Environment: Easy to Be Green
By Joan Raymond
Newsweek & MSNBC

Jan. 8, 2007 issue - You don't have to ditch leather or sell your car to help
the environment.
We've gathered 10 simple tips for living greener in 2007. Hey, it's a lot easier
than losing those 15 pounds.

1. Feed the Bees Pesticides, pollution and habitat destruction are taking a toll
on the birds and insects that pollinate about 80 percent of the world's food
supply (or about one out of every three bites of food we eat), says Rose Getch
of the National Gardening Association. To lend a helping hand, plant a
pollinator garden. Yellow, blue and purple flowers will attract bees, while red
and orange will attract hummingbirds. For more information, go to
kidsgardening.com.

2. Clean Up, Naturally Household chemicals contribute to both in-door and
outdoor pollution. This year, use more natural cleaners like the Greening the
Cleaning line at imusranchfoods.com. Or make your own using vinegar, baking soda
and lemon juice. For some great tips on green cleaning, go to eartheasy.com.

3. Ditch Your Junk Not only is junk mail annoying, it kills trees. Do
yourself—and the forests—a favor by getting off the mailing lists of companies
you don't support. You can contact the firms yourself, or check out subscription
services like greendimes.com or 41pounds.org that promise to lighten your
junk-mail load. For more information: thegreenguide.com.

4. Air Your Laundry Make like Grandma and line-dry your clothes once in a while.
It not only saves money, but also decreases your yearly carbon- dioxide
emissions. Likewise, run your washer on cold whenever possible—and use it only
when it's full.

5. Recycle Your Gadgets Don't clog landfills with old electronics. If you're
dumping a computer, