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Living Greener - The Best List of Ideas We've Ever Seen

Submitted by admin_ecov on Tue, 2009-10-06 12:07

This list originally appeared in an article by the Chicago Tribune: you click this link to see the original post. We've tweaked it a bit, updating some links and adding a suggestion or two. While the list may seem exhaustive, we welcome contributions to update and expand it. Use the Comment form on the bottom...once you get there!

The Dishwasher

Use it. Contrary to popular eco-belief, it's greener than hand washing if you run it with full loads and scrape rather than rinse. The average dishwasher in American homes today uses 8.7 gallons of water a load. Washing by hand for 10 minutes with water running can use 20 gallons. If you fill the sink, you still use about 5 gallons for washing, 5 for rinsing.

Drying Laundry

Do not over-dry laundry. An electric dryer operating an extra 15 minutes a load can cost you up to $34 a year in wasted energy; a gas dryer, $21 a year. If your dryer has a moisture sensor that turns the machine off automatically when clothes are dry, use it.

Also clean the lint trap before every load. It is the safest thing to do and the most efficient thing to do. A clean lint trap can save you as much as $35 per year in energy costs.

Think about procuring or making wooden clothes drying rack and air dry clothes inside your home in winter months to add humidity to dry air and line dry in summer. If you have cats or dogs in order to get rid of their hair; after clothes are dry, run them on the no heat or fluff cycle. Depending on the amount of laundry you do, this could save up to 700 lbs/year in CO2 emissions.

Water-Saving Planting

Make plans ahead of time for wise watering. Group all your thirsty plants in one location that is close to the house. Fill farther beds with drought-tolerant perennials that need little or no watering. For lawns, choose fescues, which tolerate dry spells better than bluegrass. Mulch around trees (avoid 1/2 to 1 foot directly around the trunk of the tree, this allows the tree and the roots to breath) and plants to keep water from evaporating.

The Garbage Disposal

Use it. It's greener to feed the disposal than it is to encapsulate food waste in a plastic garbage bag and send it to the landfill. Sent down the disposal and into the sewer line, organic waste gets treated by the sanitary district and turned into fertilizer. Better yet, learn to compost!

Laundry/Water

Wash only full loads of laundry and save as much as 3,400 gallons of water per year (usage of the average American family home). Forgo the hot water. Heating water to HOT accounts for 90% of the machine's washing energy; only 10% goes to power the motor. Switching to COLD can save the average household more than $400 annually with an electric water heater and $300 annually with a gas heater.

Get over the idea that you need hot water to kill nasty items. Cold-water laundering is perfectly healthful in most situations at home, with a couple of caveats.

  1. If you suffer from allergies, you might need a shot of heat, which you can get from tossing the laundry into a hot dryer for 10 minutes. Here's how it goes: if your problem is pollen or mold spores, cold water (and detergent) can rinse those out of your laundry as well as hot water. You need no heat in this situation.
  2. If your problem is animal dander or dust mites, you need some heat. Putting your laundry in a hot dryer (120-130 degrees) will kill those allergens. You don't need to precede that with a hot water wash. That's overkill.>
  3. The other big caveat: infectious diseases. If your family is dealing with something like E. coli or norovirus (the cruise ship virus), food poisoning, excessive diarrhea, all of which result in high levels of bacteria or virus in the environment, you need bleach. The hot water setting on most home washing machines is not hot enough to kill these. Add bleach with a cool or warm water setting and then follow with a hot dryer.

Water Heater

Turn down water heater to 110-115 degrees. This saves money and energy, as typically hot water accounts for 10-15% of your utility bill. Wrap the heater and pipes with insulation. Set the heater on a timer; program it off during non use hours (11:00 PM to 4:00 AM). Turn water heater completely off when going on vacation...but don't forget to turn it back on when you get back!

Water

If you only have a few dishes to do, hand wash small loads of dishes. If you do run the dishwasher, don't use the drying cycle, let them air dry. Installing a $25 low flow shower head can save you $30-$60 per year in water use. Wash clothes in the hot and warm cycles only when needed. Reduce water use further by installing low flow toilets. Collect rain water from downspouts for use in the garden. Turn off water supply to house when on vacation; install no-burst clothes washer hoses.

