ENERGY SAVING IDEAS -- GREEN TIPS
Think twice before printing.
The average USA consumer uses more than 700 pounds of paper every year--twice the European average.
Save trees; use recycled paper, make 2-sided copies, use single spacing, decrease margin, footer & header sizes.
Duplexing (2-sided printing) printers save on paper, postage & reduce file space.
Use blank sides of used sheets of paper for note-taking & printing drafts.
Wrap gifts in reusable cloth bags or recycled gift boxes.
Plant trees; one mature tree can manufacture 5 pounds of pure oxygen daily.
By conserving 1 billion trees (the amount of paper thrown away in USA annually), we can save $5 billion in air pollution cleanup.
If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
If every American recycled just 1/10 of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
Rainforests are cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute! Reduce, re-use & recycle paper & wood.
In 1 year, 1 supermarket can go through over 6 million paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are just in the United States!!!
The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.
Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
Avoid products wrapped in excessive packaging, such as plastic bags inside of cardboard boxes. Look for packaging made from recycled materials.
Check the plastic code before you purchase to make sure the package is recyclable.
The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging material and junk mail.
In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.
To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees are felled.
Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
Use cloth bags for groceries. A 15-year-old tree can produce 700 paper grocery bags that one supermarket could use in less than an hour.
In a year, 1 supermarket can go through 60,500,000 paper grocery bags. Use cloth bags.
Recycle newspapers; 73% of the newspapers produced in the USA are NOT recycled.
Recycling plastic saves twice the energy as burning it in an incinerator.
Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!
Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!
A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk, and 26 gallons of bottled water a year. That is a lot of containers -- make sure they're recycled!
Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups every year.
We use over 80 billion aluminum soda cans every year, but here is no limit to the amount of times aluminum can be recycled.
An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now!
Recycling 1 aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours -- or the equivalent of ½ gallon of gasoline.
An estimated 80,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using enough aluminum foil to cover almost 40 football fields. All that foil is recyclable.
Recycle not only aluminum beverage cans, but also aluminum siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, lawn furniture, and chocolate foil wrappers.
The US population discards each year enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over.
Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.
On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 to incinerate it.
Save more energy by manually shutting off your computer completely nightly, on weekends & during long periods of non-use during the day; or at least shut off the monitor & printer.
If every computer & monitor in the USA were turned off nightly, the nation could shut down eight large power stations & avoid emitting seven million tons of CO2 annually.
Set Blackle as your home page. Powered by Google, http://www.blackle.com provides the same search results as google.com but on an energy saving black background.
Recycling electronic equipment conserves energy, raw materials & reduces pollution in manufacturing.
The production of chicken or fish releases 3 times less greenhouse gases than beef production.
For meat eaters, purchase locally raised meat that supports small grass farms in your region and preserves green spaces that house biodiversity.
To lower your eco-impact, grill chicken, fish and veggies instead of burgers.
Don’t dump or flush old medicine. They are considered hazardous waste. Contact your local hazardous waste facility or a pharmacy for their recommendations such as drug recycling programs.
Before you buy, check the product label to determine if it is recyclable & if it is made from recycled materials & consider its durability.
Donate a living tree to his/her favorite national forest at http://www.arborday.org.
Reduce the use of packaging; buy food, drinks & snacks in bulk.
Encourage guests to recycle their empty aluminum cans, glass or plastic bottles by indicating which trashcans are for recycled items.
A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose -- and even longer if it's in the landfill.
The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.
Reuse decorations or rent them from a party store.
The recycling process isn't finished until you buy new products made from recycled content.
To reduce eco-impact, buy pre-owned jewelry. Mining for a single .33 ounce, 18-karat gold ring generates about 18 tons of mine waste.
In CA, recycle athletic shoes at http://www.nrc-recycle.org/reuseashoe.aspx
Find instructions to make your own natural cleaning products at http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/daily-green-tips/cleaning-products.
Buying used or refurbished existing furniture is less expensive than buying new & better for the environment.
Top performing Energy Star labeled schools cost 40-cents per sq. ft. less to operate than the average performers.
