Going green was a trend in the 1970’s, during the oil crunch. It went away during the boom days of the 1980’s, but it has really been a way of thinking since the 1990’s and beyond. Nowadays, people are extremely serious about leaving the earth to their children in a better condition than it was when they found it. Some of these changes are quite simple, so read the tips in this article to get off to a good start.
When your old light bulbs burn out, don’t replace them with those incandescent ones. They’re harder to find for a reason — it’s time to move toward the CFL bulbs that will last for years before you have to replace them. They are more expensive than the old ones used to be, but you will make up the difference when you don’t have to replace them as often and when your electric bill is lower. The CFL bulbs use energy a lot more efficiently than the incandescent ones did.
When you are buying items that you spray (spray paint, hair spray, and so on), check the bottle to make sure that there aren’t any CFC’s in them. There shouldn’t be, because the EPA outlawed them several years ago, but it is always good to check. These are the chemicals that started eating that gargantuan hole in the ozone layer a few decades ago. Luckily, scientists were able to catch this in time, but we did a lot of damage in a fairly short amount of time.
Composting isn’t the most fun family hobby, but it can be one of the more rewarding. You start by taking food wastes and grass clippings from your home, and instead of sending them to the landfill inside the garbage dump, like you’ve been doing, now you’re going to keep them and put them to work for you. You can either buy a compost pail and put it outside somewhere, or you can start a pile somewhere out of the way in your back yard. You put your compostable items in there and wait — the heat and pressure inside the pile will turn all of this “trash” into fertilizer that you can use to improve the quality of your soil. You’ll be making your contributions to the dump smaller and improving the quality of your yard at the same time!
Installing an entire roof’s worth of solar panels can cost thousands of dollars. However, if you have a little extra money, you can start with an installation of a few panels and put in a dedicated line right to your hot water heater. You’ll still have the heater plugged into your electric or gas input from the house, too, so that you’ll have hot water even if it’s cloudy for a week or so. However, when the sun is out, you’ll be drawing energy from the sun to heat your water, instead of from the utility grid. You’ll start saving money over time — and you can use that cheaper electric bill to bolster your savings for the next row of solar panels.
Going green can give the planet — and your wallet — a boost of green. Try some of these ideas today!