Springhole.net Blog

If you’ve ever seen animal rights groups carrying on, you’ve probably run into their claim that veganism is better for the environment and economy. Other research suggests that this ain’t necessarily so.

Critical thinking shows that animal rights bigwigs only seem to care about the environment as far as it suits their purpose. PeTA recently endorsed eating in-vitro meat. They’ve long abhorred leather in favor of vinyl and synthetics.

Hullo? Are they that clueless about the things that go into making such products? Are they not aware that in vitro meats would be created by machinery guzzling fossil fuels and oil instead of grazing on natural grass powered by the sun? Are they not aware that vinyl and fossil fuels come from the oil drilled from the ground which has its own price in blood and destructive impact on the environment?

It seems these people don’t care as long as they can’t actually see the death and destruction being caused or the remains of the animals that died for their “cruelty-free” products. I don’t know about you, but I’ll stick with meat and leather, both of which are superior products. Leather lasts longer than any synthetic you can chuck up, it has better insulation properties, and it wasn’t related to an oil spill in the ocean. And meat… well, we know that the historical evidence does not fit the extravagant claims they make about it being dangerous to your health.

While perusing Planet Green’s blog, I found the following:

You recycle yogurt containers? I want to but haven’t found a place here. Our plastics recycling take #1 & #2 only, and just the ones that are shaped like soda bottles or milk jugs, etc. So yogurt & sour cream and plastic cups are just trash I really want to recycle the items.

Don’t despair! There are a lot of things you can do with yogurt and sour cream containers right in your own home. They’re extremely useful and reusable!

• Put water in them to rinse your brush while painting. (Works best with small yogurt cups.)
• Use them as freezer containers.
• Put leftovers in them.
• Store various odds and ends in them – craft stuff, pencils, nails, screws, loose change… whatever needs stored at the time.
• Punch a hole in the lid of a yogurt cup and put a straw through it to transform a yogurt cup into a sippy cup.
• Yogurt cups can also be used to start seeds.
• Use them to scoop stuff – dirt, sand, animal feed, etc.

And there you go. Even if your recycling center doesn’t take them, you can still find ways to keep them from going in the trash.

We drink coffee sporadically around here.  And when everyone drinks coffee sporadically, this can mean that a pot may be drained instantaneously, or it may remain unused for days.

Stale coffee just doesn’t taste all that great.  So what to do with the leftovers?

Personally, I put them in the refrigerator after pouring the remaining coffee into a jar with a lid.

Interesting note: if you leave uncovered coffee in the fridge with a browning banana, you will soon have banana-flavored coffee.

Some people take it a bit farther by putting their leftover coffee in the freezer.  Some make their leftover coffee into coffee cubes to use in iced coffee.  And apparently you can make a mean steak sauce with leftover coffee.  If you’re feeling creative, you can use it to artificially age papers to make them look more like old parchment.  Some color Easter eggs with them; personally I don’t see the point, since that’s what color my chickens lay anyway. 

• 5 Things to Do with Leftover Coffee
• 20 Uses for Leftover Coffee
• How To Recycle Stale Coffee and Used Coffee Grounds

Plastic shopping bags. Ah, a mixed blessing. Their handles make them much easier to carry than paper bags, you don’t have to worry about moist products (such as produce or meat) getting them wet, they’re great for scaring off annoying critters, but… well, they’re made of plastic. Not the nicest material on the planet.

Even so, there’s no sense in letting them go to waste if you really can’t avoid bringing them home. Around here we try to put them to good use. They make great trash bags for your small trash cans. We have a black bag designed to hang from the back of seats in cars; instead of buying the miniature trash bags we were undoubted intended to buy, we just stuff a plastic grocery sack into it.

Plastic grocery sacks can also be used as packing material. I wrap delicate Christmas decorations in them when putting them away for the year. You can also use them to protect your hands when you have to pick up really icky stuff.

More… creative people have other solutions. Some crochet them or make them into raincoats.

Most people probably don’t want to go on a crochet rampage with their plastic bags, so here are 22 Creative Ways to Use Plastic Grocery Bags that are a little more practical for the rest of us. Hm… now that I read this list, it reminds me of some of the other things I’ve used them for over the years. Also check out 10 Smart Uses for Old Plastic Bags.

VeggieTales gets the absurdity of SUVs in Urbania down pat.

Whooooooa, you and me, in our sport utility vehicles! Cruisin’ to 7-11 for a bag of Frito-Lays!

The SUV Song

What is it with people and their city-bound SUVs? Is having an imposing vehicle worth the extra gas money and decreased air quality? Is asserting your machismo with your car so much more important than keeping the air clean?

Look, I can understand if you are the kind of person who frequently takes trips to areas where these vehicles are actually useful. But as for the rest of you, who, as the song says, “slam into four-wheel drive for a scoop of rocky road…” hmph.

…or something.

Every now and then some intrepid designer takes it upon him or herself to envision the house of the future. The house that will be the answer to all housing problems everywhere.

It wasn’t so long ago that people dreamed of living in plastic houses and aluminum houses.

Such materials are passe in today’s eco-conscious world. Today’s optimists dream of living in… wait for it… cardboard houses.

Now, I’m all for making the world a bit greener, but after looking at these babies I can’t help but think that the architects were hitting the cannabis a little hard.

First and foremost, they offer it as a temporary home for just $35,000. Where I come from, you can get a permanent home for that kind of money. At least they have the sense to realize that no-one would live in such a contraption long-term, but $35,000? I think I’ll save myself the money and stay at Aunt Lulu’s.

There appears to be a disturbing lack of a front door. It’s got to be around there somewhere. It has to be. Surely they didn’t expect buyers to leave themselves exposed to mosquitoes and every other creepy-crawly that would only be too happy to crawl into man’s domicile.

It only seems to house one person. Again, for the low, low price of $35,000. Maybe you could stuff a few more people in there, but you’d get no privacy.

It’s… well, ugly. It has all the aesthetic value of a cheap model made from Balsa wood.

They point out how well the Japanese houses made from wood and rice paper worked out. Of course, the Japanese also actually had a sense of style. Their paper houses didn’t look like giant toy barns.