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Making recycling easy...
Newspapers - Avoid bundling with string or in plastic bags unless your recycler wants you to. Just stack them in a recycling bin.
Cardboard - Remove waxed paper inserts and flatten boxes.
Paper - Stack in a recycling bin and keep dry. Store shredded paper in a plastic bag that will tie closed.
Glass - Separate into colored and clear, if necessary. Rinse out food jars and remove lids (metal lids can often by recycled). Remove paper labels.
Metal - Rinse out food cans and remove paper labels.
Plastics - Check containers for their numbers (1 to 7) to see which ones match with local recycling options. Rinse out food containers.
Milk cartons - Rinse out waxed paper or plastic cartons and squash them down to save space.
Source: Green Living for Dummies®
Quick steps to GREEN
your life...
Heating & Cooling
In winter, thrown on a sweater and turn down the thermostat on your furnace to approximately 70 degrees. In summer, take off the sweater and turn up the thermostat on your air conditioning to about 78 degrees.
Electricity
Unplug chargers for cell phones and other small or portable electronic devices when they're not in use.
Turn electrical appliances off at the wall (or on a power strip) rather than leaving them on standby.
Switch to energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Water
Turn off the faucet while you brush your teeth and wash your face.
Take showers instead of baths, and keep them to ten minutes or less.
Choose plants for your yard that are well-suited to your growing conditions -- they'll need less watering and are more pest-resistant.
Waste
Buy products with less packaging, especially plastics.
Be conscious of what you buy -- simply buy less!
Recycle as much household waste as possible.
Give away things that you no longer need instead of throwing them out.
Fuel
Walk, bike or use public transportation when possible instead of driving.
Buy locally grown and produced food (within 100 miles of your home).
Get the whole family involved in making green changes. Make it fun!
Support GREEN investments
Check out ethical or eco-wise investments to make your money green.
Source: Green Living for Dummies®
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did you know?
Fun and interesting facts about recycling and conservation:
Holidays
The holidays are just around the corner. A little planning can help you be green and save you money!
1. Save extra gift boxes to use as drawer organizers. They keep “like” items together and prevent the contents from shifting.
-- Leslie Walden, CPO®, It’s Time To Get Organized, LLC,, Atlanta
2. Use holiday fabric, napkins, or tablecloths as gift wrap and tie with a beautiful bow. Just fold them up and reuse next year.
-- Monica Premo, Practically Perfect, Bonaire, Ga
3. Save old newspaper comics and run them through the shredder to use as stuffing in holiday gift bags.
-- Monica Ricci, CPO®, Catalyst Organizing, Alpharetta
4. Collect old holiday cards and cut off the parts where they were written on to use as gift tags. Write family member names on the tags and use them for their gifts year after year as a new family tradition.
-- Madeleine DeNitto, STRESSED.PRESSED.MESSED, Charleston, SC
5. Give the gift of time – enjoy a cup of coffee, lunch or an afternoon with someone you care about.
Give the gift of service – rake the yard, complete a few household repairs or chores, run errands, or put up and take down holiday decorations.
-- Monica Premo, Practically Perfect, Bonaire, Ga
6. Use the cardboard from small boxes, small milk cartons and the foam packaging to make “gingerbread” houses. Add odds and ends to make windows, fences, snow and candies to cover the houses. Bonus: the decoration never attracts bugs, becomes stale or falls apart
-- Madeleine DeNitto, STRESSED.PRESSED.MESSED, Charleston, SC
7. Use pumpkins as fertilizer once you're done with them.
-- Kevin Copeland, Just TRASH it, Atlanta
8. Set up a recycling station for gifts, wrapping, and packaging before you open the gifts. Separate plastics, paper, boxes, Styrofoam, etc. and take it all to the recycling center.
-- Monica Premo, Practically Perfect, Bonaire, Ga
9. How long do you need to save boxes that gifts come in before recycling them?
Save electronics boxes for the length of the warranty. They often need to be shipped in original packaging when using the warranty. File the receipt and warranty together.
Recycle immediately: boxes for toys, edibles, clothing, etc.
-- Allison Carter, CPO®, The Professional Organizer LLC, Marietta
10. Catalogs: If you like to look through them, create a catalog basket where you do your reading. Recycle them all after December.
-- Allison Carter, CPO®, The Professional Organizer LLC, Marietta
Pollution
Making paper from waste paper produces 73% less air pollutants and uses 61% less process water than when paper is made from virgin fiber.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
Forests
Increasing paper product demands put a strain on the availability of raw materials from our existing forests. Almost ONE BILLION trees a year are used for making paper. Recycling just one sheet of paper after it's been used will extend the life of our valuable forests.
One ton of high-grade recyclable paper can substitute for approximately three tons of wood in making new paper products.
Source: US Forest Service, Solid Waste Management Branch, Environment, Canada
Energy
Paper made from paper instead of virgin fiber requires 70% less energy.
Every one ton of recycle paper saves the equivalent amount of energy as 53.2 million BTU's or 380 gallons of oil.
Every four tons of recycled paper saves the equivalent amount of energy needed to heat an average-sized home in Atlanta for an entire year.
Source: US Forest Services & Environmental Protection Agency
Gasoline
Do you top off your gas tank and overfill it? When the gas pump nozzle clicks off automatically, do you add a little more gas to round off your dollar sale? Topping off your gas tank is bad for the environment and your wallet.
During hot weather, don't top off your gas tank. Even a small gas spill adds to air pollution and wastes fuel.
If you top off your tank, the extra gas may evaporate into your vehicle’s vapor collection system. That system may become fouled and will not work properly causing your vehicle to run poorly and have high gas emissions.
Gasoline vapors contribute to bad ozone days and are a source of toxic air pollutants such as benzene. Evaporation from the spillage of gas from overfilling can occur, contributing to the air pollution problem. Remember you pay for the gas that evaporates or is spilled on the ground.
Adding more gas after the nozzle has automatically shut off can cause the station's vapor recovery system to operate improperly. This contributes to the air pollution problem and may cause the gas pump to fail to work for the next person.
Topping off the gas tank can result in your paying for gasoline that is fed back into the station's tanks because your gas tank is full. The gas nozzle automatically clicks off when your gas tank is full. In some areas, gas station pumps are equipped with vapor recovery systems that feed back gas vapors into their tanks to prevent vapors from escaping into the air and contributing to air pollution. Any additional gas you try to pump into your tank may be drawn into the vapor line and fed back into the station’s storage tanks.
Source: US Environmental Protection Agency
Water
Governor Perdue and Mother Nature say:
"It's OK to water... as long as you are water smart, Georgia."
If your landscape is established, you can hand water for 25 minutes between 12:00 midnight and 10:00 a.m. (Three days per week on an odd-even schedule.*)
If your landscape is newly installed (overseeding is considered new landscaping), you can water if you have registered with the Outdoor Water Use Registration Program* between 12:00 midnight and 10:00 a.m. for 30 days during a period of 10 weeks. (Three days per week for 10 consecutive weeks on an odd-even schedule.*) May be watered at any time during installation.
*Visit www.OutdoorWaterUse.com for definitions and details. Check your local water provider for additional restrictions.
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