Ways To Give

Seven Simple Tips to Help You Go Green!

Written by Barbara Erochina

If you wish you were more eco-friendly but aren’t quite ready to switch to a car that runs on olive oil or to make your own paper, here are seven simple ideas to get you started in becoming just a little more green.

1. Green how you eat. With most people averaging 245 workdays a year, consider how much waste is generated due to lunch breaks alone. Reusable food containers, as well as washing and reusing your plastic bags, will not only reduce the amount of garbage you produce but will also cut your costs. If a lunch meeting is unavoidable, bring a reusable food container along for whatever you cannot finish at the time.
2. Refresh your H20. Consider investing in a container for your drinking water to replace the 24 pack of bottled water you pick up on a regular basis. There are now many options available made from either metal or durable plastic. Name brands such as Nalgene and Sigg are popular and have the added health benefit of being more chemically neutral than their one-time use soft plastic counterparts.



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3. Light the way. Forgive me if I sound like your mother with this one. Always turn off the lights when you leave a room. Consider organic candles for romantic nights in and replace your regular old light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones. Not only will this save you cash in the long haul, but will also reduce how much carbon dioxide you produce as a household.
4. Buy locally. Support your agricultural community and shop locally for your produce, dairy and meat. When you buy local, the food has less distance to travel to you, reducing emissions and retaining more of its freshness. Additionally, smaller farms tend to grow more organically which means not only will you end up feeding yourself fewer unnecessary chemicals but your food is also likely to have more flavor and richness.
5. Keep laundry eco-friendly. Making small changes in how you do laundry may be one of the easiest ways to go green at home. There are a myriad of options available from using cold water detergent to line-drying your wet clothing to buying an energy-efficient system. The transition can be as simple as switching to a concentrated or powder detergent instead of using a standard liquid detergent, which can be up to 80% water! This is also a wallet-friendly green idea.
6. Wave goodbye to plastic bags. Most stores offer their own affordable version of a reusable shopping bag. Keep your old plastic bags for your garbage, and instead bring a large canvas along to pick up groceries.
7. Become a fan of recycled paper products. Using recycled paper products needn’t make you think of uneven writing surfaces and strangely colored shades of yellow. You can now purchase paper goods that range from 10% to 100% recycled material. Take your pick of products made from recycled paper such as facial tissue, writing stationary and home organization containers.

Begin implementing some of these easy changes today and know that you’re part of the solution. There is a Native American proverb that says, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”. Even small changes will not only benefit your world, but also the one future generations will inhabit in years to come.

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