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01. Snip six-pack rings! Before you throw them away, cut each circle with scissors. When you're out and about, pick up any six-pack rings you see and cut them before throwing them away.
02. Stop that junk mail! Write to: Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, 6 East 43rd St., New York, NY 10017. Recycle the junk mail you already get.
03. Use a phosphate-free or low-phosphate laundry detergent. Why? Because phosphates cause algae to become fertilized to the point that they grow out of control. The process involved when the algae dies uses up huge amounts of oxygen. This oxygen is needed for other plants and marine life to survive. Lakes and streams can die!
04. Use a low-flow faucet aerator. Installing low-flow faucet aerators on
your kitchen and bathroom faucets can save over 3300 gallons of water per year for just one family!
05. Stop throwing it away! Use reusable containers to store food instead of plastic wrap. If you have to use plastic wrap, try wax paper instead. Use towels or rags instead of paper towels. White paper towels and coffee filters aren't white naturally! They're bleached using chemicals. Try to buy unbleached coffee filters if you can. Or better yet, purchase a reusable filter.
06. Turn down that water heater! Turn the setting on your water heater down to 130 degrees. This is hot enough to kill bacteria and still save energy. For every 10 degrees that you turn down your water heater, you save 6% of the energy used. Please note that turning your water heater down to 120 degrees may pose a health risk, as it may not be hot enough to kill bacteria.
07. Educate yourself! Call your local electric and water utilities. Find out if they offer any free information on saving energy/water. Does your local water company offer free water conservation devices? Call and check! Stop by your local recycling center or give them a call. Find out what materials they collect and where the nearest drop off centers are.
08. Use latex paint. Oil based paint is not only toxic, the by-products of
manufacturing it are nasty pollutants! Latex paint is easier to clean up, too! Dispose of your excess paint properly -- call your recycling center to see if they know where you can take your paint to have it safely disposed of. Clean your paintbrushes in a sink inside so that the water will go to a waste treatment facility instead of the earth!
09. Buy the most fuel-efficient tires possible. Make sure your tires are
properly inflated, balanced and rotated. Radial tires improve gas mileage, but steel belted tires are generally the most efficient. Support local and regional efforts to recycle tires!
10. Home appliance tips ... An electronic ignition system on your stove will use 40% less gas than a pilot light. Clean or replace the filters on your air conditioner once a month. Set your refrigerator temperatures to between 38 and 42 degrees. Set the freezer to 0 to 5 degrees. This can reduce your energy consumption by 25%! Wait to wash a full load of clothes. Use a warm water wash with a cold rinse and save up to 90% energy! Clean the dryer's lint trap after each load. Not only will this keep the air circulating more efficiently in your dryer, but it will also help prevent a fire! A programmable thermostat will also help cut costs & save energy.
11. Turn it off! A running faucet puts 3-5 gallons of water down the drain every minute it's on! Turn off the tap when you're brushing your teeth, when you're shaving and when you're washing dishes. If you wash your car at home with the hose, you're using up to 150 gallons of water! Try using the self-service car wash and use only 5-10 gallons instead! If you use a bucket and a sponge at home instead of the hose, you use about 15 gallons.
12. Don't top off the tank! When you're filling up your vehicle with gas,
don't pull out the gas nozzle to "top off" the tank. This lets gas vapors into the atmosphere and creates smog!
13. Avoid CFCs. Don't buy halon fire extinguishers. Avoid polystyrene foam. If you're going to use foam insulation, make sure there are no CFCs in it. Have your air conditioner fixed properly and only at a shop that uses CFC recycling equipment. Read the labels to make sure you're not buying aerosols that contain CFCs.
14. Keep your car tuned up. A well tuned car uses 9% less gasoline than a oorly tuned car. Don't haul around unnecessary things in your car. An extra 100 pounds will decrease your fuel economy by more than 1%. Keep your fuel filters clean and don't let your car idle unnecessarily!
15. Buy rechargeable batteries when possible. If it's possible, recycle
alkaline batteries.
16. Use a cloth bag when you shop. Since there are pros and cons to both paper and plastic grocery bags, why not buy string bags?
17. Buy or make non-toxic products. Check out the books The Nontoxic Home or Making the Switch. You'll find it hard to believe there are so many toxic chemicals in your home.
18. Set your lawn mower blades high. To encourage longer, healthier roots, cut the grass so that it's 2 to 3 inches high. Leave the grass cuttings on the lawn. The cuttings serve as a moisture retentive mulch and a natural fertilizer. Most lawn mowers can be fitted with a recycler kit available at your local hardware store. Most lawns only need about 1 inch of water a week! And please do not put pesticides on your lawn. The pesticides contaminate worms, thereby endangering the songbird population. It also pollutes groundwater.
