Eco-friendly tips contest ended

[sunshinecindy]

Don't you just love those recyclable shopping bags...we do at SR, that is why we have some we would love to give away, TODAY ONLY.

Since today is Earth Day, there are probably a lot of people like me that aren't really "green" because basically, its lack of knowledge, so, right now, post your best recycling tip in this thread and be eligible to win one of our SR recyclable grocery bags. If we get over 30 posts, I'll give two away instead of just one. These large canvas bags are also great for the beach, and of course, Disney parks.

[Hedy]

Staples will give you $3 on your rewards card for every cartridge you recycle in their stores.

[lkturner]

Some people bag up leaves in the Fall using huge plastic bags that cost a ton of money and stay around for decades somewhere. We have lots of leaves and have for years recycled them using a gadget called the Leaf Hog by Black and Decker. It vacuums up and chops the leaves which in turn we put back on our garden beds for the winter. By Spring, we have composted leaves and earth worms which the plants love, and we use a lot less water keeping the plants pretty all summer, since all the beds have homemade mulch. :)

[bartleby1]

One thing that I do to reuse, recycle, and cut down on paper towel usage, is to cut up old tee shirts that are too yucky to be worn into small rags. I keep some in each bathroom and under my kitchen sink to use for cleaning. This way, they are easy to grab when I need them and I usually can make a roll of paper towels last for two months or so.

I've also switched to using a vinegar/water solution for most of my cleaning jobs. It works great and is environmentally friendly and CHEAP! I even use it as a fabric softener in my washer and instead of jet dry in my dishwasher. I love not having to use strong cleaners around my kids.

[faithhope]

My big change last year to be greener was a compost pile in the corner of the backyard. I put all the bits of food we don't eat there (except onions,citrus and meat). This year I have some lovely soil to do my gardening with.

My big change this year was to try a worm bin. I have it in a small rectangular bin under my sink. It is small, and it won't take all my food scraps, so I still use the compost pile in the yard for most of the food scraps, but my worms have done some good work, and I should get a nice small pile of fantastic soil soon. I also put my shredded credit card offers in there for the worms. (you can think I'm crazy... my kids do... mom and her pet worms).

Faith

[cjjmesser]

This year, my family has planted a small garden and installed an outdoor clothesline for drying our clothes. More green for the planet and more green (money) for us!:sun:

[fourfoxesinpa]

I recycle my coffee grounds every morning by dumping them on my azaleas, rhodies, holly bushes and other acid loving plants. They :heart: them.

[MKCP84]

When your box of cereal is finished and you are recycling the box, don't throw away the "waxy" liner bag inside that the cereal was in. Use the liner for cooling your cookies on when they come out of the oven. No sticking - works great!

[lanny76]

I got a homemade 'green' recipe for laundry detergent that I just started using and like - 1 cup grated soap (like Ivory), 1/2 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup Borax. Light load 1 tbsp; heavy/very soiled 2 tbsp. Works great!
Borax can be used for tons of cleaning jobs; so can baking soda, or vinegar, instead of having to buy chemical stuff.

[toystoryduo]

One thing we do is to recycle envelopes. When our bills come in and we pay them online instead of sending them snail mail, we keep the envelopes to reuse for coupons, for grocery lists, or for mailing out letters. We used to just throw them away all time. Now, we hold on to them and use them as often as we can.:sunshine:

[FigmentFever]

After seeing an episode of Oprah about environmentally-friendly cleaning products, I have been buying all natural products to replace the harsh chemical that I previously bought.

I didn't realize what a big difference it would make, but we are all breathing better now, escpecially our cat!

It's nice to see that almost everytime that I go to the store (especially Target), there's a new type of eco-friendly cleaner available. The best part is that they don't cost much more than regular products.

[~Kathie]

We use a lot of paper in our home office, printing menus and specials. Wehn the menus change we cut the paper up in quarters to use as scrap paper. Once the scrap paper is used, we recycle that.

We have sent some of our electronic items that we no longer use to gazelle. They pay for some items but others they take as a donation. They pay to ship the items to them. What they can't use they recycle.

[Blessing and Miracle]

I've gone completely paperless. All of our bills are sent and paid through online banking. Not only am I saving trees, but I no longer have to worry about payments being late because of misplaced or forgotten statements. Everything is automatically set up and paid through the bank. Simple, timesaving and eco-friendly!:)

[gpp2001]

I love, love, love my reusable shopping bags! It has cut way down on plastic bags! I love that here in Southern California, some places ask you if you want/need a bag - I think it's great that stores are starting to think that not every item needs to be put in a bag!!

[OhMari]

I don't know if this counts, but I've been doing "Green Things" since my kids were in school.

I recycle aluminum cans and take the cans to a recycling center when the price is around .85 a lb.

I walk or ride my bike to work almost every day.

I hang out clothes on my washing line outside almost all year long. My kids hate it, when I hang the towels outside, but they live.

I just started to go paperless too with bills.
It's scary and I keep everything in an excel file, so I can keep track.

