HAPPY EARTH DAY 2010 everyone!!!!!
To celebrate Earth Day I decided to bring you some tips on what you can do to help save our planet.
I know it's hard to be green everyday. But just trying one of these tips can help more then you realize.
Here are some things you can do around your house to make it a little greener for everyone.
1. Did you know that you may not even NEED to laundry soap to clean clothing.
Clothing has been around for eons, but laundry soap is relatively new.
So how did the oldies get their clothing clean?
Agitation.
They used rocks and rivers. We have machines.
I have tested and YES for lightly dirty clothiing and simple run through machine with just water will get your clothes clean.
Now. If your like me and are conditioned to think that CLEAN=SOAP then why not save that $14.99 you spend on Tide for something else and try the recipe below. I tried it on light to nasty "OMG I can't believe you brought that into my house" clothing and they all came out clean and smelling fresh.
Here's one from The Simple Dollar.
• 4 cups of water.
• 1/3 bar of cheap soap, grated.
• 1/2 cup washing soda (not baking soda).
• 1/2 cup of Borax (20 Mule Team).
• 5-gallon bucket for mixing.
• 3 gallons of water.
First, mix the grated soap in a saucepan with 4 cups of water, and heat on low until the soap is completely dissolved. Add hot water/soap mixture to 3 gallons of water in the 5-gallon bucket, stir in the washing soda and Borax, and continue stirring until thickened. Let the mix sit for 24 hours, and voila! Homemade laundry detergent.
You can also make your own glass cleaner-Vinager. Furniture polish-Oil & lemon juice. Baking soda is an all natural scrubbing agent.
2.Want a garden but have no space? Why not plant your produce in pots?
It is amazing what you can grow in a 4-foot area or with eight to 10 potting containers.
If this is your first time then I suggest growing some easy veggies to help you get the feel for gardening.
Some easy veggies are lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, cukes.
Remember, not all veggies are suitable for container gardening so you want to stick with early maturing, non top heavy veggies.
3. Replace your light bulbs. A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.4. Do you drive 30 million miles to work each day? Try car pooling. Here in FL we have Park & Ride.
You drive your car to a Park & Ride location then hitch a ride with someone else and commute to work.
The areas are well secured AND you get to drive in the car pool (HOV) lane.
OooooO. Ahhhhh.
5. Take care of your car. Proper tire pressure can save wear and tear on your vehicle and also save you $$$ in gas as you will consume less fuel.
6. Stop using paper towels. Or at least replace with recycled paper towels.
With over 90% of US households taking advantage of the convenience of paper towels we produce over 3,000 tons of waste each day. Did you know if each home simply replaced one roll of their traditional paper towels with paper towels made from recycled paper, we could avoid wasting 3.4 million cubic feet of landfill space and prevent 864,000 trees from being cut down.
7. Eat one Vegan (meatless) meal a day. You'll not only feel better, but according to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.
8. And last but not least...RECYCLE, RENEW, & REUSE
