Reduce Your Use
- Turn off all unused lights, avoid heating and cooling unused or little used rooms
- Install Compact Flourescent bulbs in your home.
- Install low-flow showerheads.
- When appliances need to be replaced, buy a highly efficient EnergyStar rated model.
- Unplug remote-controlled devices such as TVs, VCRs, DVD players and stereos as well as electronics and phone chargers when not in use – they draw a constant “phantom load” that can be up to 20% of your yearly power bills.You can also use power strips or “smart strips” that completely turn off devices that draw a phantom load.
- Improve your home’s insulation
- Turn down your thermostat by 2 degrees in the winter and turn it up by 2 degrees in the summer. Saves 2,000 lbs CO2/year and cash to buy that organic cashmere hoody that you wanted to keep you a little warmer!
Reuse
Rather than throw out things that you are done with, donate them to Goodwill, post them on Craigslist or http://www.freecycle.org/
Recycle
Be diligent in sorting your recycling waste.Information on our local recycling program can be found on http://www.iwma.com at the San Luis Obispo Integrated Waste Management Association. For the energy it takes to make one new aluminum can, 5 cans could have been recycled.Batteries are very important to recycle and are often overlooked.Both traditional and rechargeable batteries that end up in landfills leach toxic chemicals. Links: Earth 911's Battery Recycling page
Shopping
Buy less and buy local.Because it is available, we consume.There are endless plastic doo-dads made in Chinese sweatshops sold at corporate retailers that leave a toxic trail from cradle to grave.If you must buy something, try to buy a high-quality, responsibly made (no sweatshops, no toxins, FSC certified wood) product from a local, non-corporate vendor. Proving that grassroots efforts and voting with your dollar works, the website "Victoria's Dirty Little Secret", got out the word that Vicky C's was printing their millions of catalogs on old growth trees. They got enough pressure to change their paper source to FSC certified products!