[disneymomma]

My son has been really gung-ho about being more green the past year, so I've finally gotten into it a bit. We now recycle cans, paper, and plastics. We use canvas bags for shopping. I've replaced all the light bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescents. We use the air-conditioner much less, only when it's over 85 outside. We walk more, for short trips to the nearby market. And we've given up bottled water and use the washable bottles instead.

[Belle]

One can recycle magazines by taking them to their beauty shops, dr offices, etc when they are finished reading them.

Here is a great website:
http://www.womenandenvironment.org/
It has tips such as how to make your own cleaning products.

[Chris]

We are composting.
recycling paper glass and metal.
Put in those new type of light bulbs.
I use reusable shopping bags. I keep them in the car so they are there everytime I shop.

[jl8595]

Two things off the top of my head:

I purchased a gallon of sunblock from drugstore.com (Blue Lizard - love that stuff!). It comes with a pump, making it very easy to pump out what you need. A normal bottle of Blue Lizard is sold in 3oz bottles, so I figure buying a gallon (128oz) is saving approximately 42 plastic bottles. For on the go, I pump it into a reusable plastic bottle and throw it into my purse and refill as necessary.

Also, we have 4 indoor cats. One demands two boxes of her own (one for her pee and the other for her...#2 activity...she can't do it in the same box, go figure :rolleyes:)...which translates to 5 separate litter boxes. We started using "Sweatscoop" cat litter because it's made of wheat - aborbs the terrible box odor AND is 100% biodegradeable. Also, the wheat litter, scooped daily, lasts far longer than traditional clay based litter, so we use a lot less of it over time.

[mom2rachel]

My daughter's school recycles grocery bags and soda cans. My hubby and I have set up bins at our jobs to collect these things. It's a win-win for us... it helps the environment and gives our daughter's school a little extra money.

[cuppycakemom]

A way that we are trying to save on using water is to put out rain catchers. We can use the water for our garden when it's dry, and for our inside plants as well!

[askomsky]

I guess we're already a pretty green "friendly" house! lol

1. I pay all of our bills online, and re-use the envelopes our bills come in and with for things like sending in money for the kids school or other correspondance into school.

2. We have several recycle bins in the garage even the kids know which one holds what and do it automatically.

3. I use the re-usable grocery bags and on days I forget or have heavy stuff I get paper ones bc we use those to recycle our newspapers.
I re-use any plastic bags we get by using them for our small trash cans in the house instead of buying small trash bags.

4. Dh doesn't bag our acre of grass when it's cut he dumps it out along the perimitar and our neighbor sometimes uses the extra clippings for her garden.

5. The kids have finally learned to turn off the lights when they leave the rooma nd now remind us to do it.

6. We use the new energy effecient light bulbs.

7. Will admit to re-using gift bags for presents.

8. I save all cardboard boxes bc I'm usually shipping stuff and I re-use them.

I think there's more, but some is not only to save tree's etc but also a great way to save money!

[wdwabby]

If you are a crafter - washing up glass containers (e.g. from spaghetti sauce, Starbucks frappachinos, ice cream toppings, etc) gives you fun things to alter - decorate them and fill with candy for a quick, cute gift or use them for storage!

[lorisnuts]

instead of sending my daughters lunch sandwich to school in plastic bags, I bought a set of plastic food storage containers. These should last for years if they make it home from school :rotfl:

[sqromano]

I use mostly canvas bags for grocery shopping, and when I get plastic, I return them to the store to be recycled. I have started making my own babyfood. I freeze it in ice cube trays and take out what I need. We also have replaced many of our lightbulbs with CFLs. And this year, we are gong to get our mulch from the townships free pile from yard clippings that were brought in.

P.S. I forgot to add that we pay almost all our bills online!

[kimntrent]

Did you know that Whole Foods will recycle some of their glass containers? And futher even though a light bulb isn't out at your house change one to a incandesent light. They may cost $7.00 for one but they will save $40.00 per year and can last up to three years. If you changed one in your house you would be saving our earth.

[amarazas]

We recycle everything we can here. Anything we can recycle goes into our recycling bins. We breakdown the cereal-type boxes and put them into our paper recycling. We have changed out our bulbs to the energy saving bulbs. We keep our heat lower, and our A/C higher; so we are not wasting electricity.

Since I work from home, I have LOTS of office supplies... Before I recycle any of my paper, I make sure that I printed on both sides of the paper. I recycle my ink cartridges, and I buy the ink that the cartridges have been refilled. I re-use the binders from year to year, and when I take out the papers from the binders, I recycle them.

I use the canvas bags for groceries or I use paper, and then use the paper bags for our paper recycling. The kids use the plastic containers instead of sandwich bags for lunch.

We do a ton more; and they are all very similar to everyone else's response! I'm enjoying reading what everyone does... I guess we are doing a good job here with keeping it Green! Great job everyone for a greener Earth!!

[mollyeilis]

I just recently found out that you can recycle Brita water pitcher filters. You couldn't before, but a woman set up a website petition asking Brita "why not?", and they changed Brita! You can take them to Whole Foods, so I've heard (we don't live near a WF to check), or send them (on your dime) in: you can find out more at preserveproducts dot com.

