Earth-Day should be Everyday Earth Day is April 22, and often we wonder what we can do to celebrate it that day. The question is, do we really need to wait until April 22, to celebrate such an important event? Most everyone will answer No to this question, because so many more people are becoming more aware of all of the things that we can do as a "Whole" to help the earth's environment.
By turning out the lights when you leave a room, you can save a lot of energy. By replacing just five incandescent bulbs with CFLs you can save you $200 a year. Now I personally use this kind of light blub. And I know I have saved money on my electricity bill. They really are not that expensive for the usage you get out of them. And it is a win-win situation because you save money and you help the environment.
I use night lights at my house. And I use the Led' night lights that I purchased almost three years ago and they are still working.
Okay this is a pretty easy to begin to be Earth friendly right? To recap: (1) Turn off the lights when you leave a room (2) Try to use CFL lighting and (3) try using LED night lights...
In the winter, when your heat is on, leave your shades and blinds open on sunny days. This way you can gain some natural heating, therefore not making your heater work so hard. At night close them to reduce the heat being lost through the windows.
In the summer, close your shades and blinds when the air conditioner is on. Try to use light colored blinds so it does not attract the heat to the windows.
Oh, I know these are all simple, simple things...but honestly every penny you can save helps you and helps the environment.
-Planting trees around your home, can reduce cooling cost by up to 50%, plus a tree can offset tons of carbon over its lifetime.
-by washing your clothes in cold water, you can save energy and up to $400 a year in energy bills.
-by placing your computer in sleep mode when you are away from it, it uses up to 70 percent less electricity then compared to using a screensaver.
-cover bare floors with rugs to help retain the heat
-you can use dehumidifiers and ceiling fans in the summer, to make your home more comfortable.
Do dishes right. Wash only full loads in your dishwasher, and use short cycles for all but the dirtiest dishes. And with today's dishwashers, there's no need to pre-wash dishes-simply scrape any food off the plate
and put it directly in the dishwasher to save energy.
But what if you do not use dishwashers? Wait are there still people who do not use them? Yep, I can honestly say that I do not think I have ever used a dishwasher in my life. To save water I wash a load a dishes then rinse them off. Many times people will allow the water to run while they are washing dishes. Do you know how much water is being drained away? If you pay a water bill, take notice for one month when you do a load of dishes, then rinse them off instead of allowing the water to run while you washing the dishes.
A few years ago, my husband and I went through a short life change and decided we wanted to "Homestead". So for three months we kept up with every penny we spent to see where our money was being wasted. If you were to do this for one, two or three months, you would be amazed where you can make changes to not only save money, but be kinder to the Earth.
Some additional water saving tips and facts:
-In the past half century, the US population has doubled, but the demand for water has more than tripled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
-By turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth, you can save 240 gallons of water a year.
-By taking short showers which use 10-25 gallons of water opose to taking a bath which uses 70 gallons of water.
-When you have a dripping faucet, over 3,000 gallons of water is wasted a year.
Do you Garden?
Compost is one of nature's best mulches and soil amendments, and you can use it instead of commercial fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap.
Currently my husband and I do not own our own land, but I have to have my garden. So I grow my vegetable organically in pots. AND I have a container that I am making compost in. Now, when you are making dinner and cutting up all of those vegetables, what do you with the parts that you do not use? When you cook eggs for breakfast, what do you do with the egg shells? If you drink coffee or herbal tea, what do you do with the coffee grounds and loose herbs? Every bit of this can go into a compost pile or container. It will be a wonderful treat for your plants, and help the environment from not having to deal with that amount of trash. Okay, so you are thinking, big deal...what is a few vegetable peels and egg shells here and there! Well, about one third of the space in landfills is taken up with organic waste from our yards and kitchens. All of this material can be used in compost.
Please keep in mind, I am offering very simple, very easy solutions to a huge problem with our enviroment. Without sounding like a commerical, if a million people started a compost pile or compost container think of how much trash the enviroment would not have to decompost. We would be helping in one tiny way and in turn we would gain greatly from it.
"Try baking soda instead of cleanser,White Vinegar
instead of Windex. Cheap & Safer to use."
This year I committed to using tote bags when I shop instead of using the stores plastic bags. Did you do anything special this year for Earth-Day?