Leaky Toilet

Fix it now. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons of water a day. Check for leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If you have a leak, color will appear in the bowl within 15 minutes. Flush as soon as you're done with this test to avoid staining the bowl. A footnote: it is estimated that 1 out of every 5 toilets in the U.S. leak. Those two leakers can waste as much as 146,000 gallons of water a year: that's enough water for a family of four to wash clothes in their washing machine for eight years.

Home Electronics

Power them off. A home office with a computer, printer, fax machine, computer speakers, scanner and cordless phone could consume as much power as two 75-watt light bulbs left on 24/7. And that could cost you $100 per year in electricity. Plug equipment into a surge protector-power strip. Power off all equipment; then turn off the power strip at the end of each day. Check with your ISP about whether or not you need to keep your modem on.

TV/Stereo/Computers

Program your computer to go into energy saving mode after 15 minutes of non-use. Put your TV/Stereo/Computers/Satellite on power strips and turn them off at night. The satellite receiver/TV/DVD consumes 30 watts when not in use, this may not seem significant, but over time it adds up to over 220 kWh per year. Use rechargeable batteries and put them in a solar powered charger when recharging.

Thermostats

Get a programmable thermostat and save as much as $150 a year. Set it way up (in the summer) or way down (in winter) when everyone's at work or at school and when they're asleep. And program it to turn up the heat (in winter) or air conditioning (in summer) shortly before folks get home or shortly before they wake up.

Use your programmable thermostat-even if you have a leaky old home and are worried that your furnace is working too hard to bring the house back up to your comfort zone two times a day. Without getting into the issue of proper insulation, it saves more energy to let the house cool down when you're not home during the day and while you sleep at night than to keep it at the comfort zone continuously. But, if you're setting it back to, say 60 degrees that may be too far for a Chicago winter, especially if your home isn't well-insulated. At 60 degrees, countertops and dishes will seem cold. Try setting the thermostat back to 63-65 degrees in the winter. That way the recovery is not so steep, but you still get some benefit from the set back.

Home Heating/Cooling

Heating and cooling are the biggest energy consumers in a typical home. Lower heating thermostat by 2 degrees in winter and raise thermostat 2 degrees in summer. This could save you money due to the rising cost of natural gas/propane this winter and lower CO2 emissions year-round. Check the furnace filter and replace regularly. Have your furnace efficiency and ducts checked up at least once every couple of years. Make sure intake and exhaust vents are free and clear of obstructions. Close vents to rooms that are seldom used. Put in a programmable thermostat.

Doggie Waste

Switch to eco doggie bags that biodegrade in the landfill-which means Fido's poop won't be forever preserved in the landfill, in the plastic bag you grabbed without considering its end-of-life issues. Among them: corn-based Poop Bags (click here for the link) and biodegradable pooch Pick-Up Bags from PetSmart Stores.

Get Organized

Do your own linen and storage closet systems with a bunch of inexpensive clear plastic boxes and bins. Stash all sorts of household essentials in their own box...for instance, tape, ribbon, razors, soap, shampoo, etc. This way you can see what you already have at home and will not be tempted to overbuy.

Multiple-Use Products

Pay attention to all the wasteful single-use items in your daily life: the throwaway plastic water bottles, paper napkins, paper towels, disposable wipes. Try to figure out alternatives: reusable water bottles (try using glass); cloth napkins; cut up an old sheet into smaller sized rags for cleaning/wiping up messes and wash/dry them to be used over and over. Or use microfiber dusting cloths that can be washed (never put in them in the dryer-they looses the dust attraction, always air dry them) then you can reuse over and over again; etc.

Newspapers

A year's worth of papers from a big-city daily weighs nearly a half-ton (1,000 pounds). For every ton (2,000 pounds) of paper that we can recycle saves the equivalent of 17 trees, enough energy to power an average home for six months, also 7,000 gallons of water saved and keeps 60 pounds of pollutants (printing ink) out of the air.

