How to Be Green (or Greener) in the New Year

Lullaby 12/04/2012

Happy New Year! Have you already made your list of resolutions? Are you looking for ways to be a little greener in meaningful (but easy) ways? Some people assume an eco-friendly lifestyle is expensive or difficult, but that doesn’t have to be the case! Many green living recommendations are very simple habit shifts (that don’t feel nearly as sacrificial as other resolutions like giving up foods you love or tackling early morning, boot-camp exercise routines).

Here are 5 ideas for how to be green that have truly significant impacts:

Reusable Bottled Water
photo credit: Kid's Birthday Parties via photopin cc

1. Bottle your own water. Americans use 3.3. million disposable plastic bottles every hour. Buy a reusable bottle that’s easy to keep with you (or buy a few and stash one in your bag, one in your car, and one on your kitchen counter). If you forget here and there, at least you’re trying!

Buy Organic Prouduce
photo credit: timsamoff via photopin cc

2. Buy one piece of organic produce every time you go grocery shopping. According to Earth911.com, if everyone in the country took this one tiny step, the nation would up its organic produce consumption by 10,946,150,064 pounds! Imagine how much that would reduce pesticide use!

Skip meat & cheese once a week
photo credit: gamene via photopin cc

3. Skip meat & cheese once a week. Americans’ appetite for meat and cheese is exploding and raising all of this livestock has tremendous impacts on our planet. According to a report by the EWG, if everyone in the U.S. skipped meat and cheese just one day a week for a year that would be equal to taking 7.6 million cars off the road.

Wash Laundry in Cold Water
photo credit: marthax via photopin cc

4. Wash your laundry in cold water. Did you know that almost 90% of the energy consumed by a washing machine goes to heating water? The Sierra Club says switching to cold-water washing eliminates about 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

Recycle Old Cell Phones
photo credit: blakespot via photopin cc

5. Recycle or donate old cell phones. It’s estimated that there are more than 500 million used cell phones ready for recycling! Earth911.com says cell phone coatings are often made of lead, meaning that if these 500 million cell phones are disposed of in landfills, it would result in 312,000 pounds of lead sent to the landfill rather than being recovered in lead smelters. Learn where to recycle yours at Call2Recycle.org or find a nonprofit who can benefit from the donation of old cell phones by using collectivegood.com.

Bonus (self-promotional) tip: Use a non-toxic, eco-friendly paint for your next renovation or DIY project! Learn all about Lullaby’s eco-practices and eco-innovations here.

What do you recommend for how to be green? What new steps will you commit to this year?

COMMENTS

LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST