Thursday, April 21, 2011

Ten Terra-rific Tips

In keeping with my annual Earth Day tradition, I've come up with a list of green tips for you. If you can incorporate even a few of these into your daily routine you will be living much lighter on the planet.

1.  Air dry laundry or use a drying rack whenever possible.

2.  If you must use the dryer, dry loads one after another.  You'll use much less energy that way, because the dryer doesn't need to heat up each time.

3.  Make sure your water heater is set no higher than 120 degrees.

4.  Your refrigerater doesn't need to be any colder than 35 to 38 degrees, and your freezer between 0 degrees and 5 degrees.

5.  Install aerators on all your faucets - you'll use a lot less water, and still get decent water pressure.

6.  Bring toxic items such as old paints, cleaners and solvents to a hazardous waste facility for safe disposal.

7.  If your office doesn't recycle, see if you can take the aluminum cans and paper home to recycle.

8.  Use your toaster oven or slow cooker to prepare meals whenever possible, rather than heating up your oven.

9.  Bring your used up batteries to your local pharmacy's photo department.  Most will accept them and send them in with the batteries they take out of the disposable cameras for recycling.

10.  Consider purchasing LED bulbs for your most used light fixture.  The prices are starting to come down and you can get them at the big hardware stores for a more reasonable price.  Remember, they cost a lot more upfront, but last 5 to 10 times longer than CFL bulbs, and 50 to 100 times longer than incandescents.  They also use about one tenth of the energy an incandescent bulb uses!

For more inspiration, check out my previous earth day posts, here http://talkthrifty.blogspot.com/2010/04/happy-anniversary-mother-earth.html and here http://talkthrifty.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-small-step-for-you-one-giant-leap.html.  Now get busy, and go green!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Tips! Happy Earth Day!

alice said...

Yes I too agree.Really great tips.Keep posting like this to influence people.
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Dmarie said...

hey, thanks, I will ask around to see if any of the photo shops around here take batteries. I take used print cartridges to our local library and they just toss them in with their own.

Betsy Bargain said...

Anon,

Thanks for reading. I hope you can use a few of these tips!

Betsy Bargain said...

Alice,

Thank you for stopping by. I'm glad you liked my tips. I hope you'll visit again!

Betsy Bargain said...

Hey Dmarie,

I checked out your blog and you have some pretty great ideas of your own! I signed up to follow through email. Do your local office supply stores recycle the printer cartridges? One here will give you $3 store credit for each, another gives you a ream of printer paper. Just something else to consider. Thanks for reading. Please stop by again!

Zengirl @ Heart and Mind said...

Betsy,

Nice tips! Saves earth little bit at a time! If we all did it, it would be a huge impact!

Betsy Bargain said...

Zengirl,

Glad you liked my Earth Day tips. Thanks for stopping by again!

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