Lights/Bulbs/CFL Disposal

Lights left on for more than on hour are candidates for a Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL). Buy quality CFLs as there are cheap off brand CFLs that burn out quickly and emit quirky strange white light. CFLs use about one fourth as much energy for the same amount of light given off by incandescent. Good CFLs last up to ten times longer, so you will not have to replace them as often. Look for the Energy Star label if all else fails. Increase natural light in home by adding light tubes to dark hallways and bathrooms.

We should all switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Once you replace five of your most-used incandescent bulbs with CFLs, you could save $25 to $65 a year in your energy cost. CFLs use two-thirds less energy than incandescent bulbs, generate 70 % less heat and they last up to 10 times longer. They do contain a small amount of mercury- but the benefits of using CFLs outweigh the mercury issue.

When your CFLs do wear out, recycle them responsibly. The mercury contained in compact fluorescent light bulbs should not be accumulating in a landfill or, even worse, incinerated.

  • Check with your municipality to see if it has scheduled a household hazardous waste collection date with your state's Environmental Protection Agency. And/or in the coming months, get the schedule of those collections by visiting this link.
  • Visit the EPA recycling site, at this link for ongoing waste collection sites.
  • Know that IKEA offers free CFL recycling at its stores.

Hand Soap

Rediscover good old bar soap. This will eliminate the plastic bottle waste that comes with using liquid soaps.

Cleaning Tiles

Keep shower tiles sparkling clean without using any chemicals. After a shower, use a microfiber cloth or chamois to wipe down tiles and fixtures or for glass, use a squeegee.

Kitchen

According to EnergyStar.gov, the refrigerator is the biggest energy consuming appliance in most kitchens. Clean the coils on your refrigerator as most likely they are clogged with dust and dirt to extend compressor life and increase efficiency. Make sure there is room or air space around the refrigerator so it can dissipate heat. Cook with lids to speed up boiling water. Unplug appliances such as coffee grinders, toasters, coffee makers and kitchen mixers when not in use.

The Microwave

Yes, use it instead of the over or stove to reheat food or to cook small portions. You will reduce your cooking energy by as much as 80%.

Cooking on the Stove

Match pots to the appropriate size burner. A 6-inch pot on an 8-inch burner wastes more that 40% of the burner's heat. Using the right-size pot can save you as much as $36 a year with an electric range and as much as $18 with a gas range.

Brushing Teeth

Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth to save as much as 10 gallons a day for each person. For a family of four that is equal to 14,600 gallons of saved water a year.

Recycling Etiquette

  • Rinse out cans and bottles before throwing them into a recycling bin to discourage vermin and keep food waste off the paper recycled.
  • Remove caps from bottles, since they are made of different materials. But don't bother trying to remove the plastic or metal rings that are often left from caps on glass bottles.
  • It's best to keep paper recyclables dry until collection day. But a night in the rain isn't fatal.
  • Don't risk cutting yourself by trying to remove the metal tops from cardboard tubes (in products such as scouring powder, cinnamon rolls and baking powder). Performing such separation is ideal, but most recycling programs will process the item anyway, either as metal or mixed paper.

Soda Cans

They'e small, but not insignificant. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television or operate a computer for three hours.

Plastic Newspaper Sleeves

Reuse sleeves that your newspaper comes wrapped in. Wrap paintbrushes in them if you're midway through a project but have to stop for the day. The plastic sleeve will keep the brush soft for up to a day and saves water normally used for rinsing brushes. You can also use them to slide shoes into when packing.

Printer Cartridges/Recycle

Office Depot, Office Max and Staples stores take back used cartridges. Check with your local stores; they may offer discount coupons as an incentive.

Printer Cartridges/Refill

Walgreens and Office Max offer in-store refilling stations in some of their stores, and it's generally cheaper than buying new. Check the Web sites (wal-greens.com and officemax.com) for the list of refillable cartridges and for the list of participating stores.

