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Green tips for everyday
Water
- Fix any leaky faucets, toilets or water pipes. Even a small drip can add up to a lot of water over time.
- Wash your car the natural way - wait until it rains.
- Install water saving faucets.
- Conserve fuel by turning down the heat at night and while you are away from your home — or install a programmable thermostat.
- Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- Insulate your home against heat loss and periodically check insulation.
- Fix air leaks with weather stripping and caulking.
- In the winter, change your furnace air filters once a month. The heater uses more energy when it is full of dust.
- Insulate your electric hot water heater and pipes. Do not, however, insulate gas heaters and only start insulating gas heater pipes about six inches away from the heater.
- Avoid using cars — walk, cycle or use public transportation whenever possible.
- Avoid anything battery operated (or use rechargables or solar rechargables if batteries are unavoidable).
- Buy locally — not only is it good for the local economy, it will save energy because products haven’t traveled across the globe to get to you.
- Use non-toxic cleaning alternatives in your home, such as the ones listed in the booklet.
- Furnish your home with furniture made out of natural fibres, wood, metal and glass.
- Avoid the use of polyvinyl chloride (also known as PVC or vinyl) in your home. The entire life cycle of products made from PVC pollutes the environment and your home. PVC items include shower curtains, flooring, even some children’s toys.
- Avoid the use of aerosols.
- Use castor or mineral oils to lubricate switches and hinges instead of lubricants containing solvents.
- Choose water based latex paints over solvent based paints when painting your home. Never use lead based paints.
- If you have a furnace, fireplace or gas heater, have them serviced regularly to prevent deadly fumes and install a carbon monoxide detector.
- Ensure you have good ventilation and balanced humidity in your home to prevent the growth of mould and mildew, which can be harmful to your health.
- Do not throw out your toxic household wastes, such as paint, paint thinner, and car fluids, in the garbage or down the drain. Check with your local facilities for proper disposal and avoid these products in the future.
- Take your own bags to the grocery store. If you take plastic bags, use them until they are worn out.
- Compost your food waste and use as nutrient rich soil for your lawn.
- Avoid excess packaging.
- Always use reusables mugs, lunch containers, batteries, pens, razors, etc.
- Replace paper products with reusable ones (use recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper when you do have to use paper).
Environmental Issues: Health & Environment
Learn about environmental factors and conditions that affect human health, what is being done nationally and internationally to mitigate those problems, and how you and your family can lower the risks to your health from environmental hazards.
Does Sunscreen Really Protect Your Skin?
Sunscreen is supposed to let you get enough sunshine for good health while shielding you from harmful rays that can cause sunburn and skin cancer. Does your sunscreen offer the protection you need, or leave you exposed to UV radiation and harmful chemicals?
Life is Short: Life Expectancy Declines for American Women
Life expectancy for American women is declining for the first time since the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918, according to a new study. Life expectancy is going down or failing to improve for nearly 1 in 5 U.S. women. Smoking and obesity are seen as major causes for the loss of life expectancy among American women.
Does Sunscreen Really Protect Your Skin?
Sunscreen is supposed to let you get enough sunshine for good health while shielding you from harmful rays that can cause sunburn and skin cancer. Does your sunscreen offer the protection you need, or leave you exposed to UV radiation and harmful chemicals?
Life is Short: Life Expectancy Declines for American Women
Life expectancy for American women is declining for the first time since the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918, according to a new study. Life expectancy is going down or failing to improve for nearly 1 in 5 U.S. women. Smoking and obesity are seen as major causes for the loss of life expectancy among American women.
How to Recycle Different Types of Plastic
Dear EarthTalk: What is the deal with plastics recycling these days? Can you explain what the different numbers molded onto the bottom of plastic containers stand for? –Tom Croarkin, Fairfield, CT
The confusion over what we can and cannot recycle continues to confound consumers. Plastics are especially troublesome, as different types of plastic require different processing to be reformulated and re-used as raw material. Some municipalities accept all types of plastic for recycling, while others only accept jugs, containers and bottles with certain numbers stamped on their bottoms.
Recycling by the Numbers
The symbol code we’re familiar with—a single digit ranging from 1 to 7 and surrounded by a triangle of arrows—was designed by The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in 1988 to allow consumers and recyclers to differentiate types of plastics while providing a uniform coding system for manufacturers.
The numbers, which 39 U.S. states now require to be molded or imprinted on all eight-ounce to five-gallon containers that can accept the half-inch minimum-size symbol, identify the type of plastic. According to the American Plastics Council, an industry trade group, the symbols also help recyclers do their jobs more effectively.
