1. PLANT A NOTION
"Going green" doesn't have to be a
daunting task that means sweeping life changes. Simple things can make a
difference.The contents of this list might not be new, but they bear repeating.
Sometimes it takes a few reminders for things take root
.
2.CHANGE YOUR LIGHT
If every household in the United State replaced one
regular light bulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the
pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the
road. Don't like the color of light? Use these bulbs for closets, laundry rooms
and other places where it won't irk you as much.
3. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT
By turning off your computer instead of leaving it
in sleep mode, you can save 40 watt-hours per day. That adds up to 4 cents a
day, or $14 per year. If you don't want to wait for your computer to start up,
set it to turn on automatically a few minutes before you get to work, or boot
up while you're pouring your morning cup 'o joe.
4.DO
NOT PER-HEAT THE OVEN
Unless you are making bread or pastries of some
sort, don't pre-heat the oven. Just turn it on when you put the dish in. Also,
when checking on your food, look through the oven window instead of opening the
door.
5.RECYCLE GLASS
Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20
percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn't recycled it can
take a million years to decompose.
6.DIAPER WITH A CONSCIENCE
By the time a child is toilet trained, a parent
will change between 5,000 and 8,000 diapers, adding up to approximately 3.5
million tons of waste in U.S. landfills each year. Whether you choose cloth or
a more environmentally-friendly disposable, you're making a choice that has a much
gentler impact on our planet.
7.HANG DRY
Get a clothesline or rack to dry your clothes by
the air. Your wardrobe will maintain color and fit, and you'll save money.Your
favorite t-shirt will last longer too.
8.GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK
One less meat-based meal a week helps the planet
and your diet. For example: It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce one
pound of beef. You will also also save some trees. For each hamburger that
originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet
of forest have been destroyed.
9.WASH IN COLD OR WARM
If all the households in the U.S. switched from
hot-hot cycle to warm-cold, we could save the energy comparable to 100,000
barrels of oil a day.Only launder when you have a full load.
10.USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN
During an average year, an American uses
approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used
one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved
from landfills each year.
11.USE BOTH SIDES OF PAPER
American businesses throw away 21 million tons of
paper every year, equal to 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy
way to halve this, set your printer's default option to print double-sided
(duplex printing). And when you're finished with your documents, don't forget
to take them to the recycling bin.
12.RECYCLE NEWSPAPER
There are 63 million newspapers printed each day in
the U.S. Of these, 44 million, or about 69%, of them will be thrown away.
Recycling just the Sunday papers would save more than half a million trees
every week.
13.WRAP CREATIVELY
You can reuse gift bags, bows and event paper, but
you can also make something unique by using old maps, cloth or even newspaper.
Flip a paper grocery bag inside out and give your child stamps or markers to
create their own wrapping paper that's environmentally friendly and extra
special for the recipient.
14.RETHINK BOTTLED WATER
Nearly 90% of plastic water bottles are not
recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. Buy a reusable
container and fill it with tap water, a great choice for the environment, your
wallet, and possibly your health. The EPA's standards for tap water are more
stringent than the F DA's standards for bottled water.
15.TAKE A SHORTER SHOWER
Every two minutes you save on your shower can
conserve more than ten gallons of water. If everyone in the country saved just
one gallon from their daily shower, over the course of the year it would equal
twice the amount of freshwater withdrawn from the Great Lakes every day.
16.PLANT A TREE
It's good for the air, the land, can shade your
house and save on cooling (plant on the west side of your home), and they can
also improve the value of your property.Make it meaningful for the whole family
and plant a tree every year for each member.
17.USE YOUR CRUISE CONTROL
You paid for those extra buttons in your car, so
put them to work! When using cruise control your vehicle could get up to 15%
better mileage. Considering today's gasoline prices, this is a boon not only
for the environment but your budget as well.
18.SECOND-HAND DOESN'T MEAN SECOND-BEST
Consider buying items from a second-hand store.
Toys, bicycles, roller blades, and other age and size-specific items are
quickly outgrown. Second hand stores often sell these items in excellent
condition since they are used for such a short period of time, and will
generally buy them back when you no longer need them.
19.TURN OFF LIGHTS
Always turn off incandescent bulbs when you leave a
room. Fluorescent bulbs are more affected by the number of times it is switched
on and off, so turn them off when you leave a room for 15 minutes or more.
You'll save energy on the bulb itself, but also on cooling costs, as lights
contribute heat to a room
20.RECYCLE OLD CELL PHONES
The average cell phone lasts around 18 months,
which means 130 million phones will be retired each year. If they go into
landfills, the phones and their batteries introduce toxic substances into our
environment. There are plenty of reputable programs where you can recycle your
phone, many which benefit noble causes.
21.RECYCLE UNWANTED WIRE HANGERS
Wire hangers are generally made of steel, which is
often not accepted by some recycling programs. So what do you do with them?
Most dry cleaners will accept them back to reuse or recycle. (Cue Joan
Crawford.)
22. RECYCLE ALUMINUM AND GLASS
Twenty recycled aluminum cans can be made with the
energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one. Every ton of glass recycled
saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil needed to make glass from
virgin materials.
23.GIVE IT AWAY
Before you throw something away, think about if
someone else might need it. Either donate to a charitable organization or post
it on a web site designed to connect people and things
24.CHOOSE MATCHES OVER LIGHTERS
Most lighters are made out of plastic and filled
with butane fuel, both petroleum products. Since most lighters are considered
"disposable," over 1.5 billion end up in landfills each year. When
choosing matches, pick cardboard over wood. Wood matches come from trees,
whereas most cardboard matches are made from recycled paper.
25.PLASTIC BAGS SUCK
Each year the U.S. uses 84 billion plastic bags, a
significant portion of the 500 billion used worldwide. They are not
biodegradable, and are making their way into our oceans, and subsequently, the
food chain. Stronger, reusable bags are an inexpensive and readily available
option.
26.FLY WITH AN E-TICKET
The cost of processing a paper ticket is
approximately $10, while processing an e-ticket costs only $1. In the near
future, e-tickets will be the only option, saving the airline industry $3
billion a year. In addition to financial savings, the sheer amount of paper
eliminated by this process is commendable.
27.DOWNLOAD YOUR SOFTWARE
Most software comes on a compact disc, and more
than thirty billion compact discs of all types are sold annually. That's a huge
amount of waste, not to mention the associated packaging. Another bonus to
downloading your software is that it's often available for download at a later
date when you upgrade to a new computer or are attempting to recover from a
crash.
28.PAY BILLS ONLINE
By some estimates, if all households in the U.S.
paid their bills online and received electronic statements instead of paper,
we'd save 18.5 million trees every year, 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases, and 1.7 billion pounds of solid waste.
29.STOP PAPER BANK STATEMENTS
Some banks will pay you a dollar or donate money on
your behalf when you cancel the monthly paper statements you get in the mail.
If every household took advantage of online bank statements, the money saved
could send more than seventeen thousand recent high school graduates to a
public university for a year.
30.USE RECHARGABLE BATTERIES
Each year 15 billion batteries produced and sold
and most of them are disposable alkaline batteries. Only a fraction of those
are recycled. Buy a charger and a few sets of rechargeable batteries. Although
it requires an upfront investment, it is one that should pay off in no time.
And on Christmas morning when all the stores are closed? You'll be fully
stocked.
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