Are molded FG trailers 'green'?

[John in Santa Cruz]

indeed, we've not bought a 'new' vehicle since 2001 (a E150 passenger van)... and all our campers/trailers have been 2nd hand.

[floyd]

Buying used actually makes you an "enabler" for those with 3ft-itis and encourages the purchase of an even bigger trailer!

How much CO2 is released in a birdsong? Is it worth the cost to the environment?


Is the view of a sunset worth the loss of solar power collection overnight?


What effect does a windmill have on weather when it takes 20,000 KW of power away from the wind?


If we all drove west at the same time at a hundred KPH, how much would we increase the rotation of the earth?


Like wheel weights on a wheel, do skyscrapers throw the earth's balance off?


Since the sun converts hydrogen to helium, would it talk like Mickey Mouse?


Is the man in the Moon "Face"tious? (green cheesy)


PS...
"So, I'll continue to continue to pretend,
My life will never end
And flowers never bend with the rainfall."

[redbarron55]

I went out and looked at my Scamp and it is white, not green, and has a red stripe.

[ZachO]

In the land of false equivalencies, there is already a king. Best not try to compete.

[Doctor Harold]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

...Again green in manufacture makes little or no difference in a second hand unit as the cost to the environment has already been paid along with the depreciation by the first buyer....

Well, then I'm pretty darn green with my previously-owned Corvette, and I drive with a lead foot, not because people in the petroleum industry need the money, but because the Fascist State of California needs my tax dollars.

I get a little over 20 mpg, about half the mileage of the Prius, but way more than twice the fun.

Kermit was wrong; in a Corvette it IS easy being green!

[1500]

When you look at carbon footprint you do need to look at the total life use.

In 1997 nine million households had RV's, it is now 2018 and only 10 million households have RV's. About 1 million RV's are sold every 3 years (with the last 2 years it has been close to half a million each year). So approximately 7 million RV have been sold between 1997 and 2018, but there is only 1 million more RV's on the road. That would indicate that ~6 million RV's went into landfills (or are rotting in people's fields).

I read that someone estimated that only ~20,000 Scamps have ever been made. And I would expect Casita to be a little higher, and some of the other makers to be lower.

[stevebaz]

7 million RV's, well half of them are in storage lots here in California. Everywhere you look there is a full storage lot with dirty RV's parked there.

[RogerDat]

Green is poorly defined. Thus allowing for fuzzy and facetious arguments. Plus it often depends on factors not readily known. I recall aluminum is a very energy intensive to manufacture. I know it is one of the "premium" metals one can sell to a scrap yard because recycling is much cheaper than making it.

What is the energy cost of making the chemicals combined to make fiberglass resin or glass fiber? Fertilizer is energy intensive to make, and some resins are soy based. So who knows? Without even knowing the carbon or pollution aspect of the power sources.

Absent some mechanism along the lines of the energy rating on appliances or the MPG ratings for autos consumers have no idea what the carbon footprint is of a manufactured item.

We as consumers have no clue on the manufactures "footprint" for either stick built or FGRV. Even proposed mechanisms such as a cap and trade that gave carbon a cost would not be exact.

People buy energy using products often consider MPG or energy efficiency that impacts cost of ownership. I know I would rather have a chest freezer that adds less to the energy bill each month. Or a tow vehicle that gets better gas mileage.

Corvettes are fun but don't think the insurance and gas to drive one as a commute mobile would work for a lot of people. But a person can make an informed decision. The MPG or appliance energy star ratings allow apples to apples compare of those factors. Comfort or fun are in the eye of the beholder. As are "big enough" still if you drive a jumbo work truck that don't do no work the rednecks who use their p/u trucks as trucks laugh about you behind your back.

Not big on buying bottled water since when I grew up "bottled water" was in a jug we refilled and threw some ice in, that is how I still do it. Figure it saves me about $6 a day refilling my water bottle from the big cooler jug. Don't feel bad about keeping some plastic bottles out of the waste stream either.

Myself I figure while camping I save water by not shaving and showering in about 1 gallon. And try to only do that when I can smell myself over the wood smoke in my clothes, or when even the dog won't sleep with me. Wife manages to look marvelous in the woods I look like I was raised by wolves within an hour of setting up camp. It's all good as long as she doesn't recycle me.

[stevebaz]

You won't be recycled until the government makes the orange and green cracker factory.

[redbarron55]

Talking of recycling here in Florida we have fiberglass boat recycling problem.
Many old boats, not worth fixing are parked around and abandoned, but nothing can be done because the hulls are titled.
The boat cannot be scrapped without the title.
If you have a boat abandoned on your property and are not the titled owner and don't know who is the owner all you can do is search down the owner and have him get a title and sign it over to you so that you can scrap it for him. If you can find him.
So in Florida there are boats laying around all over and no one can do anything about them unless they are a hazard to navigation where the state will have them hauled away.
It is, by the way illegal to dump the boat in waterways and public land and also illegal to deface or remove the Hull Identification Number or HIN (like VIN for boats)

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by redbarron55

Talking of recycling here in Florida we have fiberglass boat recycling problem.
So in Florida there are boats laying around all over and no one can do anything about them unless they are a hazard to navigation where the state will have them hauled away.
It is, by the way illegal to dump the boat in waterways and public land and also illegal to deface or remove the Hull Identification Number or HIN (like VIN for boats)

Have to ask, after a hurricane and many derelict/abandoned boats wash ashore, how are they dealt with?

[redbarron55]

Hurricane damaged boats, if they are a hazard to navigation can be removed.
If it is in your back yard it is different.
A towing company can move it at a price. If they can't find the owner at your expense.
Perhaps if it is in your back yard your insurance company would get it moved.
Still to be disposed of title is necessary according to the person at the county.
The bigger problem at least for me is a tired old boat, maybe with a trailer, left just because to fix it costs more than it is worth and just abandoned. I suspect that many are just towed out some were out of sight, unhooked and left.
Some the owners moved, got sick, or tired of fooling with a low to no value boat.
5 years ago the law changed and they have been piling up.
I didn't realize the problem until I decided to get rid of an old boat left on my property.
They can look up the owner from the last registration, but will only send them a letter and they can choose to do nothing.

[dfandrews]

More greenness to consider:
The plethora of RV's, most of which are white or a very light color, changes the earth's albedo, so that more of the sun's energy is reflected back to space, not to used here.


Use of RV solar panels w/battery systems displaces absorbed energy, to be used within the RV, thence becoming waste heat distributed into the earth's ecosystem at locations other than where (and when) the sun shines.



No one has mentioned the mpg of the most efficient per ton-mile transport: railroads.


And my final thought (a bit of a rabbit trail): with the energy generation of solar farms and wind farms now in the high GigaWatts, what does that do to the area microclimates, and to the climate in general?