Easy Plastics to Recycle
The easiest and most common plastics to recycle are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) and are assigned the number 1. Examples include soda and water bottles, medicine containers, and many other common consumer product containers. Once it has been processed by a recycling facility, PETE can become fiberfill for winter coats, sleeping bags and life jackets. It can also be used to make bean bags, rope, car bumpers, tennis ball felt, combs, cassette tapes, sails for boats, furniture and, of course, other plastic bottles.
Number 2 is reserved for high-density polyethylene plastics. These include heavier containers that hold laundry detergents and bleaches as well as milk, shampoo and motor oil. Plastic labeled with the number 2 is often recycled into toys, piping, plastic lumber and rope. Like plastic designated number 1, it is widely accepted at recycling centers.
Plastics Less Commonly Recycled
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly used in plastic pipes, shower curtains, medical tubing, vinyl dashboards, and even some baby bottle nipples, gets number 3. Like numbers 4 (wrapping films, grocery and sandwich bags, and other containers made of low-density polyethylene) and 5 (polypropylene containers used in Tupperware, among other products), few municipal recycling centers will accept it due to its very low rate of recyclability.
Another Useful Plastic to Recycle
Number 6 goes on polystyrene (Styrofoam) items such as coffee cups, disposable cutlery, meat trays, packing “peanuts” and insulation. It is widely accepted because it can be reprocessed into many items, including cassette tapes and rigid foam insulation.
Hardest Plastics to Recycle
Last, but far from least, are items crafted from various combinations of the aforementioned plastics or from unique plastic formulations not commonly used. Usually imprinted with a number 7 or nothing at all, these plastics are the most difficult to recycle and, as such, are seldom collected or recycled. More ambitious consumers can feel free to return such items to the product manufacturers to avoid contributing to the local waste stream, and instead put the burden on the makers to recycle or dispose of the items properly.
The confusion over what we can and cannot recycle continues to confound consumers. Plastics are especially troublesome, as different types of plastic require different processing to be reformulated and re-used as raw material. Some municipalities accept all types of plastic for recycling, while others only accept jugs, containers and bottles with certain numbers stamped on their bottoms.
Recycling by the Numbers
The symbol code we’re familiar with—a single digit ranging from 1 to 7 and surrounded by a triangle of arrows—was designed by The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in 1988 to allow consumers and recyclers to differentiate types of plastics while providing a uniform coding system for manufacturers.
The numbers, which 39 U.S. states now require to be molded or imprinted on all eight-ounce to five-gallon containers that can accept the half-inch minimum-size symbol, identify the type of plastic. According to the American Plastics Council, an industry trade group, the symbols also help recyclers do their jobs more effectively.
Easy Plastics to Recycle
The easiest and most common plastics to recycle are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) and are assigned the number 1. Examples include soda and water bottles, medicine containers, and many other common consumer product containers. Once it has been processed by a recycling facility, PETE can become fiberfill for winter coats, sleeping bags and life jackets. It can also be used to make bean bags, rope, car bumpers, tennis ball felt, combs, cassette tapes, sails for boats, furniture and, of course, other plastic bottles.
Number 2 is reserved for high-density polyethylene plastics. These include heavier containers that hold laundry detergents and bleaches as well as milk, shampoo and motor oil. Plastic labeled with the number 2 is often recycled into toys, piping, plastic lumber and rope. Like plastic designated number 1, it is widely accepted at recycling centers.
Plastics Less Commonly Recycled
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly used in plastic pipes, shower curtains, medical tubing, vinyl dashboards, and even some baby bottle nipples, gets number 3. Like numbers 4 (wrapping films, grocery and sandwich bags, and other containers made of low-density polyethylene) and 5 (polypropylene containers used in Tupperware, among other products), few municipal recycling centers will accept it due to its very low rate of recyclability.
Another Useful Plastic to Recycle
Number 6 goes on polystyrene (Styrofoam) items such as coffee cups, disposable cutlery, meat trays, packing “peanuts” and insulation. It is widely accepted because it can be reprocessed into many items, including cassette tapes and rigid foam insulation.
Hardest Plastics to Recycle
Last, but far from least, are items crafted from various combinations of the aforementioned plastics or from unique plastic formulations not commonly used. Usually imprinted with a number 7 or nothing at all, these plastics are the most difficult to recycle and, as such, are seldom collected or recycled. More ambitious consumers can feel free to return such items to the product manufacturers to avoid contributing to the local waste stream, and instead put the burden on the makers to recycle or dispose of the items properly.
