving for the day. (For each 1 degree you turn down the thermostat in the winter, you’ll save up to 5% on your heating costs.)” The U.S. Department of Energy reports similar astonishing statistics, “You can save around 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10°–15° for eight hours.”

You don’t have to sacrifice your comfort to save on energy either, as the USDE observes, “Using a programmable thermostat, you can adjust the times you turn on the heating or air-conditioning according to a pre-set schedule. As a result, you don’t operate the equipment as much when you are asleep or when the house is not occupied.” Thus, with a simple home upgrade, you can save yourself a lot of money, and greatly reduce your carbon footprint.

care2.com offers these tips for operating your thermostat:

1. When you’ll be out for an evening, turn down the thermostats. If you’ll be away for a weekend or more, lower the thermostats to 55 F. You’ll save on heating without risking a freeze-up of your water pipes.

2. Whenever you can lower your thermostat dramatically for a few days or more, you’ll save a little on the operation of the refrigerator and freezer, which won’t need to work so hard to maintain their cool.

3. How low can your thermostats be set? At our house, we’ve gotten accustomed to 68 F as a comfortable norm. Reduce the heat just 1 degree at a time and try it for a week. Each 1-degree drop for an eight-hour period reduces your fuel bill about one percent. Gradually, you might be able to go down 3 or even 4 degrees comfortably and save a chunk of money.

4. Try turning down the thermostat 5 to 10 degrees at night, and then turn it up again in the morning when the coffee is brewing. If you can get used to that, you’ll save 5 to 10 percent of your heating bill.

Once common myth is that when you reduce the thermostat for only a few hours it will take more heat to bring your home back up to the desired temperature. This is not so. You will save money and fuel because your heating system will not have to keep your home so warm. You will use less energy overall even when you warm up your house from a cooler temperature.

5. For greater ease and comfort, install a programmable set-back thermostat. They are available for most gas- and oil-fueled central heating systems. In this way, you can have the heat turned up before you get up in the morning and lowered just as you get into bed. You may not even notice that you are setting back your thermostat. Most of these thermostats come with two setbacks. Therefore, you can also set back the thermostat for the hours when people are in school or at work.

6. Some setback thermostats have different setbacks for weekends. If you frequently forget to setback your thermostat, the programmable setback thermostats will be a great investment. Even if you are already pretty good at remembering, these devices can frequently enable you to set back the thermostat a few extra degrees, providing you with additional savings.

7. If you heat with electricity, you can take advantage of the individual room thermostats that make it possible to shut off unused rooms and to have cool settings in some rooms and warmer settings in others. Using this feature of electric heat will definitely reduce your fuel bills. If you have a thermostat that controls a relatively large area, you should still consider a setback thermostat. You will need an electrician for this installation.

8. Do you need to talk yourself into a lower thermostat setting? Here’s an argument. Your plants are healthier in the cooler air. The health of your plants isn’t in the same league with your personal comfort? All right, you’ll be healthier in the cooler air. Your body will burn a few more calories keeping you warm, thereby helping you to lose weight and improve your general health. Besides, if you’ve already insulated and tightened your home, you will probably be just as comfortable at lower temperatures.

9. When it’s time to open the windows for a little fresh air in the spring, remember to turn down the thermostats. Those cool breezes that feel so good will send your furnace on a fuel-burning rampage unless the thermostats are reset.

10. Planning a party? Turn the thermostats down. Each guest is the equivalent of a 175-watt heater, and a large group will warm up the place without the furnace or the heating units in operation.

We hope this blog has provided you with some valuable information to help lower your home heating costs!

Next week we will be blogging on Tip #12: Turn off the lights when not in use.

Stay tuned.

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on January 26, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net

Last week we blogged on Tip #9: Compost. As part of our ongoing 15-week blog series promoting the United States Post Office “Go Green” Stamp Collection, this week we are blogging Tip #10: Plant Trees.

It won’t be long now until Spring, which is one of the best times of the year to plant a tree. According to Tree-Planting.com, “Climate plays a deciding role when determining the appropriate planting time.  Newly planted trees do best when exposed to moderate temperature and rainfall and they need time to root and acclimatize before the onset of intense heat and dryness of summer or the freezing temperatures of winter. Spring and early fall, therefore, are generally the best planting seasons (depending on your location) with spring preferred over fall in the more northerly latitudes.” This blog will give you some information on the benefits of planting trees, and how you can start growing your own. We will also discuss options for those who live in areas where they do not have the available space to plant a tree of their own.

Why Plant a Tree?

There are many great reasons to plant a tree.Glenn Roloff, of the USDA Forest Service in Missoula, Montana notes 29 wonderful benefits of trees, we’ve listed a few below:

• Alleviating the “Greenhouse Effect,” trees act as carbon “sinks.”
• Prevents or reduces soil erosion and water pollution.
• Helps recharge ground water and sustains streamflow.
• Properly placed screens of trees and shrubs significantly decrease noise pollution along busy thoroughfares and intersections.
• Provide fuelwood for stoves and fireplaces by establishing energy plantations of hybrid poplars and other fast-growing species and managed on a sustained yield basis for a continuous supply of fuelwood.
• Properly managed forests provide lumber, plywood and other wood products on a sustained yield basis.
• Windbreaks around homes can be shields against wind and snow and heating costs can be reduced by as much as 30 percent.
• Shade from trees cools hot streets and parking lots. Cities are “heat islands” that are 5-9 degrees hotter than surrounding areas. And cities spread each year.

Planting Your First Tree

Planting your first tree may be a little intimidating. Like any plant, there are certain rules a would-be arboriculturist (fancy word for tree planter) must follow in order to ensure the success and long life of their future tree.

 Treesaregood.com breaks the planting process down to 9 important steps:

1. Dig a shallow, broad planting hole.
2. Identify the trunk flare.
3. Remove tree container for containerized trees.
4. Place the tree at the proper height.
5. Straighten the tree in the hole.
6. Fill the hole gently but firmly.
7. Stake the tree, if necessary.
8. Mulch the base of the tree.
9. Provide follow-up care.

Please refer to the complete guide for a more in-depth description of the planting process.

Here’s a really great instructional video on planting trees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouliPOIRiZA&feature=fvwrel

What if I don’t have a place to plant my tree?

No place to put a new tree? No problem! Thanks to organizations like Plant A Billion Trees you can plant your very own tree from the comfort of your laptop. According to The Nature Conservancy website (Nature.org), “One dollar plants one tree. It’s that simple. When you give today to Plant a Billion Trees, you will help the Conservancy protect and restore the Atlantic Forest. You can also call 1-800-84-ADOPT to donate.”

Conclusion

With as little as $1, you can plant your very own tree in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest without ever getting your hands dirty!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this blog on planting trees.

Next week we will be blogging on Tip #11: Adjust the Thermostat. Stay tuned.

Sources:

Glenn Roloff http://www.treelink.org/docs/29_reasons.phtml

Trees Are Good http://www.treesaregood.com/

The Nature Conservancy http://adopt.nature.org/plantabillion/brazil/

Conceived, Developed and Written by Dr. Subodh Das and Austin McKinney on January 16, 2012

All rights Reserved by Phinix, LLC

www.phinix.net    skdas@phinix.net