What you can do to live more green: Reduce, Re-use & Recycling

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A Glass Act
Recycle glass (think beer bottles, jars, juice containers) either through curbside programs or at community drop-off centers. Glass takes more than one million years to decompose; Americans generate almost 13 million tons of glass waste a year. Glass produced from recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. Go to earth911.org for local recycling information.

Avoid Disposable Goods
Institute a mug policy in your office. Americans throw away some 25 billion polystyrene cups every year, most of which end up in landfills. Refill your water bottles once or twice, and make your coffee in a ceramic mug. I you bring in cutlery from home, you will also cut down on those pesky plastic forks, knives, and spoons.

Ditch Plastic Bags
Californians Against Waste (cawrecylces.org), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, estimates that Americans use 84 billion plastic bags annually, a considerable contribution to the 500 billion to one trillion used worldwide. Made from polyethylene, plastic bags are not biodegradable and are making their way into our oceans and waterways. According to recent studios, the oceans are full of tiny fragments of plastic that are beginning to work their way up the food chain. Invest in stronger, re-usable bags, and avoid plastic bags whenever possible.

Don’t Just Dump
Envelopes come in huge quantities for free every day. If you are careful when opening letters, you can use the envelopes again by simply putting a label over the original address. This saves money and trees, while reducing waste. Try to re-use jars and plastic containers-for example, when taking your lunch to work. (Doing so prevents waste, and making your food at home is less expensive than the alternative.) Ask your office manager to buy re-usable mesh coffee filters instead of bleached paper ones, which may contain dioxins. They are tree-free and should save your company money.

Don’t Be a Butt Tosser
About 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide each year-making them the most littered item. The myth that cigarette filters are biodegradable is just that, a myth. Although the filters do eventually decompose, they release harmful chemicals that enter the earth’s land and water during the decaying process. There is nothing earth-friendly about the breakdown. If you smoke, carry a 35-mm. film canister to store your used butts in until you can properly discard them.

Don't trash it - reuse it!
Don't trash it - reuse it! Be creative as you look for new ways to reduce the amount or kinds of household waste. Give cardboard tubes to pet hamsters or gerbils. Plant seeds in an egg carton. Make a flower pot out of a plastic ice cream tub. By thinking creatively, you will often find new uses for common items and new ways to recycle and reduce waste.

Get Involved
Recycling at home doesn’t get you off the hook at work. If your office doesn’t recycle, or recycles only paper, find out why. If you work in a small office, call your local authority to discover what recycling equipment and services are available. These may include storage containers and compacters as well as collection. If you work in a larger office, ask your building-services coordinator why there are no recycling facilities and whom you would need to speak to about starting a recycling program for paper, glass, metal, and plastic. For more information, visit earth911.org.

Just bag it!
Help protect the environment when you shop. Keep reusable bags on your car seat or near your door so they are easy to grab when you go. And you can even combine shopping bags - just tell the cashier that you don't need a bag, then put all your purchases together in one bag… just be sure to hang on to your receipts!

No More Catalogs
There is a website called catalogchoice.org. You have to register, which is free, then you can click on any catalog you don't want to receive anymore. Ive been getting catalogs of a previous owner and this is such a help.

Print Double-Sided
American businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy way to halve this, set your printer’s default option to print double-sided (duplex printing). This has the added advantage of halving the paper pile on your desk. To further cut your paper wastage, make sure you always use “print preview” mode to check that there are no overhanging lines and that your print only the pages you need. Other ways to cut down on paper before you get to the print stage include using single or 1.5 spacing instead of double spacing, and reducing your page margins.

Recycle Your Batteries
Although the number of electrical gadgets that use disposable batteries is on the decline, each person in the U.S. discards eight batteries per year. Overall, Americans purchase nearly three billion batteries annually, and about 179,000 tons of those end up in the garbage. Batteries have a high concentration of metals, which if not disposed of properly can seep into the ground when the casing erodes. Avoid disposable batteries by using your outlets whenever possible. If you can’t do without batteries, use rechargeable and recycled ones. You should also have your batteries collected and recycled. Go to rebat.com for a list of companies that participate in battery reclamation.

Recycle Your Newspaper
There are 63 million newspapers printed each day in the U.S.; 44 million, or about 69 percent, of these will be thrown away. Recycling just the Sunday papers would save more than half a million trees every week.

Re-Gift Gift Wrap
Help cut down on the consumption of paper and plastic by re-using wrapping paper, ribbons, bows, and gift bags. These items should e good for at least one more wrapping. If you are feeling creative, use old calendars, pages from magazines or even newspaper to wrap gifts.