By making small changes to your everyday habits, you can begin to make difference in your environmental impact.
Being green doesn’t have to be hard. Basically, by using less – fuel, electricity, water – you use less of the earth’s resources.
We’ve all heard the mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” but exactly how do you incorporate that into real life?
Here are some ideas:
- Take canvas bags to the stores – grocery store, discount stores, every store. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, people in the United States use between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags each year.
- When you forget your canvas bags (which you will), reuse the plastic bags you take home. Use them as trash bags. Use them when you walk the dog. Use them to clean the cat’s litter box. Use them for poopy diapers. Whatever you do with them, just use them again before you throw them out.
- Only put the garbage can on the curb for pickup when it’s full. Skipping your house means the garbage truck burns less fuel. Less fuel means fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
- Do full loads of laundry. It lowers your home energy costs and saves water. The washing machine uses the same amount of electricity whether it’s got a small load in it or a large one as it washes for the same length of time.
- Wash your clothes in the coldest setting that will get them clean. Sheets and towels benefit from hot water – it kills dust mites – but stick to cold for the rest of the wash. Cooler water saves electricity.
- Install a low-flow showerhead. Even if you’re renting an apartment, you can unscrew an old showerhead and install a new one.
- Buy local food. Local farmer’s markets are popping up everywhere. Less distance that your food travels means fresher food for you, less fuel used to transport it and more money going directly into your local economy. According to the Sustainable Table website, the produce in an average U.S. grocery store has traveled nearly 1,500 miles from the farm it was grown on.
- Change your lightbulbs. Compact fluorescent bulbs are so much more energy efficient. According to the EPA, “If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.”
- Keep your car ties properly inflated. Check your car tires once a month and inflate them to their proper specification (look for a sticker on the driver’s side door, in the glovebox or at your car manual). According to the U.S. Department of Energy, "every pound per square inch of tire underinflation wastes 4 million gallons of gas daily in the U.S."
- Turn off lights when you leave the room. It’s a myth that turning on a light bulb uses more energy than just leaving it on. By the time the bulb has been on for 20 seconds, it’s using more energy than if it was left on.
Sources:
- Roach, John, National Geographic News, “Are Plastic Grocery Bags Sacking the Environment?”, September 2, 2003, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Sustainable Table
- U.S. Department of Energy
The copyright of the article 10 Simple Ways to A Greener Environment in Green/Simple Living is owned by Joanna Bartlett-Gustina. Permission to republish 10 Simple Ways to A Greener Environment in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
