Not cleaning your scrap

Cleaning your scrap doesn’t mean hosing it down; it means removing wires, rubber pieces, and even paint as much as possible. This is because scrap metal is often graded according to whether or not it has anything attached to it. When you bring metal to a recycling center, they will usually weigh the piece and give you cash according to the weight. If your metal has anything attached to it, the pieces are typically downgraded in value, as some of that weight will include items that cannot be used by the recycling center. Bringing in bare metal that is clean of anything on it will usually mean a higher grade and, in turn, a higher price paid.

Not separating your metals

It’s good to know the different types of metals that are accepted by a recycling facility and then separate and sort your scrap accordingly. If you bring in a box or cart of mixed metals, you might be paid the amount of the lowest quality or least desirable metal in the pile. However, sorting your materials and separating copper from brass, steel, and the like can mean a higher price paid for various types of metal and more money in your pocket.

Not securing your scrap

Since scrap metal can easily be turned into any recycling facility for cash, you need to secure your scrap just as you would anything else of value. Keep in mind that while a recycling center may ask for proof of ownership for things like junked cars or shopping carts, someone else can easily take your boxes of scrap metal to a facility and make money from your hard work of collecting that scrap. Be discreet about the metal you may bring home before you take it to a facility and be sure you keep it in a locked garage or storage facility if needed.

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Order the right bins

Skip bins come in a variety of sizes ranging from the small ones fit for simple domestic use to the large scale sizes used in large institutions and construction sites. When hiring or buying skip bins, ensure that you get the most appropriate size. Getting a smaller skip bin may result in the need for more removal services if it fills up quickly. This can considerably drive up your costs. A large bin, whereas good, may be an unnecessary extra cost on your charge because it was beyond sufficient. It all boils down to planning well in advance before contacting the skip bin hire or sales people.

Use the bins correctly

Many people forget to note the various material recommendations for the various skip bins they order. Some bins are recommended for construction materials alone, others for metals, others for home-grade waste, and so on. Always note the recommended waste and adhere to the recommendation. Many people end up with hefty fines and charges for simply not noting this small detail with skip bins.

Permits

Another factor unknown to many people is that various councils charge fees for placement of skip bins in various places deemed public. For instance, you may be charged fees or a fine if you place your skip bin on or next to a road, or if the collection truck has to obscure a public area to access your bin. Instead, have the bins directly inside your property. You can also use the wait service where the truck collecting your waste waits for your previously filled waste bin to be loaded on a skip on the truck. Permits and fees alone can drive up the cost of cheap skip bins considerably if you are not careful.

Re-Cycle, re-use, or donate

An easier way of ensuring you only require smaller skip bins or cheap skip bins is by trying to minimize on your waste output. During construction and renovations, you can recycle or re-use most of what would be waste. This means you will need smaller skips, or fewer pickups, all which lower the cost of your skip bin acquisition process.

Finally, it is always good to shop around and get more quotes before settling on one provider. Ensure that the cheap skip bins you get are truly cheap overall. 

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Weed incursion

Weed incursion can causes several problems to any natural plant community. Weeds can out-rival and displace indigenous species by interfering with soil conditions, including the composition of nutrients required for native species to flourish, exhausting limited light sources, displacing local creatures due to change of natural environment, and increasing the odds of a bushfire due to increased fuel load. Aside from all that, some weeds may be highly toxic, and they can lead to allergic reactions if they come into contact with animals and humans.

Overutilization of natural habitats

Overusing natural areas can result in a range of problems in ecosystems. The trampling effects of grazing animals can lead to loss of understory species. This can result in soil erosion in areas where indigenous species have been lost, leading to disturbances in the natural plant communities, and this increases chances for a weed invasion. In areas that are in proximity to watercourses, soil erosion may lead to runoff of nutrients from farmland or fertilizer use can result in water contamination. This, in turn, will increase vulnerability of aquatic life to poisoning or growth of too much water weeds, which reduces oxygen supply.

Flooding

When there is high-speed run-off of water at a site, soil erosion problems can arise and this can lead to the spread or transport of weeds from adjacent sites affected by the weeds. When flooding occurs, understory species may be washed away, leaving the bare soil unprotected and susceptible to growth of weeds.