Batteries

Check local Walgreens, Staples and Office Max stores; many take back household batteries for recycling. All Office Depot stores take back cell phone and household batteries. Or visit the Earth911 Web site, at this link, for a battery recycling site near you.

Discrete Recycle Stations

Don't be quick to say you don't have room to recycle, or that you hate the look of recycling bins in my kitchen. Try scattering (pretty) wicker or rattan baskets in bare corners of your apartment or condo or in any home where space is at a premium. They will add warmth to your place and be your catchall for recyclables such as batteries, printer cartridges, magazines you plan to pass along to friends and family.

E-Waste

Eliminate it. Recycle your electronic waste: computer monitors, desktops, laptops, fax machines, printers, scanners, peripherals, keyboards, telephones, digital cameras, VCR players, DVD players, televisions, etc.--, which could be chock full of lead, mercury, plastics, et.

  • Visit earth911.org for more of the same.
  • Check your local office supply store. Many have e-recycling programs.

Plastic Bags

Bring your own (string, canvas, any kind of reusable) bags to grocery stores and say no to plastic bags. Americans toss some 100 billion of those low-quality polyethylene plastic bags annually and the recycling rate for them is just 0.6%. Each high-quality reusable bag has the potential of eliminating hundred or even thousands of plastic bags over its lifetime.

Pesticides

Avoid using them in your garden and yard. Build up healthy soil instead to help prevent disease. Use barriers such as netting or cutworm collars. Wash aphids away with spray from the hose. Encourage beneficial insects that eat harmful ones. And learn to tolerate a few weeds, spots or insects if it's only an aesthetic problem.

Fertilizers

Don't over-fertilize. Plants only can absorb so much; the rest washes away to pollute waterways. Follow directions or err on the side of less. Look for organic fertilizers that release nutrients slowly.

Native Plants

Use them in your garden. They know how to fend for themselves; they're adapted to the local climate, soils and pests. That means less watering and fewer chemicals.

Watering the Garden

Don't sprinkle more than necessary or in the heat of the day when much water evaporates. Put drip irrigation and soaker hoses on timers to water at night or in the early morning. Don't water your lawn lightly and frequently, but long and deep once a week.

Save the Rain

Put a rain barrel under a downspout to collect free water for the garden. And or make yourself a rain garden by making a bed designed to collect rainwater so it can be absorbed by deep rooted natives and perennials.

Compost

It is the basic ingredient of good soil. Start with a simple heap of plant material or buy a bin to keep out animals.

Garden Plastics

Keep them at bay. Take cardboard boxes to the nursery and leave plastic nursery flats behind. Look for plants grown in biodegradable containers. And start seeds in yogurt cups or other recyclable containers (pole a hole for drainage and wash in a 10% bleach solution). Or make your own pots out of yesterday's newspaper (see chicagotribune.com/pots).

The Organic Seal of Approval

The term "organic" should mean produced without chemical fertilizers, fungicides or herbicides, but it's best to ask. If you see the OMRI (Organic Materials Research Institute) seal, it means the product has met a strict standard.

The Organic Price Tag

Expect to dole out some green, for the green. Organically grown plants generally cost more. So do organic fertilizers. But they're worth it.

Garden Power

Consider electric yard equipment...and your own muscles! Electric mowers, string trimmers, leaf blowers and hedge trimmers create less pollution and are more energy-efficient that gas ones. Even better would be to use manual equipment.

Trees

Plant them. They're like giant air filters. One mature tree takes care of the pollution caused by 13 cars.

Screen-savers

Get rid of them. It takes more energy to run those floating toasters or even a static image than it does to have your computer and monitor go into a low-power mode. Unlike 10 years ago, the screen-saver does not extend the life of your monitor. Killing it could save $50 to $100 a year on your electric bill over a year's time.

Old Clothing

Reinvent clothes. Turn children's jeans with worn-out knees into shorts. Reinvent clothes that you still like and still fit, but which have fallen out of style: for example, hemlines that need to be shortened significantly. Many dry cleaners employ seamstresses for those who can't do it, or can't find the time to do it, themselves.

