                    | 1. CHANGE YOUR LIGHT If every household replaced one regular lightbulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road. Don't like the color of light? Use these bulbs for closets, laundry rooms and other places where it won't irk you as much. 2. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode, you can save 40 watt-hours per day. That adds up to 4 cents a day, or $14 per year. If you don't want to wait for your computer to start up, set it to turn on automatically a few minutes before you get to institute or work, or boot up while you're pouring your morning cup of coffee. 3. DO NOT PRE-HEAT THE OVEN Unless you are making bread or pastries of some sort, don't pre-heat the oven. Just turn it on when you put the dish in. Also, when checking on your food, look through the oven window instead of opening the door. 4. RECYCLE GLASS Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn't recycled it can take a million years to decompose. 5. GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK One less meat-based meal a week helps the planet and your diet. For example: It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. You will also also save some trees. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed. 6. WASH IN COLD OR WARM If all the households in our country switched from hot-hot cycle to warm-cold, we could save the energy comparable to 100,000 barrels of oil a day. 7. USE BOTH SIDES OF PAPER Businesses in the USA, for example, throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, equal to 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy way to halve this, set your printer's default option to print double-sided (duplex printing). And when you're finished with your documents, don't forget to take them to the recycling bin. 8. BAN BATHTIME! Have a no-bath week, and take showers instead. Baths require almost twice as much water. You will not only reduce water consumption, but the energy costs associated with heating the water. 9. BRUSH WITHOUT RUNNING You've heard this one before, but maybe you still do it. You'll conserve up to five gallons per day if you stop. 10. PLANT A TREE It's good for the air, the land, can shade your house and save on cooling (plant on the west side of your home), and they can also improve the value of your property. Make it meaningful for the whole family and plant a tree every year for each member. 11. ADJUST YOUR THERMOSTAT Adjust your thermostat one degree higher in the summer and one degree cooler in the winter. Each degree Celsius less will save about 10% on your energy use! In addition, invest in a programmable thermostat which allows you to regulate temperature based on the times you are at home or away. 12. TURN OFF LIGHTS Always turn off incandescent bulbs when you leave a room. Fluorescent bulbs are more affected by the number of times it is switched on and off, so turn them off when you leave a room for 15 minutes or more. You'll save energy on the bulb itself, but also on cooling costs, as lights contribute heat to a room. 13. RECYCLE OLD CELL PHONES The average cell phone lasts around 18 months, which means 130 million phones will be retired each year. If they go into landfills, the phones and their batteries introduce toxic substances into our environment. 14. RECYCLE ALUMINUM AND GLASS Twenty recycled aluminium cans can be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one. Every ton of glass recycled saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil needed to make glass from virgin materials. 15. CHOOSE MATCHES OVER LIGHTERS Most lighters are made out of plastic and filled with butane fuel, both petroleum products. Since most lighters are considered "disposable," over 1.5 billion end up in landfills each year. When choosing matches, pick cardboard over wood. Wood matches come from trees, whereas most cardboard matches are made from recycled paper. 16. GIVE IT AWAY Before you throw something away, think about if someone else might need it. Either donate to a charitable organization or post it on a web site designed to connect people and things. 17. DOWNLOAD YOUR SOFTWARE Most software comes on a compact disc, and more than thirty billion compact discs of all types are sold annually. That's a huge amount of waste, not to mention the associated packaging. Another bonus to downloading your software is that it's often available for download at a later date when you upgrade to a new computer or are attempting to recover from a crash. 18. PAY BILLS ONLINE By some estimates, if all households in the U.S. paid their bills online and received electronic statements instead of paper, we'd save 18.5 million trees every year, 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and 1.7 billion pounds of solid waste. 19. USE RECHARGABLE BATTERIES Each year 15 billion batteries produced and sold and most of them are disposable alkaline batteries. Only a fraction of those are recycled. Buy a charger and a few sets of rechargeable batteries. Although it requires an upfront investment, it is one that should pay off in no time. And on Christmas morning when all the stores are closed? You'll be fully stocked. 20. SHARE! Take what you've learned, and pass the knowledge on to others. If every person you know could take one small step toward being greener, the collective effort could be phenomenal. |