Fragmentation of natural habitat

Habitat fragmentation, which is the reduction of flora to isolated areas, increases vulnerability of these areas to degrading processes. It threatens the existence of ecosystems, especially in urbanized places where land is usually cleared to create space for the construction of new structures, culminating in natural ecosystems being reduced to small patches of vegetation. Fragmentation can lead to various effects, including, increased weed attack, decline in genetic diversity, changes to microclimatic conditions, reduced pollination, etc. The overall impact of these effects is a reduced ability to acclimatize to alterations in the environment.

For more information on bush regeneration, contact a professional service, such as EcoHort Pty Ltd.

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Over time, the fats, oils and greases will accumulate in the grease trap, and if left unchecked could cause a blockage rendering the grease trap ineffective. Should this happen, the wastewater flowing into the municipal sewer system will contain FOG and other solid waste matter, eventually causing a blockage, and earning your business fines and penalties for contravening municipal laws. In addition, you will have to spend a lot of money cleaning out your grease trap.

To avoid all this, it is important to maintain your grease trap’s proper function. You could call a professional grease trap cleaning company, but there are some things you can do in the meantime to keep your grease trap in proper working condition.

DIY Grease Trap Maintenance Tips

There are two main ways to do your own grease trap cleaning:

Freeze it

Place a lot of ice in the sink that is directly connected to the grease trap and let it melt. The ice water will get rid of any foul smells, as well as cause the FOG in the grease trap to solidify, making it easier to scoop out.

After the ice has melted and hardened the grease, scoop it out from the trap, sewer clean out and pipping. This should be done regularly so make sure you set a specific time to clean your grease trap, depending on the size of your kitchen and how many people it serves in a day.

Bacteria additives

Grease trap bacteria additives help in reducing FOG build up by biologically breaking down and digesting the waste water leaving only carbon dioxide and water. The additives commonly come in liquid form which you can pour down the drains or directly on the grease trap. Alternatively, you could get powder bacteria additives, or a bacteria block that is suspended in the grease trap by a rope and slowly dissolves releasing bacteria to act on the FOG.

This will significantly reduce the need for frequent professional pump-outs, and is also beneficial to the municipal sewer system since some bacteria are washed out there as well. It will also take care of any foul smells coming from the grease trap.

Whichever method you choose, remember to keep track of when you did the clean out in order to monitor build up in the grease trap, as well as schedule the next clean out appropriately.

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Urban Planning — There are quite a few services that fall under the umbrella of ‘urban planning,’ which is why these companies are so valuable when it comes to helping you understand and comply with all the rules of commercial building. An urban planner can help you choose the right site for your project, taking into account your building needs as well as the ecological and environmental factors that best match what you want to construct. They can also negotiate with the local council in your area as well as with neighborhood groups that may be concerned about the impact your project will have on the community. If you are called in to a regulatory hearing regarding your urban project, an urban planner can offer expert testimony and coaching that can help ensure you provide the information required to obtain building approval.

Urban Design — Urban planners can also offer you urban design services, which incorporate things such as preparing environmental impact reports, designing your commercial project, analyzing how the design of your project will impact existing streets and roads and ensuring that your building has the proper safeguards to minimize pollution and noise during and after construction. Urban design isn’t just about generating blueprints, it’s a comprehensive service that helps you create a design scheme that factors in all the ways in which your project will change and transform the area in which you are developing.

Social Planning — Social planning is a service in which your urban planner will analyze the neighborhood or community where you are building to identify what concerns local groups have regarding your proposed project, and how to best handle those issues to mitigate potential conflicts down the road. Urban planners often hold focus groups and conduct meetings with community leaders to exchange ideas and information and to understand the major concerns related to your project. They will often be the liaisons between you and community leaders to facilitate one on one meetings and to solicit suggestions on how your project can be made more attractive to those who are expressing concern. In many instances, urban planners are able to push the idea of creating new jobs or building new housing as positive aspects of your development.

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1. Provide a designated smoking area

It’s good to ensure that smokers stay a certain distance from the building in order to prevent anyone from lighting up while inside and possibly discarding a flaming match in a wastebasket. Choose a designated smoking area that is away from the building entrance and which provides proper receptacles for cigarettes, ashes, and matches. Enforce your policy strictly with your staff; do not allow them to get closer to the entrance than that designated area and if necessary, monitor anyone who tosses out cigarette butts onto the pavement or in regular trash cans. If these are not properly extinguished, they can cause fires on the lawn or in a wastebasket.

