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Plastic

In the 1967 movie The Graduate, the word plastics represents a certain kind of bright, golden future. Well, the future is here. And so is plastic, which has a future far more enduring than we might imagine. A plastic is any of a number of petroleum-based polymer materials that can be molded or shaped into a wide range of forms; it is durable, long-lasting, and cheap to produce-a useful quality for manufacturers and consumers but a bad one for the environment, as it doesn't biodegrade and represents a tremendous landfill burden. Some, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), also release toxic chemicals into the environment during production and/or disposal. Different types of plastic are made from different chemical compounds; each is identified by one of seven recycling-category numbers. In general, numbers 1 and 2 are the most easily recycled. For more on plastics, click here.

 

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   Phantom load

Your house is probably haunted…by a phantom load. This is the small but not insignificant amount of energy that some of your appliances-including your television, stereo, answering machine, and microwave oven-are using when they are turned off. It's definitely a little spooky: Appliances that contain clocks or timers, or that have remote controls and/or "instant on" features, are sneakily sipping away at your power 24 hours a day. Unplugging the devices when you're not using them-or plugging them into a power strip with an on/off switch-is often the only way to avoid this waste of power. It's enough to make you wonder what else is going on when your back is turned.
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