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Green Tips of The Week - 2009

JANUARY

January 2: Vow to take two fewer car trips over the next seven days, replacing them with walking, biking or public transportation. Keep tracking each car trip in your notebook, and start writing down how many gallons of gas you're buying each time you fill up. And for each car trip you do without, note any other benefits you reap beyond saving gas -such as fresh air, exercise, community interaction or reading time- so you can see the full spectrum of ways that driving less impacts your daily life.

January 9: Create your own personal "Going Green" kit.Small purchases that can add up to a big impact include:

• reusable tote bags
• stainless steel water bottle
• travel coffee mug
• BYO-lunch supplies, an insulated carrier, utensils and wax paper or aluminum foil (instead of plastic wrap)
• compact fluorescent light bulbs

January 16: Tighten your car's gas cap. If your gas cap is too loose, fuel will evaporate from the gas tank. In the United States, 147 million gallons of gas evaporate every year from cars with gas caps that are damaged, loose, or missing. Make sure your gas cap is tight by turning it until it clicks three-times-it's a good habit to get into every time you fill up.

January 23: Collect your reusable shopping bags and store them in your car. The next time you're at the supermarket, you'll have the bags with you. Reusable shopping bags help cut down on waste and preserve natural resources. Toronto has already imposed a bag-fee ($0.05) to curb the 460 million plastic bags that ended up on its landfill yearly.

January 30: Choose the cold cycle on your washing machine when you're doing a load of laundry. Roughly 90 percent of the energy consumed by your washing machine is used to heat the water. Choosing the 'cold' setting uses significantly less energy and is just as effective as hot water for getting your cloths clean.

FEBRUARY

February 6: Research green hotels for your spring-break getaway. The Green Hotels Association has a comprehensive list of hotels in every state that have implemented programs to conserve resources and reduce waste.

February 13: Order eco-friendly flowers for your Valentine. They may be the traditional symbol of love, but red roses are not a green choice. All roses are typically sprayed with chemicals to kill insects and are dunked in preservatives to keep them from rotting before they are shipped. Ask your florist about organic roses.

February 20: Donate your gently-used shoes to less-fortunate kids in developing countries around the world. Americans are shoe-crazy: We go through so many that stores import eight pairs for every person in the country each year. By comparison, the average in Mexico is three pairs of shoes per person, and an unfortunately large number of people there have none at all. Finding shoes for the unshod is a task that first electrified Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of Soles 4 Souls. All told, the nonprofit has distributed 3.6 million pairs of used and new shoes, donated by average citizens and shoe companies alike, to people in 61 countries. Click here to find the closest drop off location and change the world one pair at a time.

MARCH

March 2:Recycle!You can have a huge impact on the environment by recycling. If everyone in the United States took a few minutes a week to separate their plastic, paper, and aluminum products from the regular trash, the amount of waste sent to the landfills would be reduced by 75%. Recycling in the City of Cincinnati its FREE! If you still don't have your green bin, call 591-6000 or click here.

March 9th: Recycle your telephone books. Currently, telephone books account for 10% of all the waste in the landfills. There is an even more eco-friendly option: call your local phone company and ask to stop phone book delivery. You can look up phone numbers online instead. Click here for more info about recycling your phone books.

March 16th: Store your files electronically. Americans use over 90 million tons of paper-almost 700 pounds per person- per year. You can cut down on the amount of paper you use by storing your files electronically instead of printing important documents and storing them in a filing cabinet. Create folders on your computer to make it easy to find important documents with the click of the mouse.

March 23rd: Sign up for paperless billing. Go online or ask your bank, energy provider, and credit card companies to send your monthly statements via e-mail. Paper bills account for almost 700,000 tons of waste and 2 million tons of carbon dioxide per year!

March 30th: Put your dryer lint in the backyard. The soft lint is ideal for birds to feather their nests and is a much more eco-friendly alternative than throwing it in the garbage. Simply place the dryer lint in a pile on the ground and wait for nesting birds to retrieve it.

April 6th:Dispose of old paint: To dispose of water based paint, fill a plastic-lined box with cat litter or sawdust, pour the paint into the container, and let it dry before putting it in the garbage. Oil-based paint can be thrown away with your regular garbage, as long as it is dried. To dry out your paint, simply mix sand, sawdust, or cat litter with your paint and leave the lid off. Once dried, dispose with your regular garbage (with the lid off). Click here for more info.

April 13th:Take a hike! Going on a spring hike is a great way to experience nature. Ensure that your hike has as little impact on the environment as possible by following 'leave no trace' principles: take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints. * Snap pictures with a digital camera!

