Blog Action Day: Easy Ways To Help The Environment Today
Shades of Chartreuse - Freshly Green Tips
October 15 is Blog Action Day. The blogging community is coming together to spread the word about the environment and climate change. While no one at Here We Are is suggesting you put on a solar panel roof this weekend, or ride a moped to work, there are easy ways to make your world a little greener starting today.
Like all great social movement, small collective efforts start spinning the wheels of change. We all know the immediate importance of "Reuse, Recycle, Reduce" -- this really does help the earth and your wallet.
Here are a few new ideas, and some you might have missed, that we compiled at HWA for you to implement today:
1. It is fun and helpful to turn off the lights with the whole world during Earth Hour; but reminding the family to unplug cellphone chargers, turn off unnecessary lights, and use dimmer switches help save energy throughout the year. Don't forget the coffee maker and toaster after breakfast, no reason to keep them plugged in for the next 23 hours until tomorrow morning.
2. Walk instead of drive to the mailbox. This is a good way to start reducing your carbon footprint with the bonus of being a calorie burner, errand completer, and gas saver!
3. Plant a tree, a shrub, a vegetable garden, and/or flowers. Each can help the environment in its own way, and gardening is truly a gift to oneself. Plus, the honey bees and butterflies that visit will make you smile.
4. Re-purpose Holiday Cards for a good cause. It's getting to be that time again...collect them, save trees, and help less fortunate kids after the festivities are over.
5. Check out the Here We Are Five Easy Ways to Green Your Bathroom. Pick one tip and start today...then add the next one, and so on. Before you know it, you will be saving water, breathing fresher air, and thinking green with every purchase.
6. Stop accepting unsolicited phone books, opt out now. They waste trees, pile up, and offer nothing new that you can't find on the Internet.
7. A pair of Blue Balls have never been so helpful as when you throw them in your dryer. They save on drying time, thus saving energy, and you can eliminate chemical laden dryer sheets. Good for you, your clothes, the earth. They really do work...start today to Dry Green With Blue Balls.
Take action with these seven easy ways to help the environment today. We all have to start somewhere today so there is a place for us tomorrow.
Do you have any tips to add? List them in the comments section, every little bit counts!
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@Emily Clifton: Great tip! Thank you for describing this process. I like the "freezer" idea a lot. Are you using it in a vegetable garden or making a pile of it in a specific area to spread around later on?
My grandmother always put coffee grinds under her rose bushes. She had the most beautiful cabbage roses every season.
What kinds of thinks are you adding to the compost container?
Posted by: Luci Weston | October 2009 at 02:02 PM
I started composting this year for the first time. It took awhile to get it right, and some other people I know stopped doing it for various reasons (it stinks, not enough space). I found that if you get an enclosed but small container (like a tupperware) and keep it either under the sink or for less stench, in the freezer, you have a handy container to put your compostable items into that won't smell bad, attract fruit flies, or be too cumbersome to lift when it's full. I take the time to empty it every few days or so when I take my dog for a run in the woods. And I'm looking forward to a nice batch of soil in the spring!
Posted by: Emily Clifton | October 2009 at 12:26 PM