Save on Fuel Bills

//I had this post in my ’drafts’ for sometime now, while ish had the same opinion at Youth Unite. You can read his post here.//

Now the oil prices have been hiked in India, we are in a tight situation. Now, what can we do to save some money, fuel and help save the environment along the way?

***This is to suggest some points (which you already might know) with which you can try cut down your fuel bills, I am not suggesting you to avoid using your car. The best place to start would be your daily drive to work****

·         Car pooling is the best solution, you can cut down on your fuel bills, pollution and traffic, that’s one word (or rather two words) solution to many problems. Have I done this? YES ! In my previous company, we used carpooling a lot. We had the forum where we would post the carpooling details and yes many availed them. Its an excellent way to cut your bills, save money and help the environment.

·         Take the Company Transportation, this is a more practical approach than the one above, especially if your company provides one. Avail it please ! May be it won’t give your the flexibility in going/coming back from office at your desired times, but its sure gonna help. I use the company transportation for my daily journey to/from work.

·         Public Transportation. Now, it might not be flexible at all. I am talking about our daily travel, if you have no company transportation available and you have access to public transportation, use it! If you are a student ask your dad not to drop you at school, tell him you want to take a bus instead. If you are college goer, use the college bus for a change.

·         Deviating from practical solutions, I would suggest Electric Cars like the Reva, its small, convenient and cheap in the wrong run. But the only problem I see with it is that its a very small car and is costly with all the taxes. I guess the government should try cut down the taxes on environment friendly vehicles. But for those who travel in the city a lot, especially if you are a businessman, who cannot depend on either of the above three options, try this ! Its prized at around 2.5 Lakhs (its expensive alright), can go around 60kMS for a full charge (8hours), on an average 40 PS/KM. Frankly speaking I wouldn’t be investing in a Reva if I intend to buy a car, one reason would be that I wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money for a city car. I would suggest this for people who travel in city a lot and can afford it. For the rest of us? Well we do can try to follow the first three points at least.

‘Stop the Plastic’ Drive.

 

We talk, blog, rant, but what do we do to make a small difference?

 

I am not sure how this is gonna be successful. But we can give it a try. Let see, there are around 10-15 regular readers for this blog. Some of them are from Bangalore as well.

 

What can we do? Let reduce the usage of plastic.

 

Back home in Kerala our place is a less-plastic zone (we call it less because we can’t fully avoid its usage). Dad and mom makes sure that they get less or no plastic when they go out for shopping, the thrash primarily contains those tiny plastic shopping bags, which can’t be reused. So what can we do? Don’t accept them.

Now how do we reduce the usage? Follow these simple rules:

 

1.       Carry a shopper bag. Do not accept plastic bags from the supermarket. In fact, Subhiksha in Bangalore had an offer running “If you bring your own bag, you get a discount on the bill” I wonder if more supermarkets do this.

2.       Stop littering. This is easy said than done. But if we change, the rest would follow. Many think ‘what the heck’ this is not going to change anyone else. Well stop thinking like them, if you do, then what would make you different?

3.       Always throw the waste tied up in a bag (plastic what else? L ) and dump it only at the waste bins (with one hand covering your nose of course !, but do it).

 

 

The first rule would sound simple. Try practicing it for a month, check on how many plastic bags are lying around your house. Check on how many you disposed off that month? Its gonna be very less! Dedicate a post of yours for this initiative. I don’t need a link exchange. Just do it for the environment.

 

 

Come on guys, let make a small difference ? !

World’s cheapest car upsets environmentalists

 “World’s cheapest car upsets environmentalists”… Okay. What doesn’t upset them?  The middle class family dream is here. But then it upsets the environmentalists. But I don’t think we should care.  Take a look at the carbon dioxide emissions around the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution#Geographic_areas_affected_by_air_pollution

Total carbon dioxide emissions

10⁶ Tons of CO₂ per year:

• United States: 2,790
• China: 2,680
• Russia: 661
• India: 583
• Japan: 400
• Germany: 356
• Australia: 226
• South Africa: 222
• United Kingdom: 212
• South Korea: 185

So if our middle class is all set to roll out their small, affordable car, let them. 

Mr Environmentalist, The car is not for sale yet. Lets wait till the car hit the stores… then on the roads and see how the above figure is going to change drastically. If it does, I will update this post.   Thanks