19. Don't use styrofoam. Why not? Because it's completely non-biodegradable. It also takes up a lot of space for it's weight, which means it's using up huge amounts of space at our already full landfills. Polystyrene foam is deadly to marine life. When sea turtles eat styrofoam, its buoyancy keeps them from diving; it clogs their systems and they starve to death.
20. Help clean up our beaches. The next time you go out for a day of fun in the sun, take along a trash bag or two. While you're walking, pick up any litter you can find. Just a few minutes of clean up can make a difference!
21. Know what you're buying. Don't buy ivory or any other products from endangered animals or plants.
22. Get rid of those flea collars! According to vets, they don't really work anyway! An estimated 50 million flea collars are thrown away every year. The pesticides and chemicals used in the collars can cause cancer, nerve damage and birth defects in animals. Brewer's yeast and garlic added to your pet's food works great. Products that contain methoprene, a growth inhibitor that interferes with flea larvae development, work well too. Check your local feed and garden center or with your vet for chemical free alternatives.
23. Use a toilet dam. Soak off the label on a small juice bottle. Dishwashing soap bottles or laundry soap bottles work well too. Fill the bottle with water, put on the cap and place it in the tank. You can put a few stones in the bottom of the bottle to weigh it down if necessary. Make sure the bottle doesn't interfere with the flushing mechanism. You may have to experiment with
different bottle sizes. You can save 1-2 gallons of water per flush! If you
install a toilet dam, which is available at your local hardware store, you can save 1 gallon per toilet dam. You can install two dams per toilet.
24. Use a low flow shower head. Low flow shower heads are available in two types: Aerated mixes air with water to maintain a steady spray at pressures equal or higher than a standard shower head. Nonaerated maintains heat and gets a good, forceful spray, but the low "pulses". This is good if you like massage shower heads. You can cut shower water use by about 50%!
25. Recycle your motor oil. Have your oil changed at a gas station and make sure they will recycle it. If you do change the oil yourself, make sure you take the oil to a center that will accept the oil and recycle it. Do not pour the oil into the ground or into the sewer! A single quart of motor oil poured into the ground can pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. One pint of oil can create a poisonous oil slick an acre in diameter when you pour the oil into a sewer.
26. Keep your furnace tuned up. A simple tune-up can increase a furnace's heating efficiency by 5%. This means an annual savings of 8,000 cubic feet of gas! Also don't forget to change your furnace filters once a month.
27. Try using compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They're readily available now, and produce no flicker or hum. They're more expensive than regular (incandescent) bulbs, but for 10,000 hours of lighting, it will take 13 incandescent lightbulbs to match 1 compact fluorescent! During this 10,000 hour period, incandescent lightbulbs use about $40 of electricity; compact fluorescents use $10!
28. Keep balloons on the ground. Helium filled balloons can find their way to the ocean when released into the air. Once they've found their way into the ocean, they're swallowed by marine life, and can kill them! Mylar helium filled balloons can get caught in power lines and cause power outages.
29. Recycle your newspapers. If you have curbside recycling, bundle your newspapers and place them in your recycling container. If you don't have curbside recycling, take the newspapers to your local recycling center or a designated drop-off center.
30. Recycle glass containers. All glass bottles and jars can be recycled
except for window panes, Pyrex and light bulbs. Glass produced from recycled glass instead of raw material reduces related air pollution by 20% and water pollution by 50%!
31. Recycle aluminum. Aluminum cans, aluminum foil, pie plates, frozen food trays, window frames and siding can be recycled!
32. Buy products made of recycled materials. This is called "precycling!" Buy eggs packaged in cardboard cartons instead of styrofoam. Look for the recycled logo on cereal boxes and other grocery items. Buying in bulk sometimes pays off, check it out to be sure. Avoid plastic containers when possible. If you have a favorite product but the packaging isn't exactly "Earth-Friendly", write, call or e-mail the company and ask them to change it!
33. Use cloth diapers. This is for those who are truly dedicated! It's hard to give up the convenience of disposable diapers. If you can, try a diaper service or alternate between using cloth and disposables. If you read the packaging on your disposable diapers, you'll notice the manufacturer recommends that you wash out disposable diapers before you discard them, but only about 5% of us do! If you truly can't give them up, at least start washing them out before throwing them away.
34. Cherish the Earth at work! Bring a coffee cup to work instead of using a disposable cup. Reuse manila envelopes by putting gummed labels over the old addresses. Set up a recycling area for newspapers, glass and aluminum. Try substituting paper cups for styrofoam cups at the coffee pot or water cooler. Use old memos or other letters you don't need for scratch paper.