April 20th:Unclog your drains the 'green' way! Unclog a plugged drain with an eco-friendly solution of baking soda and vinegar. Mix 1/2 cup of baking soda with 1/2 cup of white vinegar. The fizzy mixture will remove most of the buildup clogging your drainpipe. Eliminate the unpleasant smell of the mixture by pouring lemon juice down the drain once the clog is removed.

April 27th: Take your own mug to the coffee shop. Americans use 16 billion paper cups per year. You can help reduce that number by asking your barista to fill a reusable mug. Stainless-steel travel mugs are long lasting and will keep your coffee hot. Best of all, many coffee shops will give you a discount for bringing your own mug.

May 3rd:Run outside instead of getting on the treadmill. A 30-minute workout on the treadmill uses approximately 0.75 kWh of energy per day. Run outside twice a week instead, and over the course of a month, you'll conserve the amount of energy required to watch television for 12 hours or do 24 loads of laundry.

May 11th: Ask your mechanic about switching to synthetic motor oil. Conventional motor oils are derived from petroleum and need to be changed every 3,000 miles. Synthetic oils last up to eight times longer. Also, if you change your motor oil by yourself, please remember to dispose it properly. Never dump it on the drain.

May 18th: Fill your gas tank at night. In the summer, hot air increases the concentration of fumes escaping from the gas pumps. Pumping gas at night will reduce the ozone-depleting fumes released into the air.

May 19th: Return unused medications to your pharmacy. It might be tempting to flush unused medication down the toilet, but a lot of prescription meds have high concentrations of metals and other substances that are harmful to the environment and wildlife. Click here to learn more about it.

May 26th:Use an old, clean sock to dust your house. If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels, we would save 544,000 trees a year! Once your housework is done, throw the sock in the washing machine and use it again and again.

JUNE

June 1st: Wash your car at a commercial carwash. You'll use between 80 and 140 gallons of water to wash your car at home, compared with just 32 gallons of water at a commercial carwash, according to the International Carwash Association. They're also required to drain their wastewater into sewer systems, where it gets treated before it's flushed back into the environment. Plus, many commercial car washes recycle and reuse their rinse water. If you must wash your car at home, use a biodegradable soap specifically formulated for automotive parts.

June 8th: Recycle your old Analog TV.With only one more week to go until we switch to digital TV's, make sure that you and everybody you know recycle your old Analog TV. Each cathode ray tube contains six to eight pounds of lead and virtually everything in a TV is reusable. Click here to learn more about it and places in Cincinnati where you can recycle for free or for a small amount.

June 15th:Make a list of the items you can borrow this summer. If you're going to need a chainsaw or punch bowl, borrow them instead of buying them brand new. Borrowing will save you a lot of money and help you conserve resources. Of course, remember to return the items afterward. Your neighbors and friends will appreciate it! :)

June 22nd: Slather on organic sunscreen. Sunscreen is essential if you spend time outside in the summer sun. But the same ingredients that help protect you against UV exposure might be harming fish. Opt for sunscreens that are labeled 'organic' and 'biodegradable' to protect yourself and the environment.

June 29th: Say no to ATM receipts. The receipt from 8 billion ATM transactions per year are one of the biggest sources of litter on the planet. If Americans declined their ATM receipts, it would save a roll of paper more than 2 billion feet long�enough paper to circle the equator more than 15 times!

JULY

July 6th:Turn off the lights. Your mom was right: there is no reason to leave the lights on after you leave the room. Nearly 15 % of your annual electricity bill goes toward lighting your house. In the summer, turning the lights off will also keep the house cooler, so be sure to flip the switch when you leave the room. Click here to learn more about it from the U.S. Department of Energy.

July 13th: July 13th: Don't let your dumpster go topless. Trash cans are big sources of litter if the lid is not kept closed. Garbage can get blown on to someone else's property. If your dumpster is full to the point you can’t close the lid, place the rest of your trash on plastic bags. Avoid using cardboard boxes since they break easily. If you live in the City of Cincinnati and need a new garbage cart call Premier Waste at 758-2278. KCB friends get a 10% discount when buying 5 EcoCarts.

July 20th: Call 591-6000 for Graffiti Removal. Graffiti sends the signal that nobody cares and attracts other forms of crime and street delinquency to the neighborhood. Cincinnati spent $250,000 cleaning up graffiti in 2008. Immediately removing it is the best way of preventing reappearances. Click here to learn more about graffiti: how to prevent it, who is doing it, its real costs.

