GREEN Action - Items for your Home

Small Tips/Big Impact

By Patricia Belser

Making eco-friendly decisions doesn’t mean you have to change to change your entire lifestyle overnight. Think of changing habits gradually – making your home the first place you start. Begin with simple/ easy solutions and gradually build more GREEN changes into your life and home, even small changes can have an enormous positive impact on the environment.

Change light bulbs from traditional incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs. It can trim 5 percent from your monthly electrical bill.

Use recycled paper products – If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels with 100% recycled ones, it could save 544,000 trees.

Fill your bottle with filtered tap water – buy a reusable water bottle instead of plastic

Shut off your tap – When brushing your teeth, remember to turn off the faucet. If you ‘brush two minutes and your faucet puts out the average three gallons per minute, you’ll save six gallons.

Paper or plastic? Really neither! It is estimated that in the U.S. almost 30 billion plastic and 10 billion paper grocery bags are used each year, requiring approximately 14 million trees and 12 million barrels of oil. Keep a reusable bag handy for shopping trips.

Eliminate paper napkins and paper plates – Use cloth napkins and real plates, it’s more elegant anyway. Wash in cold water for bonus points.

Alternative energy. Contact your local utility company about alternative energy options for powering your home like wind power, landfill gas, biomass, and low-impact hydropower.

Unplug it – UN plug cords for cell-phone chargers, microwaves, little used lamps and other appliances when not in use.

Another reason for a new TV – LCD flat panel TV uses as little as 1/3 of the electricity of conventional tube-based models.

Use low VOC Paints – choose a product low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Buy in bulk – Cut down on excess packaging and trips to the store by buying either jumbo containers that hold more or from bins of loose flour, rice, etc.

Buy Local – Buying organic produce grown within 100 miles of your home will help reduce the amount of diesel fuel needed to ship food.

Adjust your thermostat – In the Winter lower the temperature and in the Summer increase it to save money on heating and cooling costs.