2. Have the furnace and ductwork serviced

You may know that keeping your furnace clean and with a new air filter at home can prevent fires, and the same is true in the office. If the ductwork is very dusty and dirty, this can pose a fire hazard as dust and lint can be flammable when it gets too hot. Dust and lint settled into metal ductwork may increase the risk of a fire in the office, so have the vents cleaned every year and replace the air filter in the furnace as well.

3. Check the equipment and plugs in the kitchen

You may not have a commercial kitchen in your office, but the small kitchen your staff uses can still pose a fire hazard. Note how old the microwave is and if any of your staff have complained about sparks or other problems when using it, and check the wall outlets to see if they’re overloaded. It may not be unusual for staff to plug in a coffeemaker, microwave, and other such appliances into one plug and, in turn, this can cause an electrical overload and an increased risk for fire. Have the refrigerator coils vacuumed and cleaned regularly so the motor doesn’t overheat and cause sparks.

Simple preventative tips like these can keep your office kitchen safe from a fire risk. Also make sure to keep fire equipment on hand, such as fire extinguishers, so contact local fire equipment supplies, like Action Fire Extinguishers Pty Ltd, to discuss your needs and options.

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1. When the air just doesn’t feel cool enough

In some cases, the air conditioner may need a recharge or refrigerant, but your home’s vents may also be very dirty and clogged. When this is true, the cool air can’t push through the vents as easily. Additionally, all that dust and debris in the vents may absorb some of the cool air so that it’s not as cold when it reaches the rooms of your home. Note if the grills to the home’s ductwork seem dusty and dirty and if so, this may signal that the vents need cleaning.

2. When the unit keeps switching off

If the unit switches off before the home is cool enough, this may be a problem with the thermostat and not the air conditioner. Your thermostat may need calibrating, so that it can read the home’s temperature accurately. It may also be that the wiring to the air conditioner is not able to handle its demands and, in turn, a failsafe switch in the unit may switch off when it realizes it’s overloading the wiring. If there is debris around the unit, this can cause it to overheat since it cannot circulate air to keep the motor and blower cool, and this too may cause it to switch off automatically.

3. When only some rooms seem cool

Note that the air conditioner will be controlled by the thermostat; if the room where the thermostat is located is well-shaded and well-insulated, the thermostat may read the temperature as being very cool and the air conditioner switches off. In other rooms, you may be allowing in strong sunlight that makes the room very warm, or the rooms may not be very insulated and this too allows in excess heat. You may need to simply add window tinting to those rooms or a new layer of insulation to keep them cool. It may also be that the air conditioner unit is simply not strong enough to reach all the far rooms of your home, and you may need to upgrade to something with a stronger blower.

For more information and tips, contact local air conditioning service companies, like West Air Conditioning.

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Here’s how to manage your rainwater tank system to make sure that your drinking water is safe and pure.

Collection surfaces

The water in your tank doesn’t come straight from the sky; it arrives there via a series of collection surfaces.  That means that if those surfaces are covered with chemical spray drift, bird or animal droppings, and leaf debris, all those contaminants will be running straight down into your rainwater tank.  Over time, a sludge will form at the bottom of the tank where potentially harmful microbes will proliferate, leaving you exposed to using dangerous and unsuitable water.

Rainwater collection surfaces generally take the form of roofs and gutters.  Keep all areas that form collection surfaces clean and free from debris.  Make this task a part of your regular monthly maintenance schedule.

Seal the tank

In order to prevent from contaminants entering your tank, it’s important that you take steps to seal it.  Use a leaf catcher basket to stop fallen leaves accumulating where water may run through them and into the tank. 

Make sure that there are no openings where animals could gain entry seeking water, only to fall in and drown.  Fit small-gauge insect netting over the water entry point and any open overflow ports to prevent smaller creatures and breeding mosquitos from getting inside and contaminating the water. 

Remember to check and clean out the netting and the leaf basket at least once each week.  Check the tank itself on a weekly basis to make sure that no dead animals are floating inside.  If you find something nasty in there, you’ll need to empty the tank and clean it out thoroughly.