Recycle
* Get Ready to Recycle--Set up your household to make recycling easy. Keep recycling waste containers or baskets in strategic locations in your house along with ordinary waste baskets. It is easier to toss recyclables in a separate container than it is to rummage through the trash later to separate everything. Use the same types of containers for recyclable trash as you would for any other trash throughout the house.
Having only one container for recyclable trash in the kitchen or garage is not likely to foster participation in household recycling, because few people would want to walk to the other end of house to dispose of every piece of paper.
Bathrooms can generate a fair amount of recyclable waste, shampoo bottles, empty facial tissue boxes, and empty toilet paper tubes.
Any home office or room where students study is a place where a container for recyclable material would be useful. Alternately, a bathroom recycle container of sufficient size could be used to accommodate the recyclable waste generated in nearby rooms.
Having only one container for recyclable trash in the kitchen or garage is not likely to foster participation in household recycling, because few people would want to walk to the other end of house to dispose of every piece of paper.
Bathrooms can generate a fair amount of recyclable waste, shampoo bottles, empty facial tissue boxes, and empty toilet paper tubes.
Any home office or room where students study is a place where a container for recyclable material would be useful. Alternately, a bathroom recycle container of sufficient size could be used to accommodate the recyclable waste generated in nearby rooms.
Substitute Reusable Items for Consumables
- Use towels, rags, and sponges for most cleaning and wipe-ups. Keep a large enough supply of rags and wash cloths so you will always have some clean ones. Even if you need to buy a supply of small towels and wash cloths to get yourself started, the initial cost will be quickly offset by your reduced need to buy disposable substitutes, and you might think they work better than disposables. (See the Reuse Products page.) If you frequently need a damp rag or wash cloth close at hand, just find an ordinary old plastic bottle or old spray bottle and fill it with your own home-made cleaning solution. You could mix up a mild cleaner of one part vinegar to seven parts water, or something much stronger with diluted alcohol, bleach, or ammonia. (Do not mix bleach and ammonia. The combination creates an asphyxiating gas.) See the Cleaning and Custodial Supply page of the Waste Prevention Information Exchange for ideas.
- Use cloth napkins. Buy a large supply of inexpensive cotton napkins to use every day, the initial cost will be quickly offset by your reduced need to buy disposable paper substitutes. See the Reuse Products page.
- Invest in a set of cloth grocery bags. They hold more, are easier to carry, protect glass jars and bottles better, last seemingly forever, and save energy and resources. Even if you recycle your paper or plastic grocery bags, you consume some energy and resources. See the Reuse Products page.
- Collect and use plastic food storage containers. More durable than plastic bags, leak less, reduce odors in the refrigerator, keep moths out of dry goods in the cupboard.
- Invest in rechargeable batteries and a battery charger. You can run almost anything, from flashlights to digital cameras, with rechargeable batteries. In the long run it is cheaper and better for the environment..
Reuse
- Find uses for things you discard. Consult your phone directory to see if your community has a reuse center. Other options for reuse are as indicated below:
- Computers
- Consult the Electronic Products Management Directory.
- Demolition Waste from Remodeling and Construction
- Consult the Construction and Demolition Debris Recyclers Directory for facilities that collect specific types of construction and demolition debris for reuse or recycling.
- Electronics
- Consult the Electronic Products Management Directory.
- Everything Else
- List your reusable items in a Materials Exchange.
- Consult the CIWMB Reuse Website.
- Donate to charity.
- Computers
Reduce
- Packaging
- Buy food in large quantities or in bulk. Grains and cereal are especially easy to purchase this way. Avoiding small individual packages of any product or consumable greatly reduces the amount of paper or boxboard that you buy and throw away. Of course, don't buy large quantities if the food would spoil before it is used.
- Vote with your dollars. When comparing products of different manufacturers, consider giving preference to those that use less packaging.
- Unwanted Mail
- Fight back! You can reduce the amount of junk mail you receive.
Waste Prevention and Recycling at Home
The waste management hierarchy--reduce, reuse, recycle--actually expresses the order of importance of these ideas:
- Reduce needless consumption and the generation of waste.
- Reuse any item that can be reused or give it to a person or charity that can reuse it.
- Recycle whatever discards remain if you can and only dispose what you must.
The terms reuse and recycle have specific meanings, but they are often confused, switched, and misused, especially in commerce. Just so you know which is which, you might want to review the definitions of these terms on the definitions page.
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