Think Twice, Recycle! Topic: Plastic Bottles

It is very convenient when we are on the run to just pick up a plastic bottle rather than keeping around a reusable container. Almost everyone you and I know has had at least one bottle a week. With the population in the U.S. being 310 million that is a lot of plastic bottles we are dealing with.

It takes on average 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose and break down according to epa.gov. So in our life time the plastic bottle will never be able to decompose, that is unless we recycle. We have to get ourselves into thinking once we are finished using something, not to just toss it out the window or throw it aways. We need to find our local recycling centers and see of what further use we can get out of our materials.

Since the year 1990 about 27 percent more people have been recycling their plastic bottles according to earth911.com. For every one ton of plastic bottles recycled it saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space. Think before you toss, and remember you can make a difference!

Plastic bottles can take on average 450 years to decompose that is longer than four humans lifetime.

Be creative with the way you recycle

Recycle=Life

Alert! Alert! Rainforest Trouble!

There was once a time when the rain forest covered 14 percent of earth's surface, but that time was long gone, now it covers less than half of that, only six percent. What is more sad than that is experts predict that in less than 40 years the last of the rain forest will no longer exist according to rain-tree.com.

 With "one and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries" we are losing the beauty on our planet. Why is earth's beautiful rainforest being killed and chopped down? According to rainforestconcern.org, the top reasons why the rainforest are being cut down and killed are because of cattle ranching, logging, agriculture, mining, oil companies searching for new oil and dams. So many people are after the wealth of the rainforests.

Our rainforests have a lot of value, according to rain-tree.com "more than half of the world's estimated ten million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin." Between every two and a half acres an amazing 750 and 1500 species of trees and plants exist. It is very sad to listen to these facts when one and half acres are lost per second.

What can we do as students? Some good ways are to know how to reduce reuse and recycle all your material such as newspapers, glass, aluminum foil, oil and conserve on gass as much as possible. Even though are rainforest are out of sight to us, always rememeber we are still affected by them and what we do still affects them. The more we use the three R's the more we help save our planets gems, the rainforests.

The killing of a rainforest is an ugly picture

A dead rainforest is no rainforest

Every inch of the rainforest has great beauty

Rainforest are beautiful lets keep it that way

UTB Students Make a Difference

You don't have to go way out of your way to make small changes around campus. In every major building on campus there are cardboard trashcans that have the three R's symbol on them. Recycling is made as simple as tossing your empty plastic bottle into one of these cardboard trashcans and students will do the rest in making sure it will be recycled.

A student checking the recycle box for plastic bottles.



Give back, think before you throw!



Make the choice to recycle on campus it is very easy.

Making the Switch: Fluorescent or Incandescent light bulbs?

Does it really matter what type of light bulbs we use to light up our house and rooms? Well it is a good question that many people should wonder. Is there really a difference between the two and how much of a difference will it make?

According to howstuffworks.com incandescent light bulbs turns electrical energy into heat, this heat causes the outer surface white part of the bulb to become hot and the inside part of it glows because of the heat. Heat waists a lot of electricity, being said also heat is not light so much energy is waisted, and these types of bulbs are considered insufficient.

Whereas the website gives the definition of fluorescent light bulbs as using an entirely different way of producing light. "There is a stream of electrons flowing between the electrodes at both ends of the fluorescent bulb. The electrons interact with mercury vapor atoms floating inside the bulb. The mercury atoms become excited, and when they return to an unexcited state they release photons of light in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. These ultraviolet photons collide with the phosphor coating the inside of the bulb, and the phosphor creates visible light."

So now we know fluorescent light bulbs are more energy efficient but are they really more cost efficient?
Although you will pay a higher price initially for fluorescent light bulbs they last much longer than an incandescent bulb. So you decide will you make the switch from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent?

You weigh out the balance. Make the switch to fluorescent bulbs, and save energy and money.

Fluorescent bulbs= the greener future.

Think Twice, Recycle! Topic: Tires

Everyone today in America has a car or use some sort of cars for transportation, and generally cars have four or more tires depending on the size of the vehicle. Because there are so many tires, one wonders, what is the proper way of disposing these tires?

 One of the issues in the Rio Grand Valley have been burning of tires. That is the last thing we would want to do to get rid of our old tires. According to lesspollution.org there are 15 main reasons why we shouldn't burn tires. One important reason it mentions is it "releases a toxic soup of pollutants... hundreds of different toxins are created by burning tires as well as a tremendous number of small particles that settle deep in the lungs." The website also goes on to state, "children, fetuses, nursing babies, elderly, asthmatics, immune suppressed individuals are all much more vulnerable to the pollutants released burning tires." These are the most important reasons why we should think twice before we pollute our environment by burning old tires.

Instead of being harmful to our environment why don't we think of ways we can reuse our old tires and see what we can do with them rather than burn them.

Right outside of Brownsville Texas, the city of Olmito has opened a tire recycling center called "Tire Recycling and Processing LLC" it's focus is to get people more aware of recycling their old tires in exchange for cash. It feels good to do what we are supposed to and to know we will get rewarded for it.

As much as this is an ugly site to look at, the effects it causes are very dangerous

There are varies ways to recycle tires. Be creative. Think before you burn.

Even shoe manufactures are thinking of ways to recycle tires for shoe soles.

Drinking Water Hazard

We all know how vital water is to every life source on the planet earth, we go as far to say that "water equals life," which is true. Humans are made out of 75 percent of water, we need at least 8 glasses of water a day. To Americans, that seems like a piece of pie, but what about to countries where water source is very scarce? They aren't as lucky as going to Wal-Mart and purchasing water bottles, they don't even have the pleasure of turning on a faucet to get water from it. According to the "Awake!" magazine, more people die of water related diseases than war itself.

Since humans need and crave water they will go to any extent to get it, even drinking dirty or polluted water. Sciencedaily.com states that, "100 million people in developing countries [are] exposed to dangerously high levels of arsenic in their drinking water." High amounts of arsenic can cause certain types of cancer such as, lung, bladder, liver, colon, and kidney cancer. It also causes skin and nail problems to develop along with effecting the nervous system, states dhs.wisconsin.gov. There is a solution that Tsanangurayi Tongesayi Ph.D professor of analytical and environmental chemistry at Monmouth University came up with. He stated at a scientific meeting, "Our process uses pieces of plastic water, soda pop and other beverage bottles. Coat the pieces with cysteine -- that's an amino acid found in dietary supplements and foods and stir the plastic in arsenic-contaminated water. This works like a magnet. The cysteine binds up the arsenic. Remove the plastic and you have drinkable water."
As college students we can also help the water issue by always shortening our showers to no more than 10 minutes or less, we need to remember there is people less fortunate than us in other parts of the world.

Make sure your drinking water is always clean and safe

Water=life

Paper? Plastic? Or Cloth?

Those who live in Brownsville, have been hearing many criticism of the recent switch from stores not giving out plastic bags for free any more. This has caused people in Brownsville to be more Eco- conscience even though they might have to pay a little more, the long term effects are beneficial.

 Take a notice around the streets and you will not find as many plastic bags polluting our town. Even though people love complaining about it, it is doing them good by keeping our community clean. According tobehealthyandrelax.com it takes 20-1000 years for a single plastic bag to decompose, being said, on average the grocery store will give you anywhere from 2-20 or more plastic bags. That is a lot of bags and years to decompose. We must think about the future of our children and be glad to recycle our shopping bags and think twice about complaining about it.



You can find bags like these at any store
they are usually very cheap.



We should fight so our town will not look like this.