Put a rain barrel underneath your eaves trough and capture the water for your outdoor and indoor plants. I also use my rain barrel for cleaning off dirty shoes,garden tools, or even my hands. I keep an eco-friendly soap outside so no one has any excuse to go inside and use the water from the tap. You are not only saving money on water, you are teaching your children, friends and neighbours that rain water is a good resource.
This post was submitted by Michelle Harris.
I built a low cost tobacco baler to effortlessly crush and bale plastics (such as milk jugs, juice bottles, soft drink bottles, windshield washer fluid bottles, and any other plastic recyclables). Baling reduces the space required for recycling and makes transport to the recycling center much easier. The baler takes up 3′x 2′. They don’t pay anything for recycled plastic at our recycling center, but the money saved on trash bags and the environmental benefit makes it all worthwhile.
This post was submitted by Ken Brandle.
After seeing the human footprint, I became more aware of what I threw in the garbage. I started recycling at home. My husband rolled his eyes but does it to make me happy. I saw how little was ending up in my trash so I brought the simple idea to my work. I have successfully started a going green project with the help of my co-workers! It is only recycling, but we are making a start. I hope to do more personally and hopefully that will reflect by making more changes at work.
This post was submitted by amie.
Imagine a minimal garbage lunch, saving money AND helping our planet.
Follow these steps:
Purchase a recycled lunch bag with containers. NO sandwich bags.
Purchase in bulk and pack quantity needed in containers. Say NO to individually packaged foods.
Recycled old clothes into cloth napkins. Cut into squares.
More importantly, don’t be tempted to re-purchase a lunch box each year. Keep your box clean and it will last a long time. Found ours at Fruitful Yeild.
This post was submitted by Mary Nerge-Elliott.
Spend time with your friends or family by sharing stories that you’ve either made up or heard. You can also have story reading time with your family by taking turns reading the book aloud. Aside from being fun this saves money, allows you to spend quality time with your family, and can be very educational. If you run out of stories you can always get a library card.
This post was submitted by Clayton Green.
Since I do a lot of my own improvement projects and all my own maintenance, I have found that a typical weekend project can take several trips to the hardware or supply store because you forget stuff or run out of materials. Most people I have spoke to agree with this. What my neighbors and I started doing was buying extras of the small things that tend to tie up a project with wasted trips to hardware store (nails, screws, pipe fitting, etc). We save $$ by buying in bulk ‘contractor packs’ and we share the excess. We keep a rough idea of what we’ve got between us and we always discuss our needs before making the trip. And when we do make the inevitable trip, we ask the others what they need to save each other time and gas. I think taking community or neighborhood approaches can be a source for a lot of ideas, as the site touches on with cooking, book clubs, etc. The final results are:
Less trips to store=
more time
less gas
less stress
Buying in bulk=
having leftover materials to share
less cost per item
This post was submitted by Jeremy.
I have four large canvas bags I always keep in the car for grocery or store shopping. It’s amazing how those plastic bags are filling up our landfill and it feels really good to know that the products we are buying at the store, won’t be coming home in 12 small plastic bags.
Also, as consumers we have incredible power in moving retailers toward more green packaging. If you have a choice between store brands, don’t just pick the cheapest or best, you can look for the brand that is packaged more efficiently.
This post was submitted by Tonja Steel.
After the birth of our daughter, my husband and I were horrified at the amount of waste we were creating with diapers. I decided to only take the trash out every other week. This forced us to recycle more than we trashed. I started buying products with little packaging or packaged with recyclable materials. We also use “green” trash bags made of corn products that are biodegradable. We plan to potty train my daughter as soon as possible in order to cut down on waste. Just being concious of the waste your family creates is a first step.
This post was submitted by Casey .
Buy reusable grocery bags and keep some in your car and your house. I’ve found so many uses for them other than groceries. And for those times when you forget or have too many groceries, collect the plastic bags and reuse them. An easy way to make a dispenser is to cut the leg or sleeve off an old piece of clothing. Sew elastic into the opening on one end and a drawstring on the other. Hang it by the drawstring, stuff bags in on top and pull them out from the bottom as you need them.
This post was submitted by Michelle.
Clothes dryers use a lot of energy! What could be simpler than drying on a clothesline?!? At least when the weather is good, and at least for larger and thicker items like sheets & jeans.
For permanent press items, it helps to tumble them on air dry (no heat) for several minutes before hanging out.
For those who object to the stiffer texture of line dried items, you can briefly tumble them on air (no heat) after they’re dry.
This post was submitted by Alan.