Going Green

Well, on Tuesday April 22, we celebrated Gaia, Mother Nature, Mother Earth, anything else you wish to call our lovely planet. Connecting with my previous water quality post, Earth Day was all about the Earth! How many people did something that dealt with the Earth and cleaning it up on Tuesday?
If you weren't able to, that doesn't matter. Earth Day can be everyday! With large brand-names going green, new cars being developed to be more green, everything around is showing the effects of Earth Day. If you want to join the global fight against pollution and the wasting of energy, here are ways to help:

Section A. Your Home
Not just a place to eat in, sleep in, and live in, your home is also one of the places where you could be using the most energy! Here are some tips to help keep your home green.

1. Recycle! Any old newspapers, magazines, or bottles lying around? Toss them into your recycling bin! No recycling program in your area? Talk to your town/city council or your Homeowner's Association about starting a program!
2. Reuse! Instead of brown-bagging your lunch everyday and using tons of Ziploc bags for your sandwiches, buy or make your own lunch bag. How do you make your own lunch bag? Check the next post for some great ideas! Use reusable containers to store your food in order to cut down on the number of plastic bags going into the trash everyday! Did you know that it takes a long, long, long time (over 100 years according to some sources) for one single plastic bag to decompose? Now multiply that by the number of plastic bags in the trash...and well...that's a lot.
3. Reduce! When you're not in the room, turn off the lights. Everyone keeps telling you to turn off the light, but you think, what's one lightbulb going to do to the environment. Well, if you think that, there's probably a lot more people with the same thought. If everyone does their part no matter how small, a lot of energy is going to be conserved. Some sources say that if everyone turns off the lights they are using, it could be the equivalent of taking about 41 thousand cars off of the road. Taking shorter, cooler showers (especially as we head into summer) saves water as well as the energy it takes to warm up the water for the shower. Keep the AC use as low as possible, instead of keeping the whole house chilly, close bedroom doors and turn off the upstairs AC until night time when you'll be spending the whole night upstairs. In the day, turn off the AC if no one is home and have the AC turn on when you get home. Drinking lots of water keeps you healthy and cooled down! Make your own popsicles by using those plastic cups you get at T.G.I Fridays and other places to cool you down. Check the next post for instructions.

Check back for more ways to recycle, reuse, and reduce!
Until next time,
Little Star