26 Easy ways to help save the planet every day.

[Midlodemocrat]

This list comes from RealSimple a magazine I subscribe to. I really like this magazine because it advocates simplifying your life in as many ways as possible.

These tips are pretty cool and extremely easy to implement, so I thought I would share.


http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/gallery/0,21863,1604538,00.html?

When You’re at Home
Use a water-filter pitcher
Bottled water isn’t necessarily cleaner or better for you than tap water. Get a Brita water-filter pitcher ($22, www.bedbathandbeyond.com) or an in-sink faucet filter. Take advantage of what you already pay for and save the environmental cost of transporting bottled water to the grocer’s shelf.

Skip red meat once a week
Meat production — especially in mass-produced beef — is extremely resource-intensive. It can take seven or more pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef, and livestock consumes 70 percent of America’s grain. Eat less of it and choose pasture-fed, sustainably raised beef whenever you can. If you alone gave it up once every seven days, you would save the 840 gallons of fresh water it takes to produce a single serving.

Clean up your dishwasher
Switch to a dishwashing powder that’s biodegradable and plant-based (try Ecover Ecological or Trader Joe’s powders). These cleansers cut through grime, but they do it without the bleach and phosphates that threaten river and marine life and leave chemical residue on your dishes.

Curtail junk mail
The Federal Trade Commission website, www.ftc.gov, spells out how to remove yourself from lists. (Click on “For Consumers,” then “Telemarketing,” then “Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and E-mail: Where to Go to ‘Just Say No.’”) You’ll save trees, water, and emissions, too. If everyone in the United States reduced the junk mail he receives every week, 100 million trees would be spared each year.


More at link.

[InvisibleTouch]

1. Thanks!

I'm always looking for sites like this that I can point people to. I do most of that stuff myself already, but I always hope to pick up additional tips.

The one about using a laptop vs. a desktop is interesting, because I'm kind-of in the market for a new laptop now. I once tried to use a solar panel with my old one, but it just couldn't generate enough power. Of course that was 10 years ago. Maybe they have improved?

On the "buy recycled napkins/paper towels" tip, I'd replace that with "use cloth!"

Anyway, good link!

[northernsoul]

2. Love the practical advice!

Thank you for sharing this! I had no idea that biodegradable dishwasher detergents were out there.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. All good suggestions, but...

they've forgotten one of the most important, since automobiles account for 1/3 of our greenhouse gas emissions: Don't drive unless there's absolutely no other way. (And there's another way more often than you might think.) Walk, cycle, or take public transit.