directfromtx

At one point you’ve heard the phrase “Going green” or anything “Green” related right? If this phrase has caught you off guard don’t feel overwhelmed, we’re here to help. You may be asking yourself what is this going green? Going green is a way that we can become more energy efficient while having to be less dependant on fossil fuels that have greatly damaged our planet, but this is only one of the many steps of becoming green.  Recycling, finding alternative biofuels, finding new energy sources and finding ways to deal with our overflowing landfills are some of the many efforts and agendas currently involved with going green. You may be saying. “Wow that sure is a lot, but what can I do?” I’m glad you asked that question!Look around your home what do you see? Do you see lightbulbs consuming energy? Last week’s paper sitting on the couch? Soda can’s in the garbage? So what you may be saying, all these are impacting our planet on many levels.1. Those high wattage lightbulbs-consume more energy and cost you more on your electric bill, instead replace them with an energy efficient “squiggly” bulb, most of these bulbs last for 5,8,10 years and use way less energy than the regular light bulbs, you can even get discounts or get them for practically nothing at such places at Lowes, Home depot or even your grocery store. And think, not having to buy lightbulbs monthly really saves on the pocketbook!
2. Last week’s paper-Its bad enought that our dwindling trees are cut down, but to simply throw away that paper is adding to our landfill masses, instead recycle the paper! Our city here in texas has been given large containers for recycleables and trash along with a small recycle container for the kitchen. I did not realize how much of our trash really can be recycled untill we started sorting things out, these days we usually have 1 bag or garbage, thats right I said 1! There are also dumpsters by some of the schools and community colleges here that accept newspaper for recycling as well. Another idea is donating newspaper to elementary schools for art projects, I remember having to bring newspaper for our Paper Mache projects.
3. Soda cans-Don’t throw away those cans! Along with recycling these there are other organizations that accept cans of all sorts and recycle them and then use the money for their organizations. An example is our animal shelters, they turn in cans donated and take the money received and help buy food for the cats and dogs within their shelter, this in turn helps cut costs to the shelter and those cute adorable puppies and kittens get to eventually go home to families. Even schools are accepting cans for various projects, all it takes is you finding out who needs them.
4. Reusable bags-By now everyone has seen them, they are either cloth, a sturdy plastic, or made of recycled materials, these bags are just about everywhere but manly can be found at grocery stores, they are used in place of the plastic or paper bags used by grocery stores and retail stores and not only cut costs to the store but help save the environment as well as animals. Did you know that sometimes these plastic grocery bags end up in the ocean, and animals such as sea turtles think of them as octupus or squid and end up dieing from ingesting said bags. It harms the ecosystems and it also takes forever to break down. Most stores now offer stations for dropping off these plastic bags, they in turn recycle them to make more of their grocery bags, this way they aren’t costing more. But in reality its better to reuse, so when you see those nifty cloth or canvas bags grab one of two, you’d be surprised on how much can fit in them.
5. Freecycle-This may be a term your not familiar with but i’d like to share with you just the same, Freecycle is a group, mainly on yahoo that is becoming nationwide intent on preventing unwanted items from filling up our landfills. How this works is (and this is going by your city, and location) a person advertises for example that they have a used sofa that is no longer needed but needed to be gotten rid of, a person in need of the sofa responds saying that they would like the sofa and goes to pick it up, there is no charges hence the name “Freecycle” but going along with the saying; “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” really does apply, you can find much needed items to some pretty bizarre items on freecycle but the main emphasis is that these unwanted items have now found new homes. You can go to yahoo.com click on groups then type in “Freecycle” and see if there is one located in your area, its free to join and you never know what you could find.I hope I have enlightened you a little about my share of going green, the things I have mentioned are things that I currently do, and I am proud to say are helping the planet a little more each day, see what ways can you go green, i’d love to hear your ideas as well, As others have said in the past Knowledge is power and together we can all make a difference.

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