Save
The Planet - Save Money Too!
by
Colleen Moulding
Easy
ways to eco friendly living. Cut back on using the car. Walking
will keep you fit, save you money and save all those poisons getting
into the atmosphere. Use public transport when you have to travel
and share supermarket and school runs.
Buy
foods loose whenever possible, dried goods as well as fruit and
vegetables. Not only is this usually a much cheaper option than
branded goods, it saves on all that unnecessary packaging. Always
choose the refillable, reusable container over
the disposable, throwaway one.
Use
shopping bags or baskets when you go to the store so that you can
say no thank you to plastic carrier bags. Re-use plastic bags
you
do receive for bin liners, food wrapping etc.
Use
eco friendly washing powder and cleaning products. Turn your heating
down and wear warmer clothes or layers when necessary. Turn down
the hot water thermostat, turn off lights and tv's when no-one is
using them, use energy effecient light bulbs. Insulating your home
will quickly pay for itself in lower heating bills. Find
out about grants in your area towards installing new or thicker
insulation.
Use
waste paper and packaging for crafts and play activities. Make wonderful
gift trays, bowls and decorative plates from papier mache or make
handmade paper cards from office waste paper. Kids love making toys
and models from packaging if you start them off and show them how
to join bits together with glue, slots or string.
Locate
and support your local recycling projects. Be a good neighbour and
encourage the recycling habit by collecting other people's saved
newspapers, textiles, glass bottles etc.while you are going there
anyway. Clothes or linens no longer fit for their original purpose
can be torn up and used for cleaning rags. You will be surprised
how useful an old fashioned rag bag can be.
Try
not to buy plastic, it accounts for a large amount of landfill waste.
If you must buy plastic containers look for those with a label 1
or 2. These are much easier to recycle than those numbered 3 to
7. Then use them to store food instead of using foil and plastic
wraps. Buy a reusable coffee filter or at least use the unbleached
paper ones. The white ones produce deadly toxins during their manufacture.
Plant a tree, or several if you have the space. Make them fruit
trees and
you can enjoy the produce as they clean up carbon dioxide from the
air.
Staple
together pads of one side used paper for shopping lists, to do lists
etc. Use rechargeable batteries whenever possible. Ordinary batteries
contain heavy metals that can either contaminate the soil or seep
into water supplies when sent to landfill sites or contaminate the
air if they are burnt. Many trees must be harvested to provide Christmas
and gift wrapping paper that is almost immediately discarded by
the recipient. Consider wrapping gifts in something else useful
like a pretty scarf or kitchen towel or just fold or roll and add
a reusable ribbon bow and a pretty recycled paper gift card.
Restyle,
recover or makeover furniture that is no longer to your taste before
having it carted off to the dump. Cutting the legs off an old sideboard
gives it a low modern look, old fashioned dressing tables can have
a useful life under a pretty, gathered fabric skirt, large old wardrobes
can be painted and have door panels replaced with chicken wire and
fabric to make modern storage for any room in the home. Learn how
to make slipcovers for furniture from a library book or the Internet,
or invest in a staple gun to easily recover headboards or reupholster
dining chairs painted to suit your new look. Use bed sheets to make
floor length table cloths to cover a shabby table without joining
fabric. If you really cannot find a use for furniture or clothing
donate it
to a good cause.
Stop
or at least cut down on eating meat. Apart from being barbarically
cruel, killing animals for food is extremely wasteful of the earth's
resources, as much of the land they graze could grow other food
in much greater quantities. Animals being grown for their meat also
consume gallons of water and produce tons of potentially water contaminating
manure. Buy organic foods whenever possible. As well as being much
more healthy for your family, the farmer will not have been polluting
the earth and the air with pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers.
Compost your kitchen waste and you will have a wonderful medium
for growing your own veggies, fruits
and flowers.
About
the author: Colleen Moulding is a freelance writer from England
where she has had many features on parenting, childcare, travel,
the Internet and lots more published in national magazines and newspapers.
She has also published a variety of women's and children's fiction.
Her
work frequently appears at many sites on the Internet and at her
own site for women and children http://www.allthatwomenwant.co.uk
a magazine, web guide and resource for women everywhere. Why not
drop by? It was made for you!
Subscribe
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