Rechargeable batteries reduce the amount of potentially harmful materials thrown away & can save money in the end.
Refrigerators are the most power-hungry appliance in the home and can account for over 2,800 pounds of CO2 released annually.
If you raise your refrigerator temperature from 31° F. to 36° F. & your freezer temperature from -5° F. to 0° F. you can save scores of pounds of CO2 annually. (Check w/thermometer in glass of water.)
Suggest your supermarket manager consider joining the EPA's GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership to reduce refrigerant charges and emissions.
Dryers typically produce up to 1,446 pounds of CO2 annually, far more than almost all other household appliances (second to power hungry refrigerators).
Cash is the greener alternative when it comes to payment methods. Credit/debit cards are made using 6 kinds of plastic. There are 2 billion+ cards in the USA alone, which are replaced every few years.
Paper money is made mostly from biodegradable cotton and linen and bills stay in circulation for up to 5 years. Cash is the greener alternative when it comes to payment methods.
Driving within the speed limit can improve fuel efficiency by up to 23 percent.
Boost automobile fuel efficiency up to 33% by braking & accelerating gradually (not slamming & revving).
Boost automobile fuel efficiency up to 23% by driving within the speed limit.
Boost automobile fuel efficiency 10% by replacing a clogged air filter.
Boost automobile fuel efficiency 4% with routine maintenance, i.e. tune-up.
Boost automobile fuel efficiency 3.3% increase with properly inflated tire air pressure.
Boost automobile fuel efficiency up to 40% increase by fixing serious auto problems.
Lower your carbon footprint by teleconferencing, which saves time, gas, wear and tear on autos and roads, and reduces traffic congestion and auto emissions.
A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
Motor oil never wears out, it just gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil.
On average, each one of us produces 4.4 pounds of solid waste each day. This adds up to almost a ton of trash per person per year.
Set a lawn sprinkler at the setting that gives off large drops of water, low and close to the ground to minimize water waste.
Water the lawn early in the morning, which will ensure that the water soaks into the soil instead of evaporating.
Noodlehead Sprinklers feature flexible nozzles to spray water right where you need it minimizing water waste.
Take care to position a sprinkler so that all water falls on the lawn (not on the sidewalk or the driveway) to minimize water waste.
Pledge to reduce waste; reuse & recycle products; buy recycled & recyclable products to meet the EPA’s challenge.
Buying recycled encourages manufacturers to make more recycled-content products available.
Zero Waste means used materials are seen as valuable resources. A pile of "trash" could become the raw materials for new products, offering jobs and financial opportunity.
Aim to do your part by composting fruit & veggie scraps. Community gardens, farmer’s market, farmers, recycling centers accept compost (frozen is OK).
Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that could be composted instead saving landfill space.
If every USA household reduced its garbage by half, the environmental impact could be reduced 25%.
The US population discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers.
The US population discards each year 1,600,000,000 pens.
The US population discards each year 2,000,000,000 razor blades.
The US population discards each year 220,000,000 car tires.
Keep track of auto driving and gallons of gas bought. A clear picture of auto dependency can help in finding ways to cut back.
Substitute walking, biking, or public transportation as possible for driving.
Schedule an energy audit with your utility company or energy assessor to receive suggestions to reduce home energy use.
Open a savings account dedicated to green home improvements.
Get a baseline of your carbon footprint & set goals to reduce, i.e. 10% the first year.
With a yearlong challenge, compete with friends to lower your carbon footprints.
Keep track of consumption, kilowatt hours of electricity, heating fuel, vehicle fuel, etc.and set goals to reduce.
"Phantom energy" can account for 8% of your household electric use. Pull the plug when items aren’t in use.
Plug appliances into power strips and shut off when finished to save up to 8% on electric bills.
Cleaning or replacing a dirty furnace filter can cut your heating costs up to 5%.
We’re #1 in trash production. As 5% of the world’s population, the USA generates 40% of its waste.
Every month Americans throw out enough glass bottles to fill a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!
The average American uses 7 trees a year in paper, wood & other tree products. This equals 2 billion trees annually! But1 billion trees worth of paper is still thrown away annually.
