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1 |
Compact Florescent light bulbs last ten times longer than traditional bulbs, but use only a fraction of the energy. If one million households replaced just four bulbs it would eliminate 900,000 tons of greenhouse gases. |
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Your computer uses a lot of electricity. Put it to sleep at night. This will consume 70% less energy. If one million people shut down their office PC, it would give us 45,000 tons less of CO2 emissions per year. |
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Shut your car off when you are waiting for the kids. Letting your car idle 30 seconds uses more gas than shutting it off and turning it on again. |
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Keeping your tires properly inflated will save you about a tank of gas a year. |
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Just because you turn off an appliance doesn't mean it's off. The clock, or timer or remote is still on. This is called phantom electricity. This phantom load in industrialized countries adds up to 75,000,000 tons of CO2 emitted a year. Instead, plug your appliances into a power strip and shut off at night. |
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Pay your bills online. Greenhouse gas emissions will drop 2.1 million tons if every household did this. |
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Recycling is great, keep doing it. However paper can only be recycled three to five times before its fiber breaks down. Layer newspaper, cover with mulch, water down and let sit for a couple of months. This becomes great potting soil. |
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Change your buying habits. One ton of recycled paper uses seventeen fewertrees, and 67% less energy than non recycled paper. Use vegetable bases,biodegradable cleaning products, eco friendly powdered detergent (instead of the petroleum based). Plus, just buy less stuff. |
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What's the answer to paper versus plastic? Neither. The plastic bags you bring home from the supermarket usually end up in a landfill. Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are given out, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases.
Reducing your contribution to plastic-bag pollution is as simple as using a cloth bag instead of wasting plastic ones. For your next trip to the
grocery store, BRING YOUR OWN BAG. |
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Purchase clean energy. Clean energy initiatives focus on the pollution associated with creating energy sources, and the pollution associated with consuming the energy once the fuel is created. Unlike petroleum, which is consumed significantly faster than the earth replaces it, many clean sources are naturally sustainable: converting solar and wind energy does not diminish the environment's ability to sustain us. The Department of Energy has information regarding many clean or sustainable fuel sources, including biomass, geothermal, hydrogen, hydropower, ocean energy, solar energy, and wind energy. Visit the website for more info. |
