Paper and Postage Stamps

Paper accounts for approximately 35-40% of landfill contents. Try tio be aware of how much paper you create. While recycling is a good option for paper, it is better to refuse.

An easy place to begin is by reducing the paper in your mailbox. Start by switching one bill to paperless; get email statements and pay electronically. This saves paper and saves you money on postage stamps.

How about all those catalogues you get in the mail? You probably get a copy of them emailed to you. Phone the stores and cancel them.

Do you read the newspaper you receive? If not, consider cancelling it and just buying it when you read it.

Magazines

When you are done with your magazines, share with a neighbour. Better yet, drop them off at the hairdresser's or doctor's office next time you are there.

Reducing paper is a collective effort, so tell a friend!

And Always Remember to Compost!

Buy Local, Buy Fresh, Buy Beer

Have you ever considered how far our food travels to get on our plates? The environmentally price of having fresh brocolli all year long is huge. (On average, brocolli covers over 2,000 miles to get to your table.) The environmental cost of the gas alone to transport our food is huge.

Try to buy local food (maybe from a farmer's market). You will get food that is in season and fresher. As an added bonus, you will support your local economy (instead of the huge multinational corporations that get rich from our year round fresh brocolli), and you will save a lot on gas.

One baby step to take is alcohol. I like my Corona beer in the summer. However, it is brought all the way to me from Mexico. I resolve to only buy locally produced beer. I can have my Corona's when I go to Mexico. While in Colorado I will drink Coors, Bud, or (more likely) some of the local micro beers such as Fat Tire. I have to admit, this won't be a hard sacrifice! It is really about changing my mind set from liking one thing to liking something at least as good.

Share your favorite local beer in the comments section!

Turn Your Thermostat Up in the Summer

In the summer raise your thermostat to 75 degrees F before the air conditioning kicks in. Also, wake up early and open the windows to cool the house a few more degrees, then shut the windows and draw the curtains to prevent the house from heating up.

In dry climates, an environmental option to air conditioners is water evaporators/swamp coolers. This keeps the house humid and cool. I like the air from these a lot more than I do from air conditioners.


Better yet, avoid cooling systems all together and use a fan!

Save Water - Pledge to Save 10 Gallons a Day

Saving water is really easy for most people. Just start paying attention to how you use water - you will probably be surprised how much water you waste. Challenge yourself to save 10/gallons a day with almost no effort. Here are some suggestions:

1. Run the water slower when washing hands, showering, brushing teeth, rinsing dishes, etc.

2. Don't wash your hair every day. It is healthier for your hair to be washed every 2-3 days so that the oils from your scalp can condition it.

3. If you don't have low flow toilets, add a plastic bottle filled with rocks and water to your tank

4. Landscape with plants for your climate that do not require additional water

5. Don't shave your legs in the shower ladies, do it before you get in

6. When you are running your water waiting for it to warm up, run it into a bucket that you can use to flush the toilet

7. When home alone, you really do not need to flush every time

8. Turn off the sprinkler system when it isn't needed

9. Make sure you don't have water from your sprinkler running down the sidewalk

10. Place mulch around garden plants. For mulch you can use grass clippings, leaves, or plant trimmings. Mulch slows evaporation and keeps the roots cool.

Please feel free to add your water saving ideas to the comments section!

Reduce Grass

Reduce the amount of grass you have. Grass is not a natural use of space and requires watering, fertilizing, and lawn mowing (noise pollution).

Replace your grass with a vegetable garden or with sutainable landscaping (xeriscaping). Start by removing the turf and spend some time improving the soil by composting. Some resources for what to plant are:

• http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/pubs.html
• http://www.planttalk.org/
• http://www.xeriscape.org/

A few interesting books on growing more vegetables instead of grass are:

• Edible Estates
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)

If you must have grass, plant slow-growing, drought-resistant varieties. Learn more at

• http://www.csuturf.colostate.edu/
• http://www.thelawninstitute.org/

Remember to leave the grass clippings on the grass.

If you have a sprinkler system, get a audit on it. In Colorado you can schedule one through the Center for Resource Conservation. I recently had one and they gave me several hints to help increase the efficiency of our system.

toilet leaks

Take a few minutes today to make sure your toilet isn't leaking.

Place a few drops of food color in your toilet tank and wait 30 minutes. If the toilet bowl has colored water, you have a leak. Leaking toilets can waste up to 200 gallons of extra water/day! It is usually a quick, easy, and inexpensive fix. If you have a leak, check the tank's flapper valve - try adjusting it. If that doesn't work, buy a new one. Then test your water again.

Grass Clippings

Approximately half of all US states ban bagged grass. In the summer months, city trash collection increases up to 40% because of bagged grass clippings and other yard waste. Grass clippings are better left on the grass, provide nutrients, save us time bagging, save us money on bags, and are the easiest way to compost.

Never ever (EVER) bag your grass clippings! They should always be left on the grass to compost. This provides nutrients for the soil and keeps the roots cool and moist. It saves you money on garbage bags and time on bagging. If you prefer, you can dump your grass clippings over your garden; it makes a nice mulch to hold the moisture in the soil. Most lawn mowers clip the grass so fine that you won't even notice it on your lawn.

Grass clippings also contain so many natural nutrients, that you won't need to spend the time and money on artificial fertilizers. Most people over-fertilize their lawns, adding to contaminated run-off water. Also, grass clippings are approximately 85% water, saving your sprinkler system some work!

Composting is one of the easiest way to reduce trash, and leaving grass clippings on the ground is the easiest composting of all!

Shopping Bags

Plastic is one of the worst trash creations ever. It does not decompose nicely and we use huge quantities of it. I compost and recycle, and have noticed that most of my garbage is composed of platic packaging.

The problem with plastic is so serious that the United Nations has called for a complete worldwide ban on plastic grocery bags. "Single-use plastic bags which choke marine life should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program. "There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them any more, anywhere." Although some people think recycling is a cure, and recycling plastic bags is on the rise, in the US alone it is estimated that 90 BILLION BAGS a year are not recycled.

An easy way to address this is to decrease the amount of plastic you bring home from the grocery store every week. I have two methods:

1. Use cloth bags at check-out

2. Instead of using plastic for my produce, I started collecting and reusing the mesh bags you get when you guy 5-10 lb packages of onions, potatoes, lemons, etc. Run a ribbon through the mesh around the top to use as a tie, then use these at the store. This is a 1 minute project - give it a try!

Garburators and the Environment

Garburators increase the fat we put down our drains by about 20 percent. This clogs up our home and city sewer lines. Unclogging them requires costly chemicals and plumber services. Try to minimize what you put down your sink by using a sink strainer. Clean that out regularily and dump the contents into your compost. You will save yourself money on chemicals and plumbers as well as save the environment from chemicals!