Reduce your Waste Stream:
Choose products with little to no packaging. Frequently, toys, food, toiletries, and many day to day items come with a significant amount of packaging. Be aware of this when purchasing products and if you must choose an item with packaging, make sure you can recycle it at your local recycling facility. For example, some recycling facilities do not accept glass containers. Therefore, if there is an alternative product that uses another material that you can recycle, purchase it.
Switch to reusables over disposables. We live in a disposable society where we generate significant amounts of waste. Where possible, minimize this waste stream. Create a litterless lunch for yourself and your kids, take a water bottle and reusable mug with you, and take your own produce bags and shopping bags. For ideas on how to reduce your waste stream, visit our "Shop Online" tab for many great reusable products including reusable sandwich and snack baggies to replace the disposable plastic versions, Vapur Water Bottle, reusable utensil sets, and reusable produce bags.
Reduce Resource Consumption:
Install low flow faucet aerators on existing faucets. Simply thread a low flow faucet aerator onto your existing faucet. Start with your shower heads, bathroom sinks, and kitchen sinks. There are also aerators for dishwashers and clothes washers. Water saving aerators reduce flow rates by up to 50% by mixing air into the water. This can translate into overall water savings of 30% on a typical faucet, not to mention savings in heating costs associated with lower use of hot water. Water saving aerators range in price from $1.50 to $5.00 per aerator so for very little cost you can end up saving a significant amount of water, heating costs, and impact on the environment.
Use power bars for areas of high power use in your home. There are certain areas in your home where a lot of power is consumed, such as your TV centre and home office. Even when you turn these electornics off, many still consumer phantom power, costing you money and using unecessary resources. Rather than plugging all of your various electronics into outlets, plug them into a power bar. When you are done watching TV, simply turn the switch off on the power bar and now no power will be consumed. Many of you likely have extra power bars in your homes, so why not give it a try and save money and resources!
Use timers for plugging in your vehicles. Using timers when plugging in your vehicle ensures that you don't draw energy all night, just the few hours before you will use your vehicle.
For more ways to save energy, read Natural Resource Canada's "Tips on Saving Energy in Your Home."
Green You:
Be proud to be eco savvy and share your eco ideas with friends and family (and us, we'd love to post your ideas for others to use). One of the things you can do to have the most impact is start talking about eco-options, what you do to reduce your impact, and why you think it is important to make these changes. Once the discussion is started, others will realize how easy and important it is to reduce their impact on the environment and lead a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle. Feel free to share these green tips!
Get a reusable water bottle! Many people purchase expensive and wasteful disposable water bottles. Save yourself a significant amount of money and our planet much unnecessary waste! Vapur Water Bottles are a great alternative since when they are not in use, they simply collapse and take up little space. Also, due to this efficient design, shipping emissions are significantly reduced.
Ditch your plastic toothbrush for the biodegradable bamboo Environmental Toothbrush. Traditional toothbrushes are made from plastics that will not biodegrade. If you replace your toothbrush every 3 months as recommended, you will use 4 toothbrushes per year; Multiply this by our world's population. That is a lot of plastic in our landfills (not to mention our oceans)! Instead, you may choose The Environmental Toothbrush made from sustainably grown bamboo and nylon 4 that are both biodegradable. When it is time to replace your bamboo toothbrush, why not keep it and use it as a cleaning tool?
Green Your Home:
Hang your clothes to dry. Clothes dryers consume a significant amount of energy and by hanging your clothes to dry, you will notice a difference on your utility bill. Hanging clothes to dry is a simple task that you can do to green your home. Hang clothes in an empty portion of a closet, put up a small clothes bar in your laundry room or purchase an inexpensive clothes drying rack. Clothes line work fantastic in the warmer months as well!
Use eco-friendly laundry detergents and cleaners. You may also purchase eco-friendly laundry detergents such as Organic Soap Nuts and all natural stain remover. Traditional laundry detergents are bulky and heavy, causing significant emissions in the shipping process, and have many preservatives. Why not choose natural? You may also make your own cleaners using soap nuts and other household ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice.
Re-use materials for cleaning supplies. Create rags out of old clothes and towels and use old toothbrushes for the hard to reach places. There is no need to buy paper towels and other cleaning tools when there is plenty you can use around your home.
Green Your Office:
Only print necessary documents. Think of all of the paper that you recycle each day, week, month, and year. Did you need to print all of those documents? Likely not.
Use 100% recycled paper. Why let new trees be turned into paper when you can use recycled paper, often for the same or reduced price as the non-recycled product.
Subscribe to electronic bills and correspondence. Just think of how much mail you receive that could be electronic. Next time you get your mail, ask yourself which bills you could receive electronically and then make the switch. You will save a significant amount of paper, postage, and trucking emissions of all of that paper!
Choose office supplies made from recycled materials, that are recyclable, and can be refilled. There are many products available made from recycled materials and that can continue to reduce your waste stream, including pencils, eraser, pens and highlighters, and staple free staplers. You can also purchase many high quality refillable pens.
Green Your Garden:
Install rainbarrels on your home's downspouts. You can use the harvested rainwater to water your plants and grass throughout the summer and fall. Rainbarrels also help reducing watering costs and avoid significant amounts of water from collecting around your home.
Choose native, drought tolerant species to plant in your garden. Native, drought tolerant species reduce the need for watering and fertilizer application. Visit Pure Prairie Ornamental Grasses for photos and to learn more about the benefits of planting ornamental grasses.
Start a compost bin. There are many low cost indoor and outdoor compost bins available. Much of what goes into your garbage bin can be composted so why not make this easy switch? Check out the easy to use, sleek design Envirocycle Composter.
Grow your own produce/ buy locally / buy in season. You can grow much of the produce that you consume and/or buy from local gardens and farmers markets. Make informed decisions about what you eat and where it comes from. Think about the shipping required when making a purchase and choose the produce that is grown closest to you.
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