Smart tips to make your home more eco-friendly and cost effective Brakpan Herald

Plus, think of all the personal emissions you’d be cutting down from not having to run out every time you need a card for someone. Cut down on needless waste by recycling unwanted paper products into fresh, usable paper right at home. It’s a fun DIY craft resulting how to be more environmentally friendly at home in a unique material that makes for a wonderful gift, homemade greeting card (see below), or whatever your paper needs may be. Any paper that doesn’t have a shiny, waxy coating on it made into recycled paper. When taking on a DIY project and you require materials or tools, be sure to buy locally and search for things that are made of sustainable materials.

Is Electricity Generation Bad for the Environment? (What You Should Know)

The basement of our home was built using ICF and the process included placing hollow polystyrene insulation forms and then filling them with poured concrete. For example, rammed earth is one of the oldest building techniques. Raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime or gravel are compacted to create foundations, floors and walls. Because rammed earth homes are typically made from local materials, they have a very small footprint and are one of the best choices for an eco friendly material for construction. One place you may want to pay close attention to this is your mattress.

Reduce, reuse, then recycle

• When possible, select the slowest shipping method for purchases, as this will use existing routes and won’t contribute to increased fossil fuel emissions (plus, it’s typically cheaper).
• Use outdoor lights only for safety, such as around entry points and areas where security cameras are recording.
• If what you’re washing isn’t extremely dirty, stick to the coldest setting, as up to 90 percent of the energy used in a normal cycle goes toward heating the water.
• “I would caution people not to ‘wish-cycle,’ which is placing an item in the recycling bin without knowing whether or not it’s actually accepted,” Levine adds.

Learn more at EPA’s Sustainability and Pollution Prevention (P2) sites, or in the Greener Living Frequent Questions. LEDs are incorporated into bulbs and fixtures for general lighting applications. Some LED bulb solutions may physically resemble familiar light bulbs and better match the appearance of traditional light bulbs. Some LED light fixtures may have LEDs built in as a permanent light source. There are also hybrid approaches where a non-traditional “bulb” or replaceable light source format is used and specially designed for a unique fixture.

Vacation smarter

So to get started swap your beauty products out gradually as you make your transition into a more sustainable routine. Reduce this plastic waste by using loose leaf tea in a reusable strainer instead of tea bags. Don’t just eat dinner a home, take a packed lunch to school or work. Go even further by carrying your food in eco-friendly and sustainable lunch boxes instead of plastic ones.

In many cases, leftovers can be frozen and used later for soups, stews and the like. If https://ecosoberhouse.com/ you bring your lunch to work, skip the brown bag and opt for an insulated and reusable option. If you want to know how to be more eco-friendly in college, try carpooling if you have a similar schedule to your classmates.

Stock your kitchen with healthy plant-based foods

These excluders are usually cheap, easily installed and can be found in most DIY stores or online. Receive offers, marketing and promotions via email or phone from Leads.io about GreenMatch or our brands and affiliates to help you save. Taking a shower uses 14% less water than filling and draining your tub. You can also install a low flow shower head to cut down on water usage even more. In fact, your toilet accounts for nearly 30% of your home’s water use. Another new phenomenon that is adding to excess garbage and waste are coffee pods.

• Helpful tools come cheap, like the Ettore Trash Picker Debris Nabber or Vive Folding Reacher Grabber 32 Inch – Extra Reach Extender, and make this selfless, eco-friendly activity super easy to do.
• Another green route to go is to install FSC certified wooden shakes and siding to your home.
• The average American family uses 320 gallons of water per day, about 30 percent of which is devoted to outdoor uses.
• Save energy by letting your hair dry naturally instead of using a blow dryer unless on those special occasions you need to get ready quickly.
• Running cold water in your clothes washer actually uses nearly 50% less energy!
• Depending on the distance from the employee’s home to the workplace, there are different ways to commute to work.

Be Mindful of Printing Paper

Animal rides and wildlife performances are Sobriety also destroying wildlife. Popular fish is overharvested so that it can make it to your plate. Try and reduce your fish intake and add more textured vegetable protein. Instead of using fertilizer, use your compost for your lawn and garden. Most foods that take long to decompose in a landfill, take just a couple of months in a compost pile. Make a continuous effort to always separate your recyclables and waste and put them in the correct bins.

Glass of milk a day cuts bowel cancer risk – study

Add fruit and vegetable peels, used tea leaves, or coffee grounds in the bucket and place in a shady area in your yard or patio. Sprinkle with buttermilk every four or five days to maintain moisture and turn the pile to aerate the mixture. EPA has tools to help you learn and understand the issues and help you reduce your environmental footprint.

b. Install Low-Flow Appliances:

While smart thermostats and meters help control the steady temperature of your home, simply turning it down one degree can actually make a big difference. Sacrificing one degree can actually save you 10% a year on your electric bill and help make your house environmentally friendly. Did you know that your home heating system is one of the biggest sources of wasted energy and one of the best ways to make your house environmentally friendly? It’s also difficult to keep track of how much your heat or furnace is running in the cold, winter months. From installing solar panels and recycling to using smart cars and everything in between, the world is moving toward a more environmentally friendly way of life.

• Use non-toxic body wash, toothpaste, face scrub, and other personal care products.
• Hempcrete is a material used as both a structural element and an insulation and contains hemp fibres, sand and lime.
• Use blackout curtains and blinds to maintain an optimal temperature during summer.

It might seem a bit of a simplistic point to make – but isn’t it better to think locally if your house need work doing to it? Why employ a tradesman who has to travel fifty miles to come and repair your boiler, when there might be someone around the corner who can do it more inexpensively and without traveling miles and miles. Good places to start include the walls of your house and the roof. Another tip is to think about your windows as insolation too – we’ll cover this more further on but think about double glazing any windows that aren’t already. Even when you’re not using them, electronics that remain plugged in can suck energy, raising your electricity bills and wasting energy in the process.