Lightbulb police? (was RE: Anyone off to VCF-UK)

On 06/04/2010 01:25 PM, Andrew Burton wrote: We reuse those plastic supermarket bags. They're exactly the right size for small trash cans, and because they're small, they're just the right size for several soiled diapers because they can be tied together and sealed to keep the smell from escaping. So they're not just going to waste. If we couldn't get them at the supermarket, we'd actually have to buy smaller sized bags to use as liners in the small trash cans in the bathrooms. So it would not change our actual consumption of such bags. Infact, it would be worse, since having to buy those bags would mean both spending money on them, but more importantly, only using them once. We also don't have a huge collection of plastic bags eating up space in the house, as we use them fairly quickly. If they had built up faster than we were able to dispose of them, then they'd be a waste. But they're not. For our use, it falls under "just right." Recycling and _reusing_ are wonderful things, everyone should do it. Banning bags just because they're made of plastic is a stupid idea. Paper bags cannot be used to hold diapers, or bathroom trash, nor can they be used to hold kitchen trash which may be soggy. I think the key isn't to ban the bags, rather, it's to make bags that decompose after several months, or when exposed to sunlight or air for a certain amount of time (more than a month or so.) In terms of buying stuff, I agree that a large plastic see through package that holds something tiny is extremely useful. The only reason they're packaged that way, and also the reason why they're so difficult to open, once at home, is to make it harder to shopfilt the items. It also has the added benefit of providing a large advertisement for the product. As long as the store owners keep demanding that products are packaged this way, they will be. Most of these things have inventory control tags in them anyway, so they could get away with smaller cardboard packaging, and more cameras in store to prevent the bad guys cardboard is fully recyclable, though I recycle those plastic boxes too. In our are we recycle carboard, newspapers/magazines (not that I subscribe to many anyway - I can find almost everything I want to read on the web in the first place), glass, and plastic. For some reason, in our area, we don't seem to recycle aluminum foil or trays, but they do take cans. I had some fun with the garbage guys early on - they didn't seem to want to recycle phone books even though they're made of the same kinds of paper as newspaper, and they do take newspaper. :) After a while they gave up and took them for recycling. I was out in San Fran back in December for a business trip. Apparently their mayor expects everyone to also keep a separate bin for food and other organic trash, and to put it in a compost bin. I can see how that could work for private homes, but it would be a huge nasty thing for apartment buildings and offices unless they have someone take the stuff out twice a day. Unfortunately, they just had a bit that sat in the kitchenette in the office and wasn't taken away often enough, so the smell was the annoyance factor. Obviously, it's less of an issue once taken outside to an actual compost bin where the bacteria and worms can do their jobs. But in the office kitchenette, it's pretty nasty. What this has to do with old computers, I'll never know. :) Possibly, because we rescue machines instead of letting them go to a landfill, we're keeping them from becoming junk? Hmmm, since this was originally about bulbs, I wonder, has anyone here tried to make their own light bulbs? I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard if you had something to remove the air out of an air tight jar, possibly replacing with an inert gas, and had a way to make your own filaments, and then had a way to seal the bulb to the right kind of connector? You might be able to make bulbs that last far longer than commercial ones. Probably the big problem would be to get glass that was thick enough to not break very easily, and had some way to reseal it. Any glassmakers on this list?