Learn how to atop junk mail at Eco Cycle. Meanwhile, recycle it and newspapers. Each mature tree this saves will consume thirteen pounds of carbon dioxide per year. And the energy saved by recycling a single ton of paper can heat your home for six months.
[For more easy, eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/ view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or ebook device.]
Some cosmetics contain plastic microbeads (AKA mermaid’s tears) that end up in our water system and harm wildlife. Do NOT wash them down the drain. Tighten the cap and toss unwanted product into the trash to be gobbled up by the landfill.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
DON’T BURN THAT GIFT WRAP IN YOUR FIREPLACE! The metals and ink in much of the paper cause many fires each year and send harmful particulates into the air we breathe.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Tomorrow is “Giving Tuesday,” a holiday designed to balance out the self-absorbed madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. On this day, business, charities, communities, and families enter into the spirit of giving. EVERYONE can participate. If not with our wallets, then with our excess food in our pantries or the second Buy-one/Get-One-Free item. With that like-new clothing we loved when we bought it but know we’ll never wear. With those toys our kids opened Christmases ago but sit in their boxes, unplayed with. With blankets and rain ponchos for the homeless who are about to be caught in what promises to be a harsh winter. Or simply with the gift of our time: to help at a shelter or soup kitchen; to visit a lonely elder in a nursing home; to comfort a grieving family; to be with a troubled child. I hope Giving Tuesday expands to Giving Everyday. During this month, though, it turns the madness into a loving anticipation of a Christmas season packed with all the meaning it’s supposed to have.
If you drop an ice cube (or not), stick it into a houseplant. Because ice cubes melt slowly, there’s not the usual water overflow into the saucer waiting to evaporate and be wasted.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Stop using bleach and chemical cleaners to kill germs and banish rings in the toilet bowl. Pure white vinegar does the job and, as a natural substance, is less harmful to the environment.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Kill fleas on pets and their bedding with non-toxic vinegar (white or apple cider). In a spray bottle, mix 1 cup of vinegar with a gallon of water (1:16 ratio). Spray your dry dog, rub it into his fur, and leave it on. (May take a couple of applications.)
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
When in a restaurant or at the store, choose fish that is delicious yet friendly to our environment. Download Seafood Watch, the free app designed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium that helps you at restaurants and markets so you can choose sustainable seafood and sushi. Download at https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/seafood-watch/id301269738?mt=8.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Here’s a cheap, earth-friendly weed control: Spray those bad guys with a mixture of a gallon of white vinegar and an ounce of bio-degradable dish soap.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, get a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and load it onto your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]
Beat the heat with skylights that reflect sunlight, low-E coatings on windows facing south and west, and awnings over windows. In the summer, a non-heated house is more comfortable than blasting air conditioning and avoids unnecessary energy usage.
[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]