What you can do
Electricity
• Replace your lights with longer lasting compact fluorescents to save electricity and
money in the long run.
• Don’t use electrical appliances for things you can manage by hand, such as opening cans, shaving, drying your hair.
• Use cold water in the washer whenever possible. Wash dishes only when the dishwasher is full. Allowing clothes to dry on a line and dishes to dry in the air will conserve energy and save you money.
Water
• When brushing your teeth, don’t leave the water running. Flush the toilet less often.
• Dump used oil and other chemicals in approved places. Pouring them down sewers allows these pollutants to enter the water supply and pollute ground water.
• When landscaping, use plants that are native to your area to reduce your watering and fertilizing needs. If you do water your lawn, do so late in the day to avoid evaporation during the hot hours.
Or wash your car on the lawn (be sure to use a bio-friendly detergent!).
Fuel, Energy
• Buy a car that gets good mileage. When possible, ride a bus, walk, carpool or bike it up. The biggest damage we can do to the environment is to fly on an airplane.
Flying uses a great amount of fuel and the average airplane sends approximately one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a single trip.
That’s more carbon dioxide production than a year’s worth of driving and three times more carbon dioxide than rail.
• Turn the stove or oven off a few minutes before you are done cooking and save gas.
Reuse/Refuse/Recycle
• Recycle newspapers. Turn scrap paper into a handy scratch pad for making lists, scribbling notes and doodling.
• Buy tree-free paper made of fibres such as hemp, kenaf, sugar cane, coffee beans, banana leaves, blue jeans and old money, rather than timber.
Paper made from these plants is also stronger and more durable, and can be recycled more times than wood-based papers.
It is also important to continue buying recycled paper products to sustain a market for the recycling of the glut of tree paper in the market.
• Shun fast food. Especially until they learn to produce less paper waste. Fast food servings, with their polystyrene packaging, plastic flatware, and single-serving condiment wrappers and paper napkins are extremely wasteful. Aluminum is the most readily recycled of common take-out packaging. The most eco-friendly take-out container is a reusable container you bring from home to the restaurant.
• Carry around your own coffee mug and cut down on Styrofoam usage.
• Get a few nice shopping bags, wash and reuse your plastic bags, re-use brown paper bags to line your trashcan instead of plastic bags.
• Composting biodegradable waste such as yard trimmings, fruit peels and other such leftovers provides fertilizer for your yard and reduces the burden on landfills. You can also leave lawn trimmings on your lawn, it’s good fertilizer.
Consume Less
• You don`t really need a plastic bag when you buy a packet of bread, do you? If you must buy bottled drinking water, save empty bottles and refill them.
• Try to eat less meat: The meat industry causes especially high amounts of environmental damage. The cattle industry requires significant land not just for grazing but also to raise crops for feeding and water, and at 10 tones of manure per animal the faucal runoff can contaminate surface water.
Safe Disposal
• Computers contain many toxic materials and an old computer should not end up in a landfill. Check for upgrading your older machine with new memory, microprocessors and drives.
Consider donating the equipment to a local school or nonprofit organization. Never throw a cell phone into the trash—see that it gets reused or recycled.
Cell phones have a toxic waste stream including lead, mercury and cadmium. When discarded improperly, these toxins are released into the environment.
• Dispose of expired medicines properly. Most expired medicines from households end up in landfills or are flushed down the toilet. This can lead to water-table contamination, so proper disposal is critical.
Others
Preserve biodiversity. Do not always buy the same, common variety of popular foods. If you usually buy white rice, white bread and Shimla apples, next time try something different (brown or wild rice and green apples).Relying too much on a few plant varieties could limit our future food choices. Conserving biodiversity means greater choices and a safer food supply.
• Avoid using petroleum derived oil-based paints. Water-based paint is less hazardous than oil-based paint, dries faster, saves time and eliminates the need for chemical solvents for clean-up.
• Use natural cleaning products. You can make your own effective cleaning solutions from basic household products.
Make your own cleaner using two teaspoons white vinegar to one quart of warm water. Apply with a natural linen towel or other soft cloth. For household disinfecting, the best alternative to bleach is borax. Borax, baking soda and lemon juice combine to form an excellent cleaner and disinfectant. For bleaching clothes, dry oxygen bleach works well, as does borax. Or try adding a cup of white vinegar to your laundry load.
• Send electronic greetings. Seven billion greeting cards are sold each year. Reduce the number of trees lost to this industry by sending electronic greeting cards for appropriate occasions. And no gift-wrapping please!
