WFP and the Enviroment

[Daftoldgit]

Ok so a customer made a remark about WFP not being very good for the enviroment, I kinda passed it off saying oh it's pure water no chemicals blah blah..

But it got me thinking and I  realised I don't really know

For instance we use carbon filters,  resin and lots of water, but is it harmful or not? I never even bothered to find out what resin's made of.. or if the carbon's a bad carbon.

I assume Trad is much "greener" than WFP

I would like a good answer if anyone else asks,  and it'd be good to minimise harm if possible.. Anyone looked into it?

 

[Pjj]

I had a customer say to me wfp was very waist full of water  years ago , I questioned her about what she meant she felt that it took a lot of water to clean the windows from the amount on the ground after the clean , I pointed out no chemicals are used just water and our waist product is 100% recyclable she didn’t ever mention it again .

 

[ched999uk]

Environmentally things are quite complex if you really want to ***** the complete whole life costs. i.e. energy and materials used to construct poles - carbon fibre and resin, brushes, hose, fittings, pumps, controllers, batteries, tanks, filter housings, filters, membranes, vehicles, tyres, fuel, oil, electricity, water. To name but a few things that need to be produced and disposed off. 

Even trad has squeegee, rubber, applicator sleeves, buckets, ladders, ladder leveller/grip, soap, etc.

All very complex......

 

[Pjj]

Carbon filters are made from charcoal so that is produced by semi burning the wood but wood smoke isn’t to bad for the environment compared  to other fossil fuels . Not sure what resin is made from think it’s a form  of silica ??? 

Trad uses detergents that arnt environmentally friendly , but with both methods it’s not just water and filtration, there is carbon fibre etc for poles , aluminium for ladders , plastic and stainless steel for squeegee channels so both I would say are probably similar in the end . 

 

[Daftoldgit]

I never even thought of the carbon poles, at least they last several years as do aluminium ladders and stuff,  the filtration bits are like "single use" as in they're used for a few weeks and chucked in the bin.

I gathered the customer I was talking to meant wasting water, I don't know if that's bad for the enviroment or not as we have plenty of it, she doesn't know about the carbon poles!

 

[Part Timer]

I don't know which one is environmentally better, I do know WFP is better for the person doing it and if the customer is more concerned about the environment then she is of my health then she would be finding another window cleaner.

 

[Davy G]

On the scale of world pollution, I don't think we have the biggest reason to lose sleep about our impact. I wonder if that customer uses a washing machine, car, aircraft travel?

A couple of examples of folk trying to lecture me in the past. On one occasion in Ireland I met for the first time a group of sea Kayakers for a wild camping weekend to an Island. One person questioned my use of an ancient paraffin Primus stove, claiming it to be more damaging to the environment than his backpackers gas stove. I pointed out that my ancient Primus wasted no fuel, as when emptied it can be topped up. Whereas with his fancy new gas stove once the pressure dropped as the single use cylinder was nearing depletion he would change the cylinder and dispose to landfill the old one and its remaining gas. He had travelled alone about 60 miles to the launch harbour in a big fancy SUV. Everyone in the group travelled from the same general area and everyone (seven or eight) travelled alone. Including me. I don't normally travel alone but I didn't know any of them until that meeting.

Another time, someone on a uk sea kayaking trip tried to pull me up for lighting a small campfire on the shore. Claiming I was causing pollution. I asked him how my small fire compared to the pollution caused by all of us driving to the coast. We all contribute to pollution. I'm sure most of us are conscious of our impact and try to tread as lightly as sensibly possible.

 

[Deleted member 7446]

Ok so a customer made a remark about WFP not being very good for the enviroment, I kinda passed it off saying oh it's pure water no chemicals blah blah..

But it got me thinking and I  realised I don't really know

For instance we use carbon filters,  resin and lots of water, but is it harmful or not? I never even bothered to find out what resin's made of.. or if the carbon's a bad carbon.

I assume Trad is much "greener" than WFP

I would like a good answer if anyone else asks,  and it'd be good to minimise harm if possible.. Anyone looked into it?

Trad isn't at all green. Aluminium ladders made from heavy bauxite ore mining using heavy plant machinery, then processed smelted into ingots, rolled and cut 

Soap has chemicals which are caustic and man made.

Then scrims and microfibre production.... the processes involved to produce trad equipment is massive 

 

[Daftoldgit]

nothing wrong with campfires - if you use wood lying about it would rot and make carbon anyway?  and camping without a fire is a bit rubbish!

 

[Deleted member 7446]

On the scale of world pollution, I don't think we have the biggest reason to lose sleep about our impact. I wonder if that customer uses a washing machine, car, aircraft travel?

