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Baby Steps to a Better World
10/29/07 4:02 PM
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Totally easy ways you and your family can help save the environment.
When we saw An Inconvenient Truth, we were scared to death
about the state of the planet. But many people have a hard time
shelling out for organic food, much less a hybrid. So we asked Friend
of Mom•Logic Stefani of TeensyGreen.com for some easy ways families can
go-eco without breaking the bank...
Use rechargeable batteries.
Like it or not, you have toys that require batteries. Buying
rechargeable batteries saves money, packaging waste, and time
frantically running to the store while your kids complain that their
toys don't work. If 10 percent of children used rechargeables, about 38
million batteries would be saved from landfills!
Run your dishwasher when full, and try not to pre-rinse.
You can save up to 20 gallons of water per load, adding up to 7,300
gallons per year. That's about as much water as the average person
consumes in their entire life!
For the holidays, consider gift cards or movie tickets instead of boxed gifts.
Not only are you allowing the recipient to get something they actually
want, but if half of America replaced two boxed gifts with gift cards,
we would save over 50 million pounds of waste.
Bag the baggies—send kids to school with reusable lunch boxes. Besides being healthier for your children and their food, you save money and waste.
Use the library. According
to Ecolibris.net, about 20 million trees are cut down each year for
'virgin paper' used for books sold in the U.S. alone. And only a
fraction of publishers are using post-consumer recycled paper for new
books.
(All statistics come from the The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time, published by Three Rivers Press, unless otherwise noted).
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