July 29th: Cigarette butts are Litter Too. Smokers can make a huge impact on the environment by disposing their cigarette butts into proper receptacles. Currently 1 out of 5 people in this country smokes. That  adds up to 371 billion of cigarettes per year.* With cigarette butts being the most littered item in the world, responsibly disposing them makes sure they will not find  their way into our water systems, the stomachs of animals, and sometimes even into the mouths of children causing major health concerns. If you’re always on the go, call 513-352-4380 to obtain a portable ash-tray today. Non-smokers can also do their part by spreading the word about the harmful effects of cigarette butts or handing out portable ash-trays to their friends. * Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

AUGUST

August 3rd: Turn your Old Sneakers into Brand New Sport Courts. If you look in your closet, under your bed or at the laundry room you will find a couple of athletic shoes that have seen better days. Those same sneakers that once helped you practice your favorite sport can help thousands of kids in the same way. Or, kind of.Nike ReUse-A-Shoe initiative. In this program, consumers send their shoes back to Nike and the materials are recycled into athletic courts and playgrounds. An example is the basketball court in the Seven Hills Neighborhood house here in Cincinnati. Click here to learn how you can join this movement today.

August 10th: Drive 55 (MPH). On the highway, try not to exceed a speed of 55 miles per hour. Not only are you less likely to get into an accident, but the faster you drive, the more fuel your vehicle consumes per mile. That means more money and more greenhouse gases. At 65 mph you're burning 10% more fuel than at 55, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. At 70 you lose 17% of your fuel economy, and at 75 it’s 25%. The numbers get worse from there.
Even though you may thrive off living in the fast lane, if the national speed limit were reset to 55, it would save 1 billion barrels of oil per year — more than the U.S. imports from the Persian Gulf.The reason why is simple physics. As your engine heats up at higher speeds, it burns gas faster. Plus, all that increased resistance from air and road drag you down.

August 25th: Rediscover Your Local Library. Instead of buying small mountains of books, CDs, DVDs and even magazines that you barely use, check materials out of your neighborhood library, or relax inside the quiet halls and browse on site.

Paper is one of the biggest materials by volume in landfills, and its environmental footprint is enormous, from cutting down trees to heavy use of water, toxic chemicals and energy during processing. Paper fibers can only be recycled a few times before they break down, and the process requires energy. CDs and other media are made of nonrenewable petroleum products and are very difficult to recycle.

The fact is, many of us are filling our homes with books and other materials that we never, or rarely, use. We would be well advised to save some money, and cut down on waste, by buying only the materials we will really use frequently and patronizing libraries for more of the rest.

Libraries can also be great sources of social interaction and learning. They are typically close to home, encouraging walking, biking or perhaps even public transit. While you're there picking up a book, you may learn about enrichment classes or computer services. An increasing number of libraries are also moving beyond books to offer electronic media, such as e-books and downloadable podcasts, as well as computer equipment and even power tools that you can check out.

September 8th: Toss a Bottle in your toilet. The old folk wisdom that says place a brick in your toilet's water tank is partially correct: It's an effortless way to save water, but a brick isn't the best choice of object. Use a plastic bottle filled instead in order to save clean water — which is an increasingly scarce resource. Most toilets will flush perfectly well with a little less H₂O. The average model uses 3 to 7 gallons per flush. A bottle in the tank will displace enough water to save half a gallon to a gallon each use, or up to about 10 gallons a day in a typical home.

All you have to do is drop a little sand or some pebbles into a bottle, fill it with water, and put it in the tank, making sure not to disturb the toilet's working parts.

What's wrong with a brick? They have been known to disintegrate in toilet water over time, leading to damaged plumbing. If you are a mason or otherwise determined to use a brick, wrap it in a sturdy plastic bag first. 

September 14th: Mow Your Grass Long. Longer blades discourage weeds and pests, retain moisture and promote healthy roots.

Forget trying to make your lawn look like a golf putting green, and keep your grass longer. Longer blades discourage weeds and pest insects, which means you are under less pressure to apply toxic pesticides and herbicides. Longer grass also shades the roots more, and helps prevent the soil from drying out. It tends to lead to healthier roots, so your green carpet will be hardier, and should require less water in the long run.

Experts agree that it's better to mow regularly, and to remove no more than one-third of the blade length at a time. That way, stress on the grass will be minimized. Don't forget to keep cutting blades sharp, as that prevents the tearing that is hard on plant tissue.

September 21st: Recycle your Cellphone. The average lifespan for a cell phone is a brief 18 months, and currently, only 1% are recycled. On average, 130 million are retired annually in the U.S. alone.

Yet almost all cell phones contain enough lead to qualify as hazardous waste under federal regulations. And even lead-free phones are considered hazardous under California regulations because of the high amounts of copper, nickel, antimony and zinc that leach into landfills.