Think twice before printing. The average American uses 7 trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
A 2007, CA study revealed awareness about reducing and reusing is low. Help promote the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling.
The EPA estimates 75% of what Americans throw in the trash could be recycled, but only 25% is.
About 1/3 of an average dump is made up of packaging material.
In the USA, over 40% of municipal solid waste is paper.
The USA generates 40% of the world's waste, but we’re only 5% of the world's people.
Every MONTH, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!
Currently Americans use about 2 billion trees annually (in paper and other tree-related products). But, one billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the USA.
NOT RECYCLED: 73% of the newspapers produced in the USA.
Plant trees. Even one tree can grow to manufacture five pounds of pure oxygen per day.
Even for PCs with a low-power sleep mode, you can save more energy and possibly extend your computer's lifetime if you manually shut it off completely during long periods of non-use, e.g. night.
If your networked computer(s) must stay on and connected at night for file backup or other purposes, make sure the monitor is shut off.
Top performing Energy Star labeled schools cost 40 cents per square foot less to operate than the average performers.
Each flight dumps an estimated 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide into the not-so friendly skies.
Vinyl chloride, which is a major building block of PVC, is a known human carcinogen that can cause liver cancer, according to researchers at Center for Health, Environment and Justice.
In terms of surface area, lawns are the single largest irrigated crop in America, covering 128,000 square kilometers--3 times the surface area the U.S. corn crop covers.
Amalgam fillings are 40-50% mercury by weight and release mercury vapor when we chew.
Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high from LA to New York City.
A Lawrence Berkeley Lab study estimated that each computer/monitor left on after business hours is responsible for power plants emitting nearly one ton of CO2 per year.
If every US computer and monitor were turned off at night, the nation could shut down 8 large power stations & avoid emitting seven million tons of CO2 every year.
Why protect the environment? To maintain balance, fairness, beauty, to protect our genes, preserve natural resources and respect the wellbeing of all.
Reduce waste: re-use, recycle and consume less; ask others to do the same.
The Freecycle Network prevents tons of good stuff from ending up in landfills.
Give away clutter (don’t throw it away), e.g. http://www.freecycle.org.
Reusable bottles, thermos & filtered tap water are planet-healthy alternatives to plastic H2O bottles.
The USA uses 50 BILLION plastic H2O bottles a year; 2/3 of all beverage containers end up in landfills.
Waste prevention is critical to reduce the threat of climate change (e.g. droughts, flooding, extreme weather, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, depleting ozone layer).
Long term planning is essential now to step up planetary stewardship.
Reduce waste. (Most USA households produce 8# of garbage daily.)
Encourage manufacturers to employ product responsibility to reduce wastes.
Encourage companies to measure their CO2 emissions and then use less carbon.
The production of chicken or fish releases 3 times less greenhouse gases than beef production.
The food system is responsible for 1/3 of global greenhouse emissions.
Reduce your carbon footprint through simple food choices - http://www.eatlowcarbon.org.
Calculate the carbon emissions in foods you eat at http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/Carbon-Calculator.html.
Most food in the USA travels 1,500 miles to get to the consumer’s plate.
Reduce CO2 emissions by eating a low carbon diet.
Support local farmers and help curb air pollution and global warming - http://www.slocleanair.org
Empower your community to go on a low carbon diet.
Eat locally and reduce your carbon footprint, support local farmers.
Locavores: people who eat locally grown/produced food to reduce their carbon footprint
Create a Seed Lending Library. Patrons borrow seeds and at harvest time, collect seeds and return them to the library. http://www.richmondgrows.org/create-a-library.html
The Story of Stuff, http://www.storyofstuff.com, the underside of production & consumption.
GoodGuide's database, http://www.goodguide.com, lists the impact of products on health, the environment & society.
NOT RECYCLED: 2/3 of plastic & glass containers
NOT RECYCLED: 1/2 of all paper, paperboard & aluminum beverage cans
Use recycled products and look for ways to recycle even more.
Shrink your carbon footprint by reducing, re-using and recycling.
Recycle CDs, DVDs (even shredded) & jewel cases at http://cdrecyclingcenter.org or http://www.cdrecyclingforfree.com.