What you can do
Electricity• Replace your lights with longer lasting compact fluorescents to save electricity and money in the long run.
• Don’t use electrical appliances for things you can manage by hand, such as opening cans, shaving, drying your hair.
• Use cold water in the washer whenever possible. Wash dishes only when the dishwasher is full. Allowing clothes to dry on a line and dishes to dry in the air will conserve energy and save you money.
Water
• When brushing your teeth, don’t leave the water running. Flush the toilet less often.
• Dump used oil and other chemicals in approved places. Pouring them down sewers allows these pollutants to enter the water supply and pollute ground water.
• When landscaping, use plants that are native to your area to reduce your watering and fertilizing needs. If you do water your lawn, do so late in the day to avoid evaporation during the hot hours.
Or wash your car on the lawn (be sure to use a bio-friendly detergent!).
Fuel, Energy
• Buy a car that gets good mileage. When possible, ride a bus, walk, carpool or bike it up. The biggest damage we can do to the environment is to fly on an airplane.
Flying uses a great amount of fuel and the average airplane sends approximately one ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on a single trip.
That’s more carbon dioxide production than a year’s worth of driving and three times more carbon dioxide than rail.
• Turn the stove or oven off a few minutes before you are done cooking and save gas.
Reuse/Refuse/Recycle
• Recycle newspapers. Turn scrap paper into a handy scratch pad for making lists, scribbling notes and doodling.
• Buy tree-free paper made of fibres such as hemp, kenaf, sugar cane, coffee beans, banana leaves, blue jeans and old money, rather than timber.
Paper made from these plants is also stronger and more durable, and can be recycled more times than wood-based papers.
It is also important to continue buying recycled paper products to sustain a market for the recycling of the glut of tree paper in the market.
• Shun fast food. Especially until they learn to produce less paper waste. Fast food servings, with their polystyrene packaging, plastic flatware, and single-serving condiment wrappers and paper napkins are extremely wasteful. Aluminum is the most readily recycled of common take-out packaging. The most eco-friendly take-out container is a reusable container you bring from home to the restaurant.
• Carry around your own coffee mug and cut down on Styrofoam usage.
• Get a few nice shopping bags, wash and reuse your plastic bags, re-use brown paper bags to line your trashcan instead of plastic bags.
• Composting biodegradable waste such as yard trimmings, fruit peels and other such leftovers provides fertilizer for your yard and reduces the burden on landfills. You can also leave lawn trimmings on your lawn, it’s good fertilizer.
Consume Less
• You don`t really need a plastic bag when you buy a packet of bread, do you? If you must buy bottled drinking water, save empty bottles and refill them.
• Try to eat less meat: The meat industry causes especially high amounts of environmental damage. The cattle industry requires significant land not just for grazing but also to raise crops for feeding and water, and at 10 tones of manure per animal the faucal runoff can contaminate surface water.
Safe Disposal
• Computers contain many toxic materials and an old computer should not end up in a landfill. Check for upgrading your older machine with new memory, microprocessors and drives.
Consider donating the equipment to a local school or nonprofit organization. Never throw a cell phone into the trash—see that it gets reused or recycled.
Cell phones have a toxic waste stream including lead, mercury and cadmium. When discarded improperly, these toxins are released into the environment.
• Dispose of expired medicines properly. Most expired medicines from households end up in landfills or are flushed down the toilet. This can lead to water-table contamination, so proper disposal is critical.
Others
Preserve biodiversity. Do not always buy the same, common variety of popular foods. If you usually buy white rice, white bread and Shimla apples, next time try something different (brown or wild rice and green apples).Relying too much on a few plant varieties could limit our future food choices. Conserving biodiversity means greater choices and a safer food supply.
• Avoid using petroleum derived oil-based paints. Water-based paint is less hazardous than oil-based paint, dries faster, saves time and eliminates the need for chemical solvents for clean-up.
• Use natural cleaning products. You can make your own effective cleaning solutions from basic household products.
Make your own cleaner using two teaspoons white vinegar to one quart of warm water. Apply with a natural linen towel or other soft cloth. For household disinfecting, the best alternative to bleach is borax. Borax, baking soda and lemon juice combine to form an excellent cleaner and disinfectant. For bleaching clothes, dry oxygen bleach works well, as does borax. Or try adding a cup of white vinegar to your laundry load.
• Send electronic greetings. Seven billion greeting cards are sold each year. Reduce the number of trees lost to this industry by sending electronic greeting cards for appropriate occasions. And no gift-wrapping please!