Q: I need to know how to dispose of old gasoline, please. My late husband always kept a 5-gallon container of gas for emergencies and now I’ve discovered an almost-full container that must be at least eight years old. I won’t put it in my car because it’s so old, but I need to get rid of it to put the house on the market.
A: Call your county or city hazardous waste collection facility and ask if they’re set up to take it. Most are. Mine is. And I called six others around the country and they all say they accept it as well.
Q: We just returned from visiting relatives in rural Missouri and we were once again shocked, as we are every time we go there, by the lack of seatbelt use. Teenagers, grandpas, parents — a pretty big percentage we encountered (in our family or among their friends or at gatherings) didn’t wear seatbelts. Which led us to wonder if there is as marked a difference between the seatbelt habits of city dwellers and country folks as we think.
A: Your observation is confirmed by the feds.
Although plenty of country folk wear seatbelts, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the three groups least likely to wear seatbelts are young males, pickup truck drivers and people who live in rural areas. Q: At a car show we walked past, but did not stop to learn about, a display of CNG vehicles, which I assume are “green.” What are they? A:
CNG vehicles are Compressed Natural Gas vehicles, and I’m guessing the display you saw was sponsored by the Natural Gas Alliance, which is doing a lot of outreach and information sharing.
Commercial fleets (think city buses, for example, and garbage trucks) have been using this fuel for quite some time. But passenger cars are extremely limited. That may change in the not-too-distant future, as natural gas is cleaner and cheaper than gasoline, and officials from about half the states across the nation have united to press car manufacturers to develop affordable vehicles powered by natural gas. Time will tell if some of the obstacles — too-few fueling sites and higher sticker price among them — will be overcome by more attention.
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