How you can help too!
In your home
Bring your own cloth or fabric bags when you shop!
If you grocery shop once a week, in five years you’ll have kept about 250 to 1,000 grocery bags out of our landfills. When one ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved!
Re-use the plastic bags you already have:
- Old bags make great in-car trash containers.
- Use them as shoe protectors in the garden.
- Re-use them to clean up kitty litter, or to pick up dog droppings when walking your pet.
- Use them in your smaller waste bins around the house.
- Fill a few with shredded paper and tie them off for cheap, reusable packing materials. They’re also a handy way to maintain the shape of your favorite tote.
- Cut a slit in your bags and use them to protect clothes from dust, moths, and other pests.
- Take them with you for easy disposal of diapers.
Did you know?
The United States is 5% of the world’s population but we’re consuming 30% of the world’s resources and creating 30% of the waste.
In the shower
If you have to mix your hot water with cold, your thermostat is up too high and you are wasting energy. Why heat up water just to cool it down? Simply adjust the thermostat in your water heater to your perfect temperature.
In the washing machine
Using cold water instead of warm cuts down on energy use by 90%! In fact, using cold water is often better for your clothes.
In the bottle
Buy a water filter and drink water from the tap in a reusable bottle — that’s where 40 percent of all bottled water comes from anyway. The average American drinks 22.6 gallons of bottled water a year and making all that plastic releases over four pounds of carbon dioxide per person and consumes a surprising amount of petroleum (.005 barrels, or nearly a quart of oil per person).
Save trees
More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail. 42% of timber harvested nationwide becomes pulpwood for paper.
Reduce global warming
The energy used to produce and dispose of junk mail exceeds 2.8 million cars.
Save water
About 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk each year.
Save time
You waste about 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail. Go to www.41pounds.org and request them to contact 20 to 30 direct mail companies on your behalf to stop the majority of your bulk mail. With just a few minutes and $41, you’re finished — for five years! You can sit back and enjoy the benefits
Water powered alarm clocks use no electricity or batteries!
Fill up the fuel cell with water to enjoy four modes of water-powered usage: clock, alarm, countdown timer, and thermometer!
Use fans
Whole-house fans help cool your home by pulling cool air through the house and exhausting warm air through the attic. They work best at night, when the outside air is cooler than the air inside.
Use programmable thermostats
Consider getting a programmable thermostat that will let you set the air conditioner to start half an hour before you get home. This allows you to keep the AC turned off when you don’t need it.
Where to put lamps
Don’t place lamps or TV sets near your air conditioning thermostat. The thermostat senses heat from these appliances.
Where to plant
Plant leafy trees or shrubs that shade air conditioning units but do not block the flow of air. An AC unit operating in the shade can use as much as 10% less electricity than the same unit operating in the sun.
Maintain your AC
Inspect, clean, or change air filters once a month in your AC. A dirty air filter can lead not only to less efficiency, but can shorten the life of a unit.
Insulate your attic
A poorly insulated attic or windows that leak can lead to overworking your fans and AC.
In your yard
Enrich your soil
Mix compost or peat moss into the soil before planting to help the soil retain water. If your yard is sloped, reduce water runoff with terraces and retaining walls. Use mulches like pine needles, shredded bark or leaves in a layer three inches deep to keep soil moist, smother weeds, and prevent erosion.
Limit the amount of area devoted to grass
Plant ground covers, native shrubs, and add rock gardens.
What to plant
Choose from among the many types of low water-using trees, shrubs, flowers, and ground covers. Many need watering only in the first year or two after planting.
Water your lawn
Install drip or trickle irrigation systems in areas that need watering. These systems use water efficiently and are available at garden centers.
When you're painting
Never pour thinners, solvents or paint down the drain
Mix compost or peat moss into the soil before planting to help the soil retain water. If your yard is sloped, reduce water runoff with terraces and retaining walls. Use mulches like pine needles, shredded bark or leaves in a layer three inches deep to keep soil moist, smother weeds, and prevent erosion.
Paint thinner often can be reused
Over time, paint sludge settles on the bottom of the container. Pour the clean solvent off the top and use. When the thinner is gone, stuff an absorbent material into the can to dry the sludge before throwing the can into the trash. Consider giving unused paint thinner or stripper to local furniture refinishing shops or paint contractors.
Got left-over paint?
Consider donating leftovers to a local theater group, parks department, school, or organization, or take it to a community exchange. Many towns have “drop and swaps” once or twice a year. If you have more than half a gallon left over, try to use it for another project. Try mixing several colors of similar paints together. Make sure cans are properly labeled.
In your office
Copy on both sides of the paper
This is especially efficient for internal documents and drafts.
Reduce documents to fit two pages onto one
Use for circulating rough drafts or file copies of documents.
Use lighter weight paper
Lighter paper requires less energy and fewer raw materials when it's manufactured.
Consider purchasing ecoEnvelopes
These envelopes were recently approved by the United States Postal Service and can cut your mail costs 15% to 45% -- by eliminating the need to print, store, handle, insert, track and include a separate reply envelope. Reusable envelopes send an important message that you care about the environment. (Learn more: www.ecoenvelopes.com)
Use your e-mail and other tech-savvy alternatives whenever possible
Instead of printing out e-mails, organize the folders in your inbox for good record keeping and easy access.
For special occasions
Did you know?
The amount of household garbage in the United States generally increases by 25 percent during the holiday months, from 4 million to 5 million tons per week. Buying over-packaged items is a big part of this increase. Keep your celebration green and still warm the hearts of your friends and families by following these handy gift-giving tips.
Plan a family outing as a gift
If you want to be especially earth-savvy, scrap the card altogether and just plan the experience yourself. Research shows that your loved ones will remember it more than that CD you bought them last year. And tagging along will cut down on your own holiday blues because you’ll be spending more time with them and less time stressing out about what to buy.
Stay on the right path
Get quality, established trail maps from an information center or ranger station before you start trekking.
Try the unknown -- or at least the lesser known
Visiting a less well-known destination will minimize the crowds and your impact on the environment. Check out www.nps.gov for the full list of National Parks.
Leave no trace
Be sure to carry out what you carry in. Even orange peels and apple cores are bad for the environment (and give local critters bad habits) when every tourist leaves one behind.