6 Surprising Ways to Reuse Aluminum Foil
OPS_admin | Mar 28, 2010 | Comments 0
We love it when people repurpose old things to solve new problems. Aluminum foil is the most recent one, following a long string of creative repurposing, from oatmeal to vodka and pantyhose.
This time, we asked our resident Green Cheapskate, Jeff Yeager, to tackle aluminum foil. And boy did he ever. Who knew the shiny stuff could be so handy, beyond cooking or protecting your skulls from prying mind control beams?
Jeff wonders if the mandatory switch to digital TV has hurt sales of aluminum foil, since people no longer need to rig up their rabbit ears. Still, he notes that over 1.3 billion pounds of aluminum foil is produced every year in the U.S., and although it is highly recyclable, many curbside programs won’t accept it for sanitary reasons (check with your local recycling program for their foil policy). That’s a shame, because recycling aluminum uses only about 5% of the energy that it takes to produce aluminum from raw materials.
Here are some of Jeff’s suggestions to get more bang out of your foil:
- Sharpen scissors and garden shears: Fold used foil so that it’s six to eight layers thick, then cut thru it a few times with dull scissors to instantly sharpen them.
Full Story: 6 Surprising Ways to Reuse Aluminum Foil.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
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