Precycle = purchase items with little or no packaging; use less, use again.
Re-Use: Compost. Re-use is an antidote to landfills.
Plant trees at home or donate to replant forests. http://www.arborday.org.
Re-Use - Store pens in a pickle jar. Re-use is an antidote to landfills.
Re-Use - Cut an old towel into rags. Re-use is an antidote to landfills.
Re-Use - Use the back side of paper. Re-use is an antidote to landfills.
Re-Use - Use coffee grinds as a cleaner. Re-use is an antidote to landfills.
Take up organic gardening. It’s environmentally friendly, healthy and frugal.
Upcycle = repurpose stuff into new or altered objects. Re-use is an antidote to landfills.
Refuse - The less consumed the less need to recycle.
"The things you own end up owning you." Tyler Durden
Repair - Learn basic DIY repair skills. http://planetgreen.discovery.com.
Save energy one search at a time, set Blackle as your homepage.
A source of rapid returns is to power down computers when not in use.
Less than 1% of earth's water is available to sustain nearly 7 billion humans & millions of other species.
Most datacenters are overchilled; to reduce utility bills cold aisles can be set at 74 degrees.
Commuting to work produces ¼ of all office carbon emissions.
The impact of a 4-day workweek could reduce crude oil imports about 10-20% and even perhaps up to a 40% reduction.
A 4-day workweek could mean less traffic congestion.
A 4-day workweek could reduce money spent on new road construction and existing road maintenance.
Commuting less reduces workers exposure to pollutants linked to cardiovascular disease & respiratory illness.
Working remotely reduces emissions, lessens road congestion, saves money and can help reduce office energy consumption.
To reduce emissions at schools, work with your school's PTA to reduce vehicle idling when picking up students.
In 2007, 3.9 million USAers worked from home at least 1 day a week, saving about 840 million gallons of gas, reducing CO2 emissions equal to 2 million cars off the road that year.
"Staycations," vacationing near home, can save money, reduce stress, & reduce carbon emissions.
Save toner. The Ecofont uses up to 25% less ink; its letters contain small empty circles.
Save toner or ink, don’t print unless necessary.
Check product performance with GoodGuide’s barcode scanner, an iPhone app.
Test your Consumption Quotient at http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/what.html.
When shopping, look for fair trade products or items made of recycled materials.
Carpool - a 60-mile roundtrip daily commute can save $4,387 yearly in a 2-person carpool.
Up to 60% of the ink is still in the cartridge when the printer says the cartridge is empty.
Shake a printer cartridge to extend its usefulness by weeks before recycling or refilling.
Polyethylene does not biodegrade because microorganisms do not recognize plastic as food.
Donate gently worn shoes to international footwear charity, http://www.soles4souls.org.
Cook food in non-Teflon pans to decrease exposure to certain chemicals.
Fry food at lower temps to decrease exposure to certain chemicals.
To decrease exposure to certain chemicals, do not microwave food in plastic containers or covered in plastic wrap.
Turn off your PC at the end of the day. U.S. companies can save over $2.8 billion and 20 million tons of CO2 annually, which is roughly equivalent to the impact of 4 million cars.
It takes a gallon of oil to make one printer inkjet cartridge.
Thirteen printer cartridges are tossed every second.
Recycled printer cartridges can be remanufactured which results in environmental and consumer cost savings.
Most cell phone, headset & computer cords are wrapped in PVC, an environmentally destructive plastic that often contains lead & hormone disrupting phthalates. Wash hands after touching them.
There’s a free service to stop bulk mail of former employees, http://ecologicalmail.org.
Don’t throw away your television, recycle it!
Use sparingly, chemical disinfectants have been linked to chronic health impacts.
"Every time we spend money we are voting on the kind of planet we want to leave to future generations." - Your Money or Your Life
Brita and ZeroWater recycle their water filters.
America's 300 million people consume the productive capacity share of more than 1.5 billion people (or more than 5 times their fair share).
A $5,000-a-year lifestyle, unimaginable poverty for most Americans, ranks in the wealthiest 17% of all humans.