We already send our Preserve toothbrushes in to them for recycling (though they do pay for that shipping), so sending in our filters will be no different.



We already do so much it's hard to figure out what we do, ya know?


We used cloth diapers, which was lovely. I have asthma and can't even walk down the diaper aisle at a grocery store without reacting, and the reason my mom used them with me was b/c my skin turned into a huge rash with just one Pampers on my bum, so the first environment I helped with that decision was my own personal environment.


And a laundry tip I learned from that is that Simple Green (a natural degreaser), spritzed into the wash, along with a handful of Washing Soda, is an EXCELLENT clothes cleaner. Was fabulous for the diapers.

The reason you can't use most detergents with cloth dipes is that most detergents leave residue on clothes. Greasy residue. Which then repels liquid, and causes problems with the absorbency of the cloth. That's partially caused by the "optical brighteners" in products that say they'll make your clothes brighter, and that just seems gross to me. They aren't cleaning them, rather they are just making it look, with chemicals, brighter. I liken it to attaching microscopic mirrors to the fabric, to make the sun glint brighter off of it. :)

Anyway, through all of that I found what a great cleaner Simple Green is, and with Washing Soda it makes a good laundry detergent.

[MdCaterer]

We have the small candle lights in our windows (the kind you see at Christmas) and I turn them on every night they are les sthan 7 watts and you can see to walk from room to room without turning on the big room lights. They also add a warm glow to the house.

We have the big screen tv on a power strip that we turn off every night (we do this with our computers too)

We also recycle paper and I tear any paper that has no writing on the back into fourths and put it by the phones for note taking.

[spring]

Wow! I'm very impressed by all the green things my fellow SRers do! I got lots of tips by reading this whole thread.

I have made some small changes, like paying bills online, recycling glass, paper, cardboard, etc., and taking tote bags to the grocery store. Although I don't have a hybrid vehicle, I did spend quite a time researching prior to my last vehicle purchase to get the most fuel-efficient in it's class. Like many, I also have cut back on driving, trying to group errands or stopping on the way home from work.

This is just a little thing, but I save all tissue paper I receive in gift bags or from my online shopping. I save it to pack DH's and my clothing for travel to save on wrinkles. Works like a charm!

[jnorth1007]

We take old stained kids clothes once they are done with them and cut them done to fit the kids dolls and stuffed animals. These are items that wouldn't sell or be worn by others and it also keeps me from buying clothes for the dolls, build a bears and stuffed animals. We even use old socks to make dresses for the webkinz.

[fanofree]

I buy in bulk and use resuable containers for keeping items fresh. I love the "Lock and Lock" ones the best - available at QVC!

I pack my lunch using plastic continers instead of baggies or foil - I even take my own cutlery so I can wash it at home! (All in the dishwasher, which I am told is more economical and earth freindly then hand washing.)

I take my own beverages - coffee in the morning, cold drinks on weekends - in reusable insulated cups so I am not throwing away paper cups or bottles from the mini-mart or coffee shop.

We recycle newspaper and the plastics and glass as allowed at our center.

We have about 6 of the resualble "grocery" bags.

I reuse the back of old printed items for shopping lists, to do lists and notes to other family members. I even use the part left when I cut off an on line coupon.

I reuse gift bags! Yes, give that back - you can keep the gift. :rotfl:

[pattip03]

I gave up using paper plates over a year ago, don't miss them at all anymore. :clap: I buy the select-a-size paper towels and now a roll of towels lasts a long time. :clap: It's surprising how a smaller paper towel will do the job. And I love the bamboo towels! :clap: They are so soft and absorbant and wash up nicely and are made from the fastest growing plant on the planet!

[speechteachri]

We do many things already listed here...re-usable shopping bags, high efficiency light bulbs, put in energy star rated appliances when we re-did our kitchen, run the dishwasher overnight instead of at peak usage times, recycle everything we can, fill 5 gallon buckets under the downspouts on our patio to use for watering in the summer, use the crock pot instead of the oven whenever possible, keep the cars tuned up properly......Oh, and my favorite is one that was also previously mentioned...I use vinegar for lots of my cleaning and as a softener in the wash. I also recently read in a magazine that if you put a balled up piece of aluminum foil in the dryer it will take the static out of the clothes...but I need to try this to believe it.

[sunshinecindy]

Congrats to our two winners, you will get a SR canvas bag. Open up a TT with your full name and address so I can get them out to you.

Our winners are:


Post #17 Belle

and

Post #23 wdwabby

[jl8595]

Congrats winners!!

I really enjoyed reading everyone's creative tips!!

[wdwabby]

Thank you! Thank you! I've filled out my TT - I've never won a forum contest before, so this is very exciting!

[~Kathie]

Congratulations!!! I enjoyed reading everyone's tips too!!! Thanks for a fun contest.

[Belle]

Our winners are:
Post #17 Belle


That's me! Thanks!

:thanks:

Thanks for sharing the tips, everyone!