Supporting Sustainable Initiatives
Tips from Alana Cash
CARPOOLING/RIDESHARING
It saves gas, emissions, and money to carpool to work or anywhere else. If you can't find a group of friends to carpool with you, there are websites where you can find a group of people going your way: erideshare.com and rideshare.com are two of the most active websites for locating someone to share the ride to work or across country.
Dishwasher Versus Hand-Washing DishesRecently, I read an article about a study done in
If you hand dry your dishes, you'll rub off residual soapy water. Or fill another tub and dip them again. The main thing to know is that water cleans your dishes, not soap. So use as little soap as possible. Soap is only an emulsifier to get the grease off your dishes.
Double and Triple Recycling on Paper
I make every effort to use 8x11 print paper in as many ways as I can before I recycle it. If I’ve printed out a story, article or other item that I’m reading or editing, when I finish reading or editing, I flip the paper over and put it back in the printer tray so I can print on the other side of it.
Once I’ve done that, I shred the paper. As a third recycling, if this is material that is not sensitive (like a tax return or bank statement), I can use it for packing material instead of Styrofoam peanuts or tissue.
Clothes
I think most people define “recycling clothes” as “that’s when I donate my old stuff to charity”. But what about the other way around? Instead of buying brand new coats, shoes or jeans, take a trip to your local thrift store.
This form of recycling not only saves environmental resources, it save you money. And, if you haven’t done this kind of shopping in the past, you might be surprised at the quality of clothing, shoes, and other household items that you will find at the modern thrift store.
Dish Soap
I learned in chemistry class that soap does not clean your dishes - water does. Soap merely acts as an emulsifier to loosen any oil on the dishes. Soap is toxic and unless you have a dishwasher, it takes five rinses to get soap off the dishes.After learning the above, I was determined to use less soap when I washed the dishes. One way to do that is to dilute the soap with water. To do this, keep empty containers when buying new soap. Fill the empty container about 1/3 full and fill the rest with water. Diluted in this manner, the soap gets sudsy quicker and rinses off easier. This approach saves soap, saves money and saves the environment by reducing the number of plastic containers purchased
Advertising Flyers
Every week for years, I received flyers from grocery stores, drugs stores, and department stores telling me about things they stocked and things that were on special or on sale. Very rarely did I pay any attention to them. I took them off the front door and put them in the recycling bin. Then, one day it occurred to me to contact each one of the stores and tell them that I did not want to receive any more flyers. And, guess what, I have not. It took me about half an hour to find the individual websites, and then I sent an e-mail with my request. I was contacted by a couple of the stores personally letting me know they got the request, but since that time none of the stores have left flyers at my door.
on a weekly basis the City of
Books
I love to read. I generally read two books a week, and sometimes I read more. But I very rarely buy a new book. Instead, I visit used bookstores and garage sales. When I finish reading a book, I very rarely hang onto it. I either pass it on to a friend or donate it to a small used bookstore that I want to stay in business. If the book is stained or torn, I leave it on a bench outside a coffeehouse for someone to take for free. If a book is hopelessly out of date or really bad, I tear off cover and put it in the recycling bin.
I recently read the 120 tons of steel would be saved each year in one small country, if each person used one less staple. Imagine what that would mean for a large company like the
Most people don’t think about sheets, towels or clothing as recyclable items. They buy new clothes, wear them, new sheets and sleep on them, new towels, etc. When the items wear out or the person gets tired of them, the items are disposed of – in the garbage or sometimes to nonprofit organizations. But there’s a new way to recycle clothing, towels, and sheets, etc. It’s called textile recycling. If you aren’t aware of this type of recycling in your area, do a search online. If there isn’t a place in your community for this type of recycling, why not start one...? And, call the grocery stores, drug stores and others that leave flyers on your door and ask them not to do it. These same flyers are stacked at the entrance to the stores and you can find the sale items there, when you are actually shopping. Reuse Water Bottles Carry your own water. If you are going shopping or running errands or just commuting, fill a plastic bottle or glass jar with water and take it in your bag. It takes more water to make the plastic bottles that contain water than the amount of water that’s actually in them. Reusing one container saves money as well as water, and prevents the issues of more plastic being manufactured. Also, if you have to have filtered water, get a home filter device for your tap or a Brita system. Many types of bottled water are straight out of a tap anyway, so you are better off. This can be a problem, especially in
Call the companies and universities and cancel the catalog. In the case of a university, you might actually have to tear off the catalog cover and send it to the president of the university to get your name taken off the list as I did with a New York university after calling and writing, but since I never signed up for the catalogue and never took a class there, I really didn’t need a catalogue. For years, I was deluged with unsolicited credit card applications which I took the time to shred, so that it was not only a waste of paper, but time consuming for me as well (not to mention a waste of electricity). Finally, I found a solution. I called 1-888-5 OPT OUT (or 1-888-567-8688) and applied to not get credit card offers. This number is active 24 hours a day and the opt-out status lasts for five years. Junk Mail
Just Say No to Flyers
Refuse to accept flyers on the street. Do you really need to read about men’s suits being on sale if you are walking in front of the store and can see the sign in the window anyway? Or that pizza is $2 a slice today only. Can you not foresee yourself putting the flyer in the trash at the end of the block? What a waste.
Plastic Bags
Catalogs
This is a particularly important action to take because credit card applications can get into the hands of the wrong people – they are delivered to your old address and never forwarded when you move – which can result in identity theft. Being in the opt-out program does not mean that you cannot get another credit card if you request an application, it just means that you don’t get unwanted applications.
Newspapers and junk mail are obvious choices for recycling, but there are many other ways to recycle paper. For example, food packaging – cereal, oatmeal, and cake boxes, and frozen food packaging, and don’t forget the paper trays inside the packages.
Even less obvious are the cardboard rolls inside your paper towels and toilet paper, the paper wrap of your teabags as well as the bag itself (if you let it dry), grocery store receipts, movie tickets, lotto tickets/scratchoffs, ATM receipts, and the cat litter bag.
If you develop awareness about how much paper passes through your life each day, you could probably double the amount of paper that you recycle each week.