Be conscious of how you dispose of well-worn clothes. They're not likely to end up on the shelves of your local thrift store. In 2005, an estimated 11.1 million tons of textiles were generated as municipal solid waste, only 15.3% of which was recovered for export or reprocessing. The Salvation Army, AMVETS and Unique Thrift Stores are three organizations that work hard to divert all types of unsold fabric from landfills. Many charities sell unsold clothes to textile recycling companies, which in turn sell wearable items to wholesalers overseas, where demand is high. The really worn stuff can be turned into cleaning cloths or filler inside your mattress or car's interior roof. Blue jean fiber makes great paper, believe it or not! The non-profit Gaia Movement, USA (773-651-7870, their Web site is here) and U'SAgain, a commercial textile recycling company (800-604-9533, their Web site is here), have drop boxes in and around a number of cities in America. Call them or check their sites for locations. Both of these organizations also ensure that worn clothes find a second home overseas or a second life through reprocessing.

Driving

Three simple ways to improve your mileage:

  1. Don't drive aggressively. Speeding, rapid acceleration and hard braking can lower your highway gas mileage by as much as 33% and city mileage by as much as 5%.
  2. Don't go super-fast. Driving 75 m.p.h. instead of 65 m.p.h. can cut fuel economy by as much as 15%.
  3. Keep up with your car's maintenance. Clean air filters can improve gas mileage by as much as 10%. Properly inflated and aligned tires improve mileage by about 3%.

Reuse

Check out Freecycle.org, at this link. It's a kind of eBay experience, but without the financial gain. The city-specific site allows people to post items they want to get rid of and others who live close by, in turn, to look for something they need. No money is exchanged between parties.

Study:

Check out these Web sites:

Cat Litter

Consider alternative litter. There are more earthly-friendly, organic options than the standard clay litters, which pile up in landfills. Among them: Feline Pine (made of pine), Sweat Scoop (wheat) and World's Best Cat Litter (corn.) When it's time to change the litter, you can let organic litters biodegrade naturally by dumping them in your yard...far, far away from where kids may roam and from the veggie garden and compost. If you would rather not engage your yard, you still can go green with a biodegradable liner for the cat pan. Biobags makes one; order at dirtworks.net.

Doors & Windows

Inspect weather striping and caulk around doors and windows, check door thresholds, if they are worn out, replace them. Lock doors and windows to help seal them tight. Consider adding window quilts or blinds to increase R value of windows. Close the blinds and or quilts at night in winter and during the hot days of summer to reduce solar gain. Add clean thin film insulation to interior windows during winter months.

Building

Add some extra insulation to attic and attic hatch. Adding extra insulation helps year round not just in the winter. Check around light fixtures as air is probable escaping up thru the ceiling. Close the fireplace damper tight when not in use to stop drafts and save money. Consider adding a solar powered attic fan to actively cool attic space in summer. Install air sealing foam gaskets behind switch plates and wall outlets. Walk around outside of home and seal plumbing, heating and building penetrations with expandable foam. There are two types, one for doors and windows and one for filling large gaps.

New, Smarter Appliances

If you are going to buy any new appliances soon, replace with Energy Star brand high efficient models. Energy Star models may be more expensive, but over their lifetime they more than make up for the difference with reduced energy usage and money saved.

Save all your receipts, as under the federal energy bill, most of these conservation measures could add up to qualify under the home envelope insulation for federal tax credits (10% of your cost up to max credit of $500) consult your tax professional.

If you are a tech geek, purchase a Kill-a-Watt meter. This is a handy device that helps you analyze home or office energy use. A Kill-a-Watt meter will give you an instant energy reading of an appliance's electrical consumption when on and off. They can be purchased from the Midwest Renewable Energy Association marketplace, which is located at this link. For more energy efficiency tips, go to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy Web site, which is at this link. For information on efficient appliances, lighting and windows go to the Energy Star Web site, which is at this link.