35. Recycle plastic! Check with your local recycling center to see if it will accept plastic soda bottles, plastic wrap, water bottles, coffee can lids, clean milk bottles and laundry and dish soap detergent bottles. Also ask if they accept corrugated paper, kraft paper and stationery.
36. Provide wildlife with food and shelter. No, I'm not saying to ask them to move in ... just give them a little birdseed! Set up a hummingbird feeder or a heated birdbath. Animals that are active in the daytime, such as squirrels and rabbits, will be more likely to visit if you have some type of shelter in your yard, as in shrubs or some type of wall. Check with your local feed and garden store to find out what types of wildlife you have in your area and for the best ways to attract them. A pinecone stuffed with peanut butter and rolled in birdseed is a good way to feed birds during the winter.
37. Support the rainforests. Consider alternatives to tropical hardwoods in furniture, lumber, and plywood. Write to the Rainforest Action Network for a list of woods you can substitute for tropical hardwoods. Their address is: The Rainforest Action Network, 301 Broadway, Suite A,San Francisco, CA 94133. Support organizations involved in rainforest conservation.
38. Insulate your home. If there's no insulation in your home, you're costing yourself and the environment a fortune. If you do have insulation, check to see if you have enough. Even add-on insulation pays itself back in about 2 years. Check for energy leaks everywhere in your home. Caulk and weatherstrip your windows.
39. Plant a tree. If you do plant a tree, don't just stick it in the ground
and ignore it. Trees need a little care for the first 2 years. Check with the nursery or feed and garden store. If you don't have a place to plant a tree, get involved with your town or city's beautification program!
40. Try alternatives for pesticides. I've been told Pennyroyal oil, mixed
with 70% alcohol and sprayed on your clothes, works wonders against the mosquito population! Or try that infamous oil, Avon's Skin So Soft! Beats using DEET!
41. Don't dump hazardous waste! This sounds like a no brainer, but it's
surprising what materials in your home qualify as hazardous waste! Paints and paint thinners, car batteries, oven and drain cleaners, mothballs, floor and furniture polish, brake or transmission fluid, antifreeze, rug and upholstery cleaners, pesticides, furniture strippers and even some toilet cleaners are hazardous! Keep these things in their original containers with the label intact. Recycle whenever possible, such as motor oil and car batteries. Check with your city or town hall to see if they have a local collection program.
42. Carpool. Ride with co-workers to work. Gather up a group of friends if you're going out. It makes a difference!
43. Start your own compost pile. The easiest way? Just start a pile of
leaves, grass clippings and weeds in a corner of your garden. If you want to really try your hand at composting, build or buy a small enclosure to create the compost. Sort your garbage to separate the organics from the rest. Learn how to stack and layer the compost and turn it occasionally to avoid odors and to allow the air to circulate. Check with your local hardware store or feed and garden store for more information.
44. Use a trigger nozzle on your garden hose. This can save you at least 20 gallons of water when you wash your car. And don't forget, you can wash out those plastic baggies and reuse them!
45. Use alternative transportation or car pool. Doubling up with some friends on your way to work or shopping not only saves on gas, it also gives our ozone layer a little break. If it's possible, why not try the bus, subway or train? If it's a nice day, walk to the store if it's nearby or ride your bicycle!
46. Consume less meat. To produce 1 lb. of beef, we need 16 lbs. of grain and soybeans, 2500 gallons of water, and the energy equivalent of 1 gallon of gasoline. If Americans reduced their meat intake by just 10%, the savings in grains and soybeans could feed approximately 60 million people - the number of people who starve to death worldwide each year.
47. Grow what you can. Try growing things you can eat in your own garden. Even apartment dwellers can grow plants in pots or start a community garden. Support your local farmer's markets. Locally grown produce is fresher, cheaper and has less pesticide residue than produce that has been shipped long
distances.
48. Buy organically grown produce. If you garden, do it organically. You'll love knowing that the food you've grown is safe and pure! Check your grocery store for organic produce. If they don't carry it, request it!
49. Stay educated! Read the newspapers, watch the news broadcasts. Stay on top of what's happening in our world.
50. Get involved! Keep in contact with your local government officials in regards to what they're doing for our environment. Join an environmental group, whether it be local or nationwide. Spread the word to everyone you know!
There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.
~Mohandas K. Gandhi
50 Simple Things You Can Do
To Cherish Our Earth
Try straight vinegar and newspaper to clean windows. Remember - not on a sunny day since fast drying and streaks are synonymous. Also, remember to use vertical strokes on one side and horizontal on the other to be able to tell which side has streaks.
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