Speed Gibson

I have put fluorescent bulbs in most of the applicable lights in our home already. But there is more we could do to help save the environment, by no longer making things we clearly no longer need. Here are three:

• Pennies
  With copper prices rising to the point where melting down pennies is profitable, it's time we quit making these nearly worthless coins. There are community dishes by many a cash register, to leave extras for those who are short and don't want still more in change.


• Dollar Bills
  With the penny bin freed up in the tills of America, we can slide everything over to make room for the dollar coin. Personally, I prefer the newer "golden" dollars to the Susan B Anthony's, but either is preferable to dollar bills. I've never had a vending machine so equipped reject one, nor the bus. You know what happens to paper money in these machines. Besides, a dollar coin today is worth less than quarter was 40 years ago.


• AAA Batteries
  This isn't really the battery manufacturers' fault. The problem is that the morons that design portable devices like MP3 players largely opted for the AAA over the larger AA size. In the case of the Sony Walkman, not only did they shrink the battery from AA to AAA, they raised the power consumption of the circuitry! AA batteries last many times longer than AAA batteries, yet are only modestly larger. On an hour for hour basis, AA's cost much less to manufacture, and would leave much less to recycle.