Chlorinating your water

It’s a good idea to chlorinate your tank regularly to reduce the risk of contamination.  You can buy proprietary rainwater tank cleaning products from good DIY stores, swimming pool suppliers and some large supermarkets.  Your water may have a slightly chemical taste immediately following treatment, but this should pass within a few days.

Water filtration

It’s recommended that you fit a water filtration system to your rainwater tank.  This reduces the risk of harmful microbes or chemicals entering your drinking water.  Make sure that you change the filter cartridges regularly as per the manufacturer’s directions.

First flush diverters

A first flush diverter system installed in your downpipes works by sending the first flush of water following heavy rainfall directly onto the ground or into the drain instead of into the tank.  This prevents debris that’s accumulated during a dry spell from being washed straight into your water tank.  The first flush diverter then resets itself and any subsequent clean rainwater is sent straight into the tank.

Cleaning the tank

You should empty and clean the tank annually.  It’s a good idea to employ a professional company to do the work for you if you don’t like working in confined spaces.

Begin by draining the whole tank.  Remove any sludge that’s accumulated in the bottom of the tank by pumping it out through a hose using a motorised pump.  You can dig the sludge into your garden if you want to – it makes great free compost!

Give the inside of the tank a good swill out using a hosepipe, but don’t scrub away the algae that lines the inside walls.  This green growth is non-harmful and actually helps to purify the water.

In conclusion

A properly-managed and maintained rainwater tank can provide you with a good supply of fresh drinking and cooking water.  Keep your rainwater tank system properly maintained by following these helpful tips.

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1. After any type of gas leak

If your furnace, hot water heater, or propane tank was leaking, plugging the leak or replacing the appliance and opening windows may not be enough to get all the gas or propane out of your home. Even if you don’t smell the gas, it can still be lingering inside. Consider how you can often get accustomed to certain smells; you may not smell the gas or propane and assume it’s gone, but instead have simply gone “nose blind” to its odor. After any such leak and repair, have the air quality tested so you know your home is safe or if it needs added and continued ventilation.

2. After any natural disaster

Don’t rely on your city or another municipality to tell you that the air is safe after any type of natural disaster, oil spill, chemical spill, fire and the like. Residual chemicals from these types of disasters may linger in the air for days if not weeks and even months after such an accident, and you can easily breathe in these fumes. Your home may need an air purifier after such an event, or you may find that certain chemicals have settled in your home and may be causing you health concerns. You may want to change out curtains and other upholstered items in your home to keep the air clean and safe.

3. If someone has unchecked breathing disorders

There can be a number of reasons why someone in your family has asthma, shortness of breath, and the like, but if you cannot pinpoint the cause because of a smoker in the house or another reason, it’s good to have the air quality checked. A family member may be more sensitive to dust, mold and other allergens, and pollutants or chemicals that your lungs can withstand may be bothersome to children or the elderly. While your doctor is the best person to provide an accurate diagnosis, an air quality service’s tests can tell you if someone’s persistent breathing disorder or cough is due to irritants in the air.

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Using an Auger

A hand auger has extendable rods that are rotated by a handle. Several drill bits can be attached to the bottom part of the auger so that as the handle is rotated then the tripod holding up the entire mechanism lowers it into the ground. The augers are raised to be emptied once the drilled material (sand, for example) fills them. The advantages of this method are that the equipment is cheap and it is easy to use in places where the water table is high. The biggest shortcoming of this method is that it is not easy to remove the temporary casing that is installed to prevent the bored hole from caving in.

Using Jetting

This method relies on water pressure to erode materials so that a hollow core is created. Large volumes of water are forced down a drill pipe using a pump. As the drill pipe rotates, the water erodes and mixes with the dislodged clay or sand and it is sucked up to the surface as the drill pipe moves up and down. Additives can be put in the water to thicken it so that the drilled hole does not collapse. The downside of this method is that it is not easy to know when the underground water has been reached. The method is only applicable in areas with clay or sand since those materials can be dislodged by water. The advantage of jetting is that it is very fast in sandy soils.

Using Mechanical Methods

A variety of rotary or percussion (hitting one object against another) tools are mounted on rigs and operated by a machine in order to drill into the ground. These methods are very effective when you want to drill to great depths because they are strong enough to bore through different materials. The downside is that you will spend a significant amount of money to rent the equipment and pay the operators.

You should discuss the methods above with a bore water drilling professional so that you select the one that is most suited to your specific situation.

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