The Tissue Issue
“Ultra” brands of toilet paper such as Charmin, Cottonelle and Quilted Northern may feel soft on your bum, but they’re hard on the environment because they’re made from virgin fiber and bleached with chlorine. Virgin fiber typically comes from trees grown for pulp production or from sawmill leftovers after trees are cut into lumber. The alternative: brands made from 100 percent recycled fiber, preferably with at least 80 percent postconsumer content. You can download a wallet-size buyer’s guide from Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/forests/tissueguide) or the Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp).
Save energy by putting a lid on the pot whenever you boil water. If every U.S. household did this just once, we’d save up to $2,212,175.
SOURCE: Bill Nye the Science Guy/NOVA (www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/energy/lid.html)
Really Local Food
Planting a vegetable garden is an inexpensive way to obtain fresh, pesticide-free food that hasn’t traveled hundreds of miles to reach your plate. For novice gardeners, seed company W. Atlee Burpee & Co. has created a “Money Garden” seed pack that costs $10 and can produce $650 worth of easy-to-grow carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, peas and peppers. It’s only available online at www.burpee.com/product/id/112011.do. If your space is limited, consider the Kitchen Garden Planner from Gardener’s Supply Co. (www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html) to learn how to get 50 pounds of produce from a three-by-six-foot garden.
Get Out!
Sending a kid outside to play can improve his or her concentration and fight climate change. A study published in 2008 by researchers at the University of Illinois found that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder who took walks outdoors raised their attentiveness scores and that kids who walked in natural settings did better than those who walked city streets. A dose of nature was just as effective as a dose of Ritalin. Of course, the more time kids spend playing outdoors the less time they’ll spend at video-game consoles—which consume an estimated 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, about four times the output of Hoover Dam.
Not So Extreme Home Makeover
Building or remodeling a house? Consider buying used flooring, doors, indoor and outdoor fixtures, and other salvaged construction materials. You’ll keep these items out of the landfill and reduce your consumption of raw materials. To find nearby sources of items from disassembled buildings, try the Building Materials Reuse Association’s directory (www.bmra.org/listings) or Habitat for Humanity’s chain of retail ReStores (www.habitat.org/env/restores.aspx). Most of these groups will also accept donations of your own used building materials if they are still in good condition.
Handy Energy Savers
Cut down on electricity use by replacing these common kitchen appliances with hand-powered tools:
- Can opener
- Coffee grinder
- Juicer
- Stick blender
- Electric knife
Chemical Decoder
Read the label on your shampoo or skin cream bottle and you’re very likely to find all sorts of mysterious chemicals lurking in the fine print. Is polyquaternium-10 safe for you and everything that lives downstream from your shower drain? And why do toothpastes and toilet bowl cleaners share some ingredients? For answers about the thousands of chemicals that appear in household products and cosmetics, consult the Green Media Toolshed’s Scorecard (www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/), the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic safety database (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com) and the National Library of Medicine’s Toxicology Data Network (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov).
See what we're tweeting about
16 Comments
Add Comment12. If you are a company boss don't send your employees half way round the world for meetings that could be done over a video link.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this13. If your company is buying something, encourage the vendors to make their initial pitch over a video link - the customer is always right.
If you spend time worrying about your electric can opener, you have other issues. Or maybe it's guilt reduction for dummies. Go ahead - take that vacation to Hawaii. Balance off the environmental effects by switching to a manual can opener!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother fantastic resource for finding information on being environmentally friendly as well as businesses, organizations and resources for living the eco-friendly lifestyle can be found at: http://www.gengreenlife.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCutting back on or completely cutting out beef from the American diet can help America's once beautiful West regain much of it's lost biodiversity that is being trampled (literally) by the enormous beef cattle grazing footprint.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't throw out ur old express mail envelopes, Reuse them to make a super slim tear-resistant tyvek wallet!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQGJbP92NRI
Besides the fact that Tyvek is recyclable and should be recycled (see our section on how to recycle Tyvek: www.dynomighty.com/recycle)
Front load washers use much less water-and do a better job of washing. "Solar" dryers-your mom's clothesline-sadly illegal in some areas- is still the cheapest alternative around and the UV rays from the sun kill germs, too! Plus, you'll never get that scent in any bottle! Okay, the towels are a bit scratchy-toss them in the regular dryer for five minutes if you're THAT sensitive! Newsprint still gets windows cleaner than anything else-and sudsing ammonia and alcohol will cut any grime on that glass. Baking soda does a marvelous job of oven cleaning and refrigerator cleaning with a bit of elbow grease. No fumes and we need the exercise anyway! Use pine cones in the potted plants to keep kitty from mistaking them for extra litter boxes--the prickles on the cones will remind her to go to her own place, thank you very much and your plants will still look nice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll nice ideas but I can add to it-
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this-Instead of using paper towel - make napkins out of old sheets. Sew the edges so they don't unravel.
-Plant No Mowing Grasses instead of regular high maintenance lawns - not only will you mow less (and have some free time) you will also save on watering and chemicals in your lawn - make it safe.
-Do a little more than just plant a garden - grow food plants like house plants - in sunny windows inside. They keep a room smelling fresh as well as taste good. Some common plants are ever bearing strawberries, lettuces, and cherry tomatoes. Yummm.
-When you freshen the look of a room with pain - add ceramic micro-spheres. They help insulate, sound proof and are a fire retardant. You need several coats.
Number One: Be political!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDump Air Force jets and bombers. Dump the arms industry. Dump the nukes. Recycle Navy vessels. Convert military bases to wind or solar farms. Use military personnel to research for life-promoting goals, to teach or run youth/community centres, or to keep communities clean and safe. Send the destructive policy-makers to places like Iraq and Laos to clean up the poison and explosives they deliberately contaminated the land and people with.
Number Two: Think collective!
Use district heating or cooling in built-up areas. Develop compact attractive urban environments, incl. lawns, gardens, and parks on rooftops not dedicated to solar or wind power.
Number Three: Supplement One and Two with individual contributions like those in the article.
Thank you. I'll have my consultation fee in free overnight accommodation and free meals, please. (Athens rewarded its veterans, like Socrates, with free lunches on the city.)
Save lots of water in the rest room: If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you move away from your computer, don't let it run until it turns on its screen saver. Just turn the monitor off yourself, and turn it back on when you come back.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNever heard of no mowing grass. Where do you get it? I live in Oklahoma -- the home of Senator "Global Warming Is A Hoax" Inholfe
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood source for this kind of "clean/green living" stuff is the last section of the IFD Green Page called General Environmental Tips for Living that was built with the ideas of many. Its at www.informdecisions.com/trees.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy tips, turn the diswasher off before the dry cycle, it saves electricity and when you open the door it helps heat the house in the winter and puts humidity in the air. Keep it closed in the summer. Never buy bottled water, aluminum one time use pans, plastic bottle body wash, soap just does fine. Recycle all you can, lots of convience stores have cardboard box bins in the back by their dumpsters. Use leafes in the fall for mulch, it kills me that people put leafs in plastic bags for the dump.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSTOP USING PLASTIC BAGS! Instead use these cute reusable shopping totes that fold into different pouch styles. They donate part of sales to environment USA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBunchieBag.com
A few things I noticed in the US: people have their heaters too high but leave their doors open and when they leave the room for a lengthy time still leave the lights on; their air-conditioners run far too high; they eat far too much and their industrial food is overpackaged.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishi ; i like that!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou can get more free offers in our website : www.torontobestgreenoffers.com
thank you for visiting