20 Things You Can Do To Help The Environment
5 Things You Can Do Today
Turn off your electronics overnight
You may have heard of this suggestion before. Most of us have. The problem is most of us also don’t have either the time, or the desire to run around the house at the end of the night and unplug everything. We have a solution! This surge protector is programable to turn on and off. You can set it to a custom timer, and let it manage your electronics for you. We aren’t suggesting you put these all over the house, but try one at your home workstation, or at your entertainment center. With most estimates saying unplugging even one computer overnight can save up to $15 a year, it won’t take long for this to pay for itself.
Stop pre-rinsing your dishes
This one only really works if you have a decent dishwasher. The fact is, most modern dishwasher are more than well enough equipped to handle your dishes as is, and they are also built to be better at conserving water than you are. Stop rinsing your dishes and you can save something in the neighborhood of 20 gallons of water per load.
Buy a reusable water bottle
There might not be anything more wasteful than plastic water bottles. Buy a reusable one. The added bonus, once you find one you like, you will likely see your water consumption rise.
Inflate your car tires
This issue was a hot button topic during the 2008 presidential election. President Obama sums it up here. The facts and final statistics will be forever debated, but the reality is that properly inflated tires do save gas. Or electricity if you’ve already made the jump to battery power.
Reduce the amount of junk mail you get
This one will get people listening. Did you know that there are actually ways to lower the amount of credit card offers you get in the mail? Here are three links to services you can use to reduce your junk mail!
5 Things You Can Do This Week
Change your light bulbs to LED’s
This one may take a while because I promise you that your house has more light bulbs in it than you realize. LED light bulbs use one quarter of the energy of an incandescent, and they last 20 times longer. If you haven’t done this already you’ve been missing out on big savings.
Start having a vegetarian day on your menu
This might seem like an odd thing for this list, but let this sink in. One 1/4 pound hamburger requires 425 gallons of water to produce. While it might seem insignificant, cutting meat from your diet for one day a week, can actually make a huge difference.
Run your errands in bunches
Plan your day. Go to the grocery store, the post office and pick up the kids from school on the same trip. You’ll save a few miles driving, and those miles matter. The driving that happens right after you start your car while the engine is warming up is the most harmful kind there is. Run these errands together and your car only has to do that one time.
Set up all your bills to electronic payments
This is one that you should do simply for the convenience of it. Set all of your bills to be automatically paid each month. Then set the statements to be delivered electronically. Paper gets saved, life gets easier.
Run only full loads in your washer and dryer
The average American household would save 99 pounds of carbon dioxide this year if they made sure they were running full loads in their washer. If you want to really go for it, run all of your wash cycles on cold. Turns out, cold water does just as good of a job as hot. Switch your settings to cold and you’ll save about 90% on your energy costs since thats where almost all the energy goes in the wash cycle.
5 Things You Can Do This Month
Use cruise control
This one only works if you are driving quite a bit. Setting your cars cruise control can save up to 15% of the fuel you would use if you were calling the shots with your lead foot.
Change your oil and filters
A properly maintained car is an efficient car. A couple of notes about oil changes. You don’ need to do them as often as your dad taught you. Unless you’re driving a car made 20 plus years ago, it likely calls for synthetic oil. The synthetic types are made to last 10,000 miles. (Sorry Dad). Also, if you take your car to a shop make sure they recycle the old oil, and if you do it yourself, take the used oil back to the auto parts store to have it recycled for free.
Use a professional carwash
Professional carwash services do a very good job of recycling and reusing water. Your neighbor washing his can in the driveway does not. If everyone in America like your neighbor took their car over to the carwash just one time this year instead of washing it at home, it would save…. wait for it… 8.7 BILLION gallons of water.
Start donating your old things
The less we consume the better for the planet. Rather than throwing out all of your things considering designating a box in your closet for things that you will take to your local thrift store regularly. You will be helping the planet, helping provide jobs, and helping the less fortunate. it’s a win, win, win as Michael Scott would say.
Buy paper based q-tips
The stick that connects the two ends of a q-tip can be made of wither of plastic or paper. If the whole country switched over to paper, we could save 1.5 million gallons of gasoline.
5 Things You Can Do This Year
Plant a garden
Fresh produce offers a lot of benefits. It tastes unbelievably better than what you get at the grocery store. You reduce the amount of packaging and transportation to get it to your kitchen, and the plants themselves help reduce CO2 in the air. I recommend starting with tomatoes, they’re easy, and you haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a tomato you grew yourself.
Fix leaking fixtures
Have you ever wondered why your toilet sounds like somebody just flushed it when you know it hasn’t been used for hours? It’s leaking. If you aren’t comfortable popping the top off and replacing the flapper (which by the way is most likely what going on) considering hiring a plumber to come take care of it, and any other leaks in your house.
Start a composting bin
This does not need to be strictly for hippie communes. Starting a composting bin is as easy as a five gallon bucket in a seldom visited area of your yard. Something that can hold organic waste, and makes it possible to stir it around every so often. Then take your home made fertilizer and use it on that garden you planted. Heres a guide on how to build a composter.
Re-caulk around your windows
If you notice little cracks between your window frames and your walls, you have a problem. The good news, it’s a pretty easy problem to fix. Re-caulking the edges of your window frames will help create a better seal and better insulation. It takes a little practice to get the hang of, but it’s a manageable job for most people.
Tint your windows (If you live somewhere warm)
Cut down on your cooling costs in the warm months by tinting your windows. The tint is available on amazon relatively inexpensively. Full disclosure, this one has a bit of a learning curve. But you will be surprised at the instant difference in temperature and in how much it reduces the run time of you A/C unit.