Description:
DailyEcoTips supplies daily green living tips with a focus on easy, inexpensive ideas for turning your life a little greener. It IS easy being green!
Contents:
98. Reuse: Citrus Peels
Reuse those citrus peels to make your own household cleaners, flavoring for recipes or zest for garnish. If you've got a woodstove, try putting a tea pot on top with water in the winter. This will humidify your home and if you put citrus peels in the water, it will even make your home smell nice!
98. Make your own soda
Whether you call it Pop, Soda, Coke, or magic-bubble-water, the beverage is a staple of the American home. Have you ever thought about what goes into most soft drinks? In addition to un-pronounceable chemicals, high-fructose corn syrup is known to give your body trouble and it's usually the #2 ingredient. Try switching to an all natural soda like Blue Sky or Hansen's. Or if you're really adventurous, try making your own!
97. Don't flush those pills
Most of American takes some sort of prescription drug. Well, the most of the insured population of America takes prescription drugs. But when your expire, or you have extras, think twice before flushing them. It's one thing to put harmful pharmaceuticals in your body. It's another to put them in someone else's body by adding them to the water supply. Flushing pills sends them to sewage treatment facilities that cannot remove all of the chemicals included in your pills. Check out Earth911.org, where you can find drop-off locations for your extra pills.
96. Reuse: Packing materials
Those packing bubbles may be fun to pop, but they can be reused countless times before their time is up. Usually when you get a package with packing peanuts, bubble-wrap, or that foam/paper stuff, they can all be reused. Simply grab an empty cardboard box and throw all of your packing materials in their when you get a package. Then, next time you ship something off, raid the box to make sure your stuff gets there safe and sound.
95. Switch to rechargeables
Switch from conventional batteries to rechargeables is a quick, easy and convenient way to reduce one's carbon footprint. Take a second to think about what battery operated devices you have at home and work. Remote control, IPOD, computer mouse... The list is longer than you probably realize. Switching to rechargeable energy sources reduces the materials needed to produce disposable batteries. Plus, it prevents harmful landfill waste. If you do use disposable batteries, you can recycle them! Check your workplace or city/town government. There are often programs for diverting batteries from landfills.
94. Reuse: Business cards
Business cards make great scratch paper. Because they're made of thicker card stock, they are more wasteful than regular note paper so it's best not to use perfectly good business cards for notes. But if you have recently changed positions or numbers and have a box of business cards lying around, go ahead and put a stack by the phones or on your desk upside-down.
93. Ecofy your commute
We've talked about utilizing alternative transportation when getting to work. But this tip goes one step further. Working from home eliminates the commute altogether. Studies have shown that though the work performed at home is broken up into smaller portions, employees are generally more productive when allowed to telecommute once or twice a week. It does wonders for the family life as well.
92. Consider Solar
It can be a large up-front investment to install solar power on your home. But it can also pay off rather quickly depending on your location. Take a look at SolarBuzz's list of solar panel installers. Or, check out CitizenRE, which is a company that allows you to essentially lease solar equipment so there is a minimal upfront cost. Very cool!
91. Switch your bills to coin
Many of us use plastic instead of either cash or coin. But for those small purchases that are better left to real currency, consider switching to coins instead of bills. A recent study on the environmental impact of paper vs. metal currency found that coins cost more to produce, but last much much longer. A dollar bill costs 4 cents to produce with an average lifetime of 18 months. The dollar coin costs just 8 cents more with an average lifetime of 30 years. It's not difficult to do the math on that one. Then again, in thirty years, one dollar probably won't buy a piece of penny candy. Read the Treehugger.com article on this subject.
90. Know your home
The U.S. Green Building Council is a 501(c)(3) organization that governs the LEED (Leadership in Environment and Energy Design) system. LEED is a certification that new construction projects can apply for with different recognition levels for the environmentally friendly aspects incorporated into the design. Knowing the LEED system can help you when looking at your own home's carbon footprint. Especially if you are building or purchasing a new home. Check out the Green Home Guide at the USGBC.
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