How to Save the Environment - Recycling, Reusing, Composting

Saving the environment can be challenging; however, do not give up and go green. Tips for environmental friendly living, composting tips, information about recycling, and environmentally responsible green living.

Meanwhile, we well know the "holly” family of Béa Johnson. With their Zero Waste Home, they seem to be the environmental angels. They make us feel ignorant and guilty, and we know there is a bit of truth in the whole picture.

I have painted this picture in black and white (good and evil). Let us introduce some color into my painting. Let us be green, even when we never manage to be green-green, let us try to keep the intent on being greenish-green, or just yellowish-blue-green. Those colors are better than red (opposite of green).

Let us all be the yellow-blue-green angels in the green world. We may use some red paint here and there because we want the whole picture. We are realistic. While we produce plastic, there always will be plastic garbage. This is the logic of the problem, and this is the red paint in my picture.

• Most important, be friendly to one another. Appreciate and respect your fellow creatures great and small and all the resources around you.
• Do not buy plastic garbage bags. Reuse the bags, you have received in the grocery store, for your trash. Preferably, they would be recycled paper bags.
• Try to lessen the amount of plastic grocery bags in your environment. Reuse them when buying new groceries as often as only possible.
• Biodegradable plastic bags are better than the usual plastic bags. However, they are not ideal because of energy levels needed to produce them.
• Deposit your empty plastic grocery bags and some fabric bags in a canvas tote hanging on your doorknob. You will not forget them when you will leave the house.

• To use less plastic bags go shopping with a plastic container. In Europe, you can find everywhere portable folding plastic boxes. You also can use a clothes basket, or a different box, for this purpose. Put it in a shopping cart, go shopping, pay the items and without using plastic bags put the basket filled with groceries into the trunk of your car.
• Do not litter plastic packaging in the landscape. Dispose it properly in a trash.
• Do not buy storage containers. Use used packages for storage, like glass containers and plastic boxes from yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, whipped cream etc. They are fantastic storage utensils, and I use the plastic containers even in the freezer. Small glass containers are also wonderful to store tiny tools, and higher glass containers are excellent for elongated utensils like pencils and pens.
• Do not buy yogurt in small plastic boxes; this is waste. Buy yogurt in bigger containers and use these for storage (see above).
• Consider to follow family of Béa Johnson and take empty glasses with you while shopping. These glasses would substitute wrappings and plastic packaging for products such as meat, fish, or cheese.
• Do you own an unwanted item? Do you want to buy something? Consider first to contact a swapping group of freecycle.net near you.
• Think about using starch based and biodegradable packing peanuts.
• Do not put hazard waste in the drain. For more information go to pages of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Reject tiny pieces of candy wrapped separately. Sometimes small portions of candy are packaged in three or four different wrappers. Do not waste your money buying waste.
• Try to buy milk in bottles. In Europe, it is tradition; you buy bottled milk and return the empty bottles back for store credit.
• Buy drinking water in reusable glass containers. You can also use filtered tap water in your bottles. It is a less expensive alternative than bottled drinking water.
• To reduce waste in your house, leave the bulky carton boxes in the store. This is also European tradition; they leave all packages in the store. For example, they take the cereal, but leave the big cereal boxes as waste in the store. Every supermarket does have trash cans in front of the store. There, you can dump all the boxes you do not need at home. This is rubbish, and maybe the manufacturers will learn to produce less waste when customers will reject the oversized unnecessary packages.
• Think about eating less meat and consuming it only occasionally and consciously. The carbon dioxide emission from the meat production is higher than the total emissions of all vehicles.
• When you own a garden, use it for herbs and vegetables cultivation. To grow your own food, it is healthy, satisfying, and environmentally correct.
• Buy vegetables, preferably in their harvest season, and use locally grown food. This would allow to avoid high-shipping costs and save on greenhouse energy costs.
• Reuse egg-cartons for storage of small items.
• Decorate such storage cartons and glasses. You can paint or beautify them. I know that you have imagination and that you are creative. Use these gifts to make your life beautiful in yellowish-greenish-blue colors with some spots of red...
• For your drawer-dividers use shoe-boxes. Use old hanging shoe organizers for storage of small items in your garage, basement or storage space.
• Use compost, a natural fertilizer. If you do not have a garden, use community compost near you. Having a compost pile in the garden is clean, odorless and free of pests. You can compost leftovers of not cooked vegetables, fruit scraps, shredded leaves and weeds, grass clippings, eggshells, coffee filters, tea bags, used kitchen towels and facial tissues. You cannot compost meat leftovers, dairy products, and cooked-food leftovers.
• Do not try to print everything. Try an external hard drive for storage. CDs and DVDs are second-best choice for storing purposes.
• Dry your clothes outside or indoor on a folding rack.
• Try not to use cosmetics based on petroleum. Check the pages of CosmeticsDatabase.com.
• Go organic! Pesticides are not good for you. An example, they cause even lower IQ in newborn babies!
• Please, do not use plastic or paper cups for coffee, tea, or other drinks. Use instead reusable cups. Even Starbucks has realized its power on saving the environment. They encourage their customers to order coffee in their own (brought into the store) cups; this is a brilliant idea. Okay, you must clean your reusable cup daily, but in that way, you will not pollute the environment with unnecessary waste.
• Use plastic spoons, knives, forks, and plates only when you reuse them.
• Stop the junk mail. Here, you will find more information CatalogChoice.org or obviously.com/junk/mail/.
• Consider not to buy products from distant countries because of the energy used for their shipping.
• Green plants in your home naturally purify the air and increase oxygen; have as many plants as you want around you.

Links:

worldwatch.org and greenopolis.com