Cut back on using the car. Walking will keep you fit, save you money and save all those poisons getting into the atmosphere. Use public transport when you have to travel and share supermarket and school runs.
Buy foods loose whenever possible, dried goods as well as fruit and vegetables. Not only is this usually a much cheaper option than branded goods, it saves on all that unnecessary packaging. Always choose the refillable, reusable container over the disposable, throwaway one.
Use shopping bags or baskets when you go to the store so that you can say no thank you to plastic carrier bags. Re-use plastic bags you do receive for bin liners, food wrapping etc.
Use eco friendly washing powder and cleaning products or make your own from the recipes at http://www3.pei.sympatico.ca/galavoie/ENVIRO.HTM
Save energy. Turn your heating down and wear warmer clothes or layers when necessary. Turn down the hot water thermostat, turn off lights and tv's when no-one is using them, use energy efficient light bulbs.
Insulating your home will quickly pay for itself in lower heating bills. Find out about grants in your area towards installing new or thicker insulation.
Use waste paper and packaging for crafts and play activities. Make wonderful gift trays, bowls and decorative plates from papier mache or make handmade paper cards from office waste paper. Kids love making toys and models from packaging if you start them off and show them how to join bits together with glue, slots or string.
Locate and support your local recycling projects. Be a good neighbour and encourage the recycling habit by collecting other people's saved newspapers, textiles, glass bottles etc. while you are going there anyway.
Clothes or linens no longer fit for their original purpose can be torn up and used for cleaning rags. You will be surprised how useful an old fashioned rag bag can be.
Try not to buy plastic, it accounts for a large amount of landfill waste. If you must buy plastic containers look for those with a label 1 or 2. These are much easier to recycle than those numbered 3 to 7. Then use them to store food instead of using foil and plastic wraps.
Buy a reusable coffee filter or at least use the unbleached paper ones. The white ones produce deadly toxins during their manufacture.
Plant a tree, or several if you have the space. Make them fruit trees and you can enjoy the produce as they clean up carbon dioxide from the air.
Staple together pads of one side used paper for shopping lists, to do lists etc.
Use rechargeable batteries whenever possible. Ordinary batteries contain heavy metals that can either contaminate the soil or seep into water supplies when sent to landfill sites or contaminate the air if they are burnt.
Many trees must be harvested to provide Christmas and gift wrapping paper that is almost immediately discarded by the recipient. Consider wrapping gifts in something else useful like a pretty scarf or kitchen towel or just fold or roll and add a reusable ribbon bow and a pretty recycled paper gift card.
Restyle, recover or makeover furniture that is no longer to your taste before having it carted off to the dump. Cutting the legs off an old sideboard gives it a low modern look, old fashioned dressing tables can have a useful life under a pretty, gathered fabric skirt, large old wardrobes can be painted and have door panels replaced with chicken wire and fabric to make modern storage for any room in the home. Learn how to make slipcovers for furniture from a library book or the Internet, or invest in a staple gun to easily recover headboards or reupholster dining chairs painted to suit your new look. Use bed sheets to make floor length table cloths to cover a shabby table without joining fabric. If you really cannot find a use for furniture or clothing donate it to a good cause.
Stop or at least cut down on eating meat. Apart from being barbaric and cruel, killing animals for food is extremely wasteful of the earth's resources, as much of the land they graze could grow other food in much greater quantities. Animals being farmed for their meat also consume gallons of water and produce tons of potentially water contaminating manure.
Buy organic foods whenever possible. As well as being much more healthy for your family, the farmer will not have been polluting the earth and the air with pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Compost your kitchen waste and you will have a wonderful medium for growing your own veggies, fruits and flowers.
About The Author: Copyright 2001 Colleen Moulding
About the author: Colleen Moulding is a freelance writer from England where she has had many features on parenting, childcare, play, travel, entertaining and the Internet published in national newspapers and magazines. She has also published a variety of women's and children's fiction. Her work frequently appears at many sites on the Internet and at her own site for women All That Women Want.com a magazine, web guide and resource for women everywhere. Why not drop by? It was made for you! AllThatWomenWant.com
Subscribe to the free monthly e-zine by sending a blank e-mail to: allthatwomenwant-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
|