So do something good for the environment and recycle your old phone. Keep America Beautiful affiliates across the country are promoting this initiative, passing out postage-paid recycling envelopes and collect retired cell phones. Funds generated from the phones collected will go to benefit each affiliate where they were collected.

Please get started by printing a FREE postage-paid shipping label...

September 28th: Pack a Waste-Free Lunch. The best way to reduce garbage is not to create it! Your average school student/office employee using a disposable lunch generates approximately 67 pounds of waste per school year. Try using reusable carriers and containers. Bring cloth napkins and silverware that can be washed and reused.

Click here to learn more about waste free lunches!

OCTOBER

October 5th: Remodel your house the green way. Before you start your next remodeling project, think Building Value. They can help you preserve the environment while getting the job done right, on time and on budget PLUS you provide a valuable service to the community.

Building Value is Cincinnati's resource salvaging building materials for re-use. Whether you're looking for material for your remodeling project or you don't want your old materials go to waste, together with Building Value, you can make Cincinnati a greener place.

Click here to learn more about Building Value!

October 13th: Fill your Fridge.  Keeping your refrigerator full, but not to the point of overstuffing, will allow it to run at max capacity. To help retain cold temperatures when the fridge and freezer are less full, place glass or ceramic pitchers of water in their compartments. Like using ice in a picnic cooler, this will insulate the interior and keep it cold.

Refrigerators and freezers account for about a sixth of all electricity use in a typical American home, and they use more electricity than any other single household appliance.

Over- or under-crowding makes the fridge work harder to maintain its optimal internal temp (37 degrees F).

October 19th: Volunteer in your Community!  Give 3 hours of your Saturday (October 24th - 9 to noon) and help one of 35 Cincinnati communities beautify our city. During Make A Difference Day you can plant, paint, wash, clan up, recycle, landscape, etc. You will meet new people, do something good for your city and will receive some karma points!

To learn more about Make A Difference Day click here or call (513) 352-4380.

October 27th: Have a Green Halloween! Encourage family and friends to create costumes using old clothes or items around the house.  Most second-hand clothing stores sell gently used Halloween costumes at low prices to help you stay green and SAVE green! 

Then, while you’re out trick-or-treating, make sure no candy wrapper gets left behind.  Bring a small bag for trash, or look for a trash can along the way! 

NOVEMBER

November 3rd: Put on a Sweater. Turn down the heat and dress warmer instead. You'll save money. By setting your home and office heating systems just a few degrees lower, you'll save a sizable amount of energy. And you'll make your mother happy by wearing that sweater she gave you last Christmas.

Many of us continue to overheat our homes because we don't like the idea of sensing a chill, or we just don't think about putting on another layer. But when the air starts to turn cool, remember that the natural cycle is to get your warmer clothes out of storage and layer up.

You can save big. Most households shell out 50% to 70% of their energy budgets on heating and cooling, reports the Department of Energy. Yet, for every degree you lower the thermostat, you'll save between 1 and 3 percent of your heating bill.

A light long-sleeved sweater is generally worth about 2 degrees in added warmth, while a heavy sweater adds about 4 degrees.

November 10th: Celebrate America Recycles Day!
Take the pledge and do your recycling part this November 15th.

On November 15 each year, millions of people become better informed about the importance of daily recycling and buying recycled products. The purpose of America Recycles Day is to continue to promote the social, environmental and economic benefits of recycling and encourage more people to join the movement toward creating a better natural environment.

More Information                                                                                  
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Take the America Recycles Day pledge today!

November 19th: Prepare your home for winter!
There are a number of ways you can reduce energy usage and save money!

- Move furniture or any obstructions from vents, baseboard heaters, or radiators so that air moves freely.
- Check windows for proper caulking. Even a plastic film over windows will reduce heat loss.
- Check doors for drafts that sneak in underneath. Replace the threshold or block the drafts with a rolled-up towel or blanket.
- If you have a ceiling fan, reverse the direction so that it runs in a clockwise direction. This pushes the air up against the ceiling and down the walls to gently re-circulate the warm air.

November 30th: Choose LED Holiday Lights.
Save energy, and money, this holiday season by switching your old strands of incandescent bulbs with new LEDs (light emitting diodes).

Appearing during the darkest time of the year, holiday lights brighten hearts, as well as neighborhoods and landscapes. The good news is LEDs use a fraction of the energy of conventional light bulbs (up to about 15%), and they last for many years. Based on semiconductors, they're cool to the touch and extremely durable, meaning they are great for many applications (especially where there is a fire hazard).

