Use your cell-phone like a land-line. Don’t answer your phone when you are spending time with your friends or family unless it is an emergency or your were expecting the call. In fact, don’t carry your phone with you throughout the day if you’re not anticipating a crisis of some kind. Turn your phone off at night. Make designated times for phone conversation with people you care about. Stop sending text messages. De-activate this function from your phone, both outgoing in incoming. It takes an incredible amount of energy and electricity to power your cell phone - and all the information it exchanges. Control the way you use technology! This goes for email too - try checking your email once a week, or once a day, if once a week is impossible. Then, set aside one chunk of time to respond to emails, instead of multiple times throughout the day. This will allow for more time for other (more physical) activities. Also, your eyes will appreciate it! And again, you will save power from not using your computer and the internet so often.
Thanks!
This post was submitted by charlotte sullivan.
My daughter and I compared notes and found that her community will accept things for recycling that mine will not. Between her visits I collect such things (e.g.’colored’ junk mail, envelopes with plastic inserts for addresses, shredded paper, lightweight cardboard boxes such as cereal and pasta boxes) and she willingly takes them home and adds them to her recycling.
This post was submitted by Marion.
Every morning my wife and I take a shower together to save on our water consumption and electric bill. It is a great opportunity to share with each other what is happening for the day before we start our morning routine. Plus, you cannot help but start your day off on a high note when every morning you get to see your spouse in the buff.
This post was submitted by Chris.
We keep the Sabbath. On Sunday we don’t do anything that makes others have to work, i.e. go shopping, eat at a restaurant, take a drive (in case we have a car problem), go to the movies. Instead we plan ahead for the items needed to cook and bake for Sunday. We go for walks.
This post was submitted by Karen.
I am experimenting to see how little garbage leaves my house. I photographed my empty garbage bin (140L, this is standard size for households in South Australia) in February, and I have not put my garbage out since then. It is now about two thirds full, in September, eight months later.
How do I do this?
I minimize greatly (obsessively?) buying anything new, and anything with packaging, especially food. Buy mostly fresh loose produce, all leftovers go to worms. Any plastic, paper, glass, metal, etc that does enter the house, goes into recycling piles, for future composting, mulching, kid’s craft projects, storage containers, etc. I don’t put my “recyclables” out for kerbside recycling either, because I don’t have confidence that they will be recycled, and commercial recycling is generally DOWNcycling - and I feel that I should take responsibility for what I consume, and how its usefulness gets extended!
I love knowing that I probably won’t even contribute a binload of garbage to landfill by the end of the year!
This post was submitted by Sophia MacRae.
We use two compost toilets. We also have a regular flush toilet. We had it removed, but then replaced it when we realized that some of our guests would leave early to avoid using our humanure toilet, which is admittedly a fancy name for a bucket with sawdust. They just don’t know what they are missing!
Maybe it’s just a whacky fascination on my part, but I think the sawdust toilet is actually quite fun to use. Here are some advantages: it will never overflow when your child uses too much toilet paper, no noise when you tinkle (no tinkle) or “flush”, no water used except the small amount to rinse the bucket. It was extremely easy to make and it returns nutrients to the soil and relieves our septic tank of excessive burden. In fact, we’ll probably never need the septic pumped again as it is essentially a large underground greywater tank now. The biggest disadvantage? Convincing your guests that you aren’t crazy and they really should give it a try. We’ve posted a sign and instructions near our toilets so that people can understand the reasoning behind it and how to use it properly.
C’mon, don’t be squeamish, composting can be enlightening and there really is no issues with smell at all! Try it!
This post was submitted by Gaia .
So many ways… of course I’ve been bringing a bag to the store for decades, glad to see others in the “mainstream” catching on!
How about bringing a to-go container of your own to the restaurant?!
Wear a sweater, slippers, shade the windows when the sun is pouring in in summer and open the curtains to the sun in winter.
One thing we as consumers can do is demand, by way of our $$$, better response from vendors, is to not buy “it” if it isn’t created, packaged and shipped sustainably.
Buy used, reduce…reuse….recycle, it’s tragic how many people still refuse to do these simple things…
This post was submitted by Deban.
Though I live in a busy metro area, I built a greenhouse last August and grow as much as I can for my family so that during the summer at least one meal a day is supplemented by food from the garden. I, also, am canning jams and tomatoes, as well as freezing vegetables and drying herbs for use when my garden is producing less in the colder months.
This post was submitted by Susan.
Join your local Free-cycle or Re-Use-It Network group and gift things you are no longer needing. Search Yahoo Groups for one in your area. The great thing about these groups is that you get to personally thank someone that gifts you their unwanted goods, and you get thanks back when you give as well. And they don’t end up in a landfill!
This post was submitted by Carmin.
Our church, schools, and clubs always have food pantry donation requests. Whenever we sent in food we try to send in meals that are made meat free and organic. We send in marinara sauce, meatless chili, peanut butter, etc. This way we feel like we are helping the people who need help purchasing food in many ways-they are getting healthier food and helping the environment without any effort and hopefully we are introducing them to a food or product that they may not normally purchase.
This post was submitted by Sher.