A couple of examples of folk trying to lecture me in the past. On one occasion in Ireland I met for the first time a group of sea Kayakers for a wild camping weekend to an Island. One person questioned my use of an ancient paraffin Primus stove, claiming it to be more damaging to the environment than his backpackers gas stove. I pointed out that my ancient Primus wasted no fuel, as when emptied it can be topped up. Whereas with his fancy new gas stove once the pressure dropped as the single use cylinder was nearing depletion he would change the cylinder and dispose to landfill the old one and its remaining gas. He had travelled alone about 60 miles to the launch harbour in a big fancy SUV. Everyone in the group travelled from the same general area and everyone (seven or eight) travelled alone. Including me. I don't normally travel alone but I didn't know any of them until that meeting.

Another time, someone on a uk sea kayaking trip tried to pull me up for lighting a small campfire on the shore. Claiming I was causing pollution. I asked him how my small fire compared to the pollution caused by all of us driving to the coast. We all contribute to pollution. I'm sure most of us are conscious of our impact and try to tread as lightly as sensibly possible.

Good old primus stove. I had a lovely Coleman i did my ten tors and gold DofE with. It went on many expeds around the world and could burn nearly anything 

 

[dazmond]

Ok so a customer made a remark about WFP not being very good for the enviroment, I kinda passed it off saying oh it's pure water no chemicals blah blah..

But it got me thinking and I  realised I don't really know

For instance we use carbon filters,  resin and lots of water, but is it harmful or not? I never even bothered to find out what resin's made of.. or if the carbon's a bad carbon.

I assume Trad is much "greener" than WFP

I would like a good answer if anyone else asks,  and it'd be good to minimise harm if possible.. Anyone looked into it?

Who cares?I don't!?.....I guess your customer wouldn't be happy if i cleaned her windows(I use a diesel heater to heat my water)....

The fact of the matter is if China,USA,India,Russia and South America don't come up with a drastic plan and stick to it humanity is doomed anyway no matter what we do in the UK....

 

[dazmond]

Worldwide population control(no more than 2 children per couple)

New technologies for heating homes developed

Electric cars,vans,trucks,etc

Massive worldwide tree planting operation over many years and limit deforestation

Peat bogs and other natural carbon sinks protected

Agricultural shift towards plant based foods

 

[Iron Giant]

PMSL ?? that people think wfp is more eco than trad ?

We use 1000's of litres of water a day including processing and all our consumables go into to landfill so trad is better, a bucket of water refilled twice an applicator some squeegees and a ladder, open the back door of your wfp van and all the gear we have plus the system

 

[dazmond]

PMSL ?? that people think wfp is more eco than trad ?

We use 1000's of litres of water a day including processing and all our consumables go into to landfill so trad is better, a bucket of water refilled twice an applicator some squeegees and a ladder, open the back door of your wfp van and all the gear we have plus the system

Even worse if you have  diesel hot water system like me!?

I've offset it by committing to never having children and keeping all my work close by....??

I'm DI only so only use a fraction of the water that you RO boys use!

 

[Iron Giant]

Even worse if you have  diesel hot water system like me!?

I've offset it by committing to never having children and keeping all my work close by....??

I'm DI only so only use a fraction of the water that you RO boys use!

Individually any wfp could be more eco than a tradder through the personal choices they make within the personal lives

We don't have kids either and I don't travel over 3 miles and do as much eco stuff as we can

 

[windowsurfer]

Rubber in squeegees, how long does it take to break down? 

The problem with the focus on electric being the cure, is really not that green. There are poor little kids in Africa mining the materials to go into the batteries, the land being ravaged for the materials required for making batteries, then what happens when they have lost there goodness, where do they go, they are an ecological big problem. 

Everything man makes is flawed, as although quite clever, they don't and won't be able to do what nature does, recycle itself, without the palaver.

 

[Iron Giant]

Rubber in squeegees, how long does it take to break down? 

The problem with the focus on electric being the cure, is really not that green. There are poor little kids in Africa mining the materials to go into the batteries, the land being ravaged for the materials required for making batteries, then what happens when they have lost there goodness, where do they go, they are an ecological big problem. 

Everything man makes is flawed, as although quite clever, they don't and won't be able to do what nature does, recycle itself, without the palaver.

Exactly, they are trying to solve one problem and just creating many more, they all should have doing something far bigger 20 years ago but as usual they all wait till the ? hits the fan

The biggest issue is the population and it's impact, China maybe tried to balance things out with Covid and trying to deplete the population, as long as the the population continues to grow way beyond what it is now, there isn't any coming back, 

The impact of one child X 1,000,000's is the biggest impact, this massive house growth and the impact of all these new houses been built there is no offset, they build over green fields and plant a few trees dotted around these wildlife barren new build estates, not often do you see birds on these new estates 

Bring in electric motors, but the manufacturing of all these new motors that are crammed full of plastic inside which is most likely not recyclable problems are still there, our town wants the old railway station opening it's on the mainline from North to South no doubt the government will turn it down just like they did somewhere else in the County of a line reopening that put in a bid for funding.