At Home:
Light and Heat Conservation
There are plenty of ways you can help the environment while also lowering the costs of appliances. Some of the more popular methods include replacing standard light bulbs with compact fluorescents, keeping the lights off in rooms that aren’t being used, investing in a thermostat that automatically regulates the air conditioner (i.e. the air is on when you’re home and off when you’re not), and using cold water when doing laundry.
Water Conservation
Many people have a habit of rinsing dishes in the sink before putting them in the dishwasher. However, this is counter-productive and can waste as much as 20 gallons of water per full load of dishes. In addition to saving water, omitting pre-dishwasher rinsing will also save energy, heat, and time. Another great way to save water is by, replacing baths with showers, since showers require approximately half the amount of water that’s needed to fill a bathtub.
Shut Down Your Computer at Night
Most people tend to use “Sleep Mode” when putting their computers away so that startup is faster and easier the following day. However, you can shave about $15 from your bill each year by shutting down your computer instead of using sleep mode.
Use Alternative Cleaning Products
Commercial cleaning products may be more easily accessible, but they aren’t always the safest or most budget-friendly option. In fact, many of them are already labeled as containing hazardous chemicals. Replacing these products with alternatives that use natural and harmless ingredients is a good way to help both yourself and the environment. For example, white vinegar kills bacteria just as effectively as any commercial product.
Use Cloth or Environmentally-Conscious Diapers
For the environmentally conscious parents out there, it’s important to know that diapers make up more than 3 million tons of waste each year. A simple change from disposable diapers to cloth or biodegradable disposables can help reduce the impact of landfill waste, leading to a healthier environment
Bring Your Own:
Bags
The accumulation of plastic waste is constantly growing, and the consequential non-biodegradable debris affects the health of animals, humans, and the environment – especially the oceans. So, instead of relying on plastic bags when shopping, consider investing in reusable cloth bags. This will reduce the number of plastic bags not only in landfills but also everywhere else.
Water Bottles
It takes hundreds and sometimes thousands of years for plastic bags to decompose. Even worse, the decomposition of a plastic bag releases toxins into the environment.. Getting a reusable container and filling it with tap water, instead of regularly buying and tossing plastic water bottles, is one way to improve personal and environmental health while saving money. Remember, standards for tap water are more heavily reinforced than those for bottled water.
Coffee Cups
Personal glass or ceramic coffee to-go cups are a growing trend, and a very eco-friendly one. Using a more permanent cup for your coffee or tea reduces paper cup waste, saving countless trees. Also, most coffee shops are more than happy to fill your reusable cup, directly eliminating their standard disposable options.
Go Digital:
Online Banking
Four billion trees are cut down annually for paper production worldwide.. The US alone wastes 750 pounds of paper each year. One effective way to lessen the amount of annual paper waste is to receive bank statements and pay bills electronically, as opposed to through the mail. In doing so, you’ll save postage, protect trees, diminish the amount of greenhouse gases released during the manufacturing of paper, and substantially reduce paper-related waste.
Software Downloads Instead of Discs
Digital downloads of software are another means to lessen negative effects on the environment and our wildlife. The negative impact of deforestation for the manufacturing of paper and the inevitable pollution resulting from plastic, disposable components (i.e. packaging) would diminish substantially if downloads are chosen over discs.
One the Go:
Establish Effective Errand Runs
Everyone experiences the stress and time consumption of performing widely dispersed tasks in one trip, resulting in a large number of miles traveled and an unnecessary amount of gas wasted. Such tasks can include going to work, the grocery store, the bank, the mall, and much more. Organizing your errands into a to-do list for the week will allow you to perform them in fewer, more efficient trips. This, in return, will save you gas and time while helping to develop better time management skills.
Use Cruise Control
Did you know that using cruise control can save your car both gas and mileage? In fact, consistently using cruise control over the gas pedal when travelling long distances – like the highway or the turnpike, where driving speeds remain constant – can improve your mileage by up to 15%, improve your fuel economy, save you money, and reduce your carbon footprint.
Ways to Save:
Buy Your Groceries Locally
How does buying locally grown foods help the environment? Actually, it helps in a lot of ways. First of all, local farms are less likely to spray their products with pesticides and chemicals, which helps not only the health of their customers but also the health of the environment and wildlife. Second, buying locally can help in the fight against global warming. When buying locally, the need to transport foods long distances is eliminated, greatly reducing gas and resulting toxins. Third, getting groceries from local farmers also supports your local economy.
Donation Over Disposal
We all throw things away every day, but some people have the unfortunate habit of throwing away non-perishable goods like old toys, clothes, furniture, and even equipment. Before throwing anything these items away, consider if someone you know might need it. Like they say, another man’s trash is another man’s treasure. If you don’t know of anyone who can use these items, then donate it to a second-hand store or to a charity. Donating various goods can reduce landfill waste while also helping others in need.
Matches Over Lighters
“Disposable” lighters, which are made of not-very-disposable plastic and contain butane, are dumped into landfills by the millions each year. Replacing your lighters with matches is a very easy way to reduce the accumulation of landfill waste and the risk of lighter chemicals being released into the environment. Using cardboard matches in place of lighters or wood matches will save money, energy, and trees, especially since most cardboard matches are made from recycled materials.
Reduce Your Junk Mail
Every year, an individual receives about forty pounds of junk mail, most of which isn’t even looked at. This senseless destruction of hundreds of millions of trees can easily be remedied by reducing the amount of junk mail you receive. In return, you’ll help reduce paper waste while eliminating clutter in your mailbox.
Reuse Wrapping
Repurposing gift bags, bows, and even wrapping paper has the same effect as recycling ordinary paper. By choosing to reuse these items, you’ll help reduce the number of trees cut down for the manufacturing of paper, while reducing the impact on your wallet.
What to Recycle:
Aluminum and Glass
The time and energy necessary to produce one brand new aluminum container can be used instead to restore and produce about twenty recycled ones. In fact, aluminum takes 96% less energy to make if it’s made from recycled cans. As for glass, it takes 21% less energy and oil to make if it’s made from other, recycled glass products.
Old Cell Phones
The batteries of discarded cell phones contribute heavily to the toxicity of landfills and can effect the surrounding environment. Recycling your old cell phones will not only reduce these effects and help keep the air clean, but will also assist in noble causes like Cell Phones for Soldiers, where your cell phones will be passed on to those in need.
Paper and Newspaper
Recycling paper is one of the most universal means of saving the environment from the destruction of trees. For those of you already in the habit of recycling paper, your efforts have more of an effect than you may realize. For example, more than 60 million newspapers are printed in the U.S. every day, so, if everyone recycled a single newspaper, it would save more than half a million trees every week.
Going green certainly doesn’t mean you have to disrupt your day-to-day life in order to make a difference. By making any of these small changes in your routine, you will make the world a healthier, happier, and greener place. For a greater impact, please share these helpful tips with friends and family!
