|
1. Reduce use of plastic bags.
Between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed globally each year* - that's 150 for each one of us. They require petroleum to make, they end up as litter, that takes hundreds of years to break down, and they kill thousands of sea creatures. Avoid using plastic bags by having your own reusable shopping bag on hand in your car or purse.
2. Reduce use of plastic bottles.
If you buy just one pesky plastic water bottle for two bucks every day, you might spend $700 a year staying hydrated. If you spend a couple of week’s worth of that budget on one reusable drinking bottle and fill it with filtered tap water, you get to save the rest of that money! In these economic times, we could all use a few extra bucks! You'll also save a lot of water, oil, and transportation emissions. Producing the plastic to make all those water bottles emits the same amount of global warming pollution as 140,000 cars.
3. Save Energy
Use a conventional bulb and you use a lot of energy, while using a CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb), it will last 10 times longer!
4. Gardening
One-third of all food ends up in the trash!** A small investment in composting products to compost food scraps, along with yard trimmings and paper, you divert waste taking up landfill space and create your very own nutrient-rich fertilizer for your soil.
5. Cleaning Products
Consider this: ingredients labeling is unregulated on cleaning products and many toxic chemicals used in them can cause health problems from asthma to reproductive harm. In fact, of the 87,000 chemicals around, only 1,350 of them have been tested to see if they make us sick. Environmentally friendly products will keep you safe from toxic chemicals often used in conventional cleaning products.
6. Water Conservation
If every American cut back on their water consumption - shorter showers, only running the dishwasher when completely full, turning off water when shaving, etc...we would save $18 billion dollars and 3 trillion gallons of water!
7. Sustainable Apparel
A third of a pound of pesticides are used to produce the cotton for one conventionally made t-shirt!*** By purchasing organic cotton or bamboo clothing you protect farm workers, air, soil, water, and yourself.
8. Cosmetics and Toiletries
There are about 10,000 chemicals used in various body products and 90% haven't been tested for safety. That's a problem because they don't just stay on our skin - we actually absorb them. Using natural beauty products, organic personal skin care products, and natural cosmetics we eliminate harmful chemicals from the world and from our bodies.
9. Mom and Baby
Many plastic bottles contain Bisphenol-A, which has been linked to hormone disruption.*** A safer route is glass bottles or Safe bottles that say no to Bisphenol-A.
10. Kitchen Products
An average school aged child generates 67 pounds of trash every year from disposable lunch waste in the form of plastic or Styrofoam packaging. Going to zero waste is not as hard as it may seem. Using lightweight containers, bamboo utensils and cloth napkins you could save the earth and a couple hundred dollars a year.
*Algalita Marine Research Foundation
**LoveFoodHateWaste.com
***TheGreenGuide.com |