In the past, LEDs have been relatively expensive, but prices have been steadily coming down. Today, a strand of LED holiday lights typically goes for between $20 and $30. They are available in a wide range of colors and styles, from icicles to snowflakes and more, and can be ordered online, from local hardware stores or big box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Target and Big Lots.

December 9th: Wrap for Less.
Stop spending a small fortune on gift wrap. Learn ways to use what's on hand.

This holiday season, 90% of Americans will buy either gift wrap or bags for their presents. That's a lot of bucks dropped on something that's often tossed out. Think about it: One standard 30-inch-by-9-foot roll runs $5 to $10 a pop, and you'll probably need several rolls to wrap all of your presents. And having just one box expertly wrapped at a department store will cost you $10 or more. Instead, try these money-saving tips courtesy of USA Weekend.

December 14th: Unplug your Cell Charger.
It will save you a lot of green

If you have a cellphone, have you ever noticed that your charger stays warm even when you are not charging your phone with it? That's because it is still draining electricity.

According to Future Forests, only 5% of the power drawn by cell phone chargers are actually used to charge phones. The other 95% is wasted when you leave it plugged into the wall, but not into your phone. The lesson? Unplug your charger when you are not using it [or plug everything on a power strip and use the switch to turn it off instead of manually plugging and unplugging things. -TH]. If you don’t, it’s just wasting your money and adding to the pollution created by burning fossil fuels." We're fairly certain that there are no major engineering challenges that keep charger-makers from building in a feature that keeps the charger from using electricity when not in use; it's probably just cost-cutting. Of course, this advice about cellphones applies to everything that uses a vampire-like "wall wart" charger that doesn't turn off and keeps sucking juice for no reason.

December 21th: 8 Tips for a Green Christmas
Good for the planet and your wallet.

While Christmas is sometimes white, it generally isn't green. All that one-time-use wrapping paper and packaging, fuel spent traveling and shipping presents, and energy used to light up trees and houses means the holiday season takes a toll on the environment.

In fact, Americans produce about 1 million extra tons of trash around the holidays, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which reported that the volume of household waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day rises by 25 percent above normal.

So to take pity on Mother Nature while celebrating Father Christmas, here are some tips:

Recycle wrapping paper — or better yet, forgo it altogether. Try making your own wrapping paper and trimmings from newspapers, paper bags, art projects, clothes, dish towels, etc. And if you do buy new wrapping paper, go for the kind without glossy metallic coating, which makes it harder to recycle.

Stay home. Much of the worst impact to the environment comes from all the carbon dioxide emitted by the transportation we use to get around during the holidays. Consider limiting your plane travel (the worst offender) and long car rides. If you must drive, carpool, and try to schedule around traffic, to reduce the amount of time you idle and waste fuel.

Lower the thermostat. If you're cooking and having company over, chances are you can get away with lowering the heat in your house, because the body warmth and heat from the oven should help compensate.

Lose the lights. Think about cutting back on excessive house and yard lights — is it really necessary to see your glow-in-the-dark inflatable Santa from the next town over? And if you are decorating with lights, try switching to the LED variety, which can use 90 percent less energy than regular holiday lights.

Buy in bulk. Instead of purchasing cans of soda, small bags of chips, and serving-size baking supplies, stock up on bulk goods to reduce packaging waste.

Use real dishes. While disposable plates and silverware are easier if you're hosting crowds, the environment will thank you if you buck up and do the dishes.

Serve less meat. Chicken, pork, and, especially, beef, take a heavier toll on the environment than veggies. Cows, in particular, produce copious amounts of methane, which is even worse for global warming than carbon dioxide. So instead of serving the turkey, the ham and the pot roast side-by-side, consider replacing some of the meat on your menu with tofu or veggies.

Use a real tree – and then recycle it when it's done! Though it may feel sad to cut down a tree for the holidays, consider that most Christmas trees are grown expressly for the purpose (so you're not contributing to deforestation), and can be planted or composted when you're done with them. Plastic trees, in contrast, require petroleum to make, and then can't be recycled easily when you're through with them.

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer

December 29th: What to do with your Christmas Tree
Make a dent in holiday waste this year.

Make a dent in holiday waste this year by "recycling" your fresh Christmas tree after you are done celebrating.

Instead of taking up valuable space in landfills, where decay is painfully slow because of a lack of oxygen, Christmas trees can be readily ground into wood chips or made into useful compost. Considering that nearly 29 million households opted for a real Christmas tree in 2006, that's a lot of wood chips!

To make it easy, the industry group National Christmas Tree Association has teamed up with Earth911to point consumers in the right direction with their trees. On their Website, you can enter your zip code to find the nearest of 3,800-plus spots nationwide that accept old trees.

By Brian Clark Howard

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