Green tour rolls through
Biodiesel RV pulls 'green' appliances
JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier
The Clean Air Green Tour trailer is pulled by this green RV. Its electric power comes from a solar panel on the roof.
JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier
Jim Paar of Minneapolis talks about tankless water heaters as part of the Clean Air Green tour that stopped at Lowe's in Mount Pleasant last week.
Green tips
ATM receipts
Consumers use 8 billion ATM receipts every year. If everyone took action and did not take a receipt, that would save enough paper to wrap the Earth around the equator 15 times.
Bottled water
It takes 5 liters of water to produce 1 liter of water for plastic bottles.
Recycle clothing
It can take leather up to 50 years in a landfill to decompose.
Plastic bags and paper bags
Plastic bags take more than 1,000 years to decompose. Paper bags use an estimated 14 million trees every year.
The Clean Air Green Tour has already left, taking its bio-diesel RV with solar roof and trailer of energy efficient appliances along, too.
But Jim Paar of Minneapolis and Jody Thomas of Alabama hope that they left behind green tips to the people who took a look at the energy-efficient Bosch appliances inside the trailer when it stopped at Lowe's at Mount Pleasant's Towne Centre last week.
Inside the trailer, Paar showed off Energy Star appliances and a tankless water heater.
As visitors walked through the mock kitchen and laundry area, Paar said the washer uses 10 gallons of water compared to the traditional 40 to 50 gallons and the dryer will dry six pairs of jeans in half the time of a traditional dryer and use less energy because of a greater number of holes in the dryer drum.
People can take steps toward going green without purchasing big ticket items, Paar said. It can be as simple as a power strip for the TV or coffee makers that shut power off after use, which cuts back on ghost power.
"Everyone thinks that it costs money to go green, but it actually puts money back into your pocket," Paar said.
Paar said a coffee maker uses 65 percent of the power it needs to brew a pot just to run its clock.
"Just unplugging an appliance when you are not using them saves a lot of money," he said.
The Mount Pleasant stop was just one on Clean Air Green's 43-state tour.
For more on the tour, go to www.cleanairgreentour.com. To learn more about Energy Star, a program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, go to www.energystar.gov.
E-mail this story 
Printer-friendly version
Notice about comments:
The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. The Post and Courier does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "suggest removal" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our Web site.
Full terms and conditions can be read here.
Comments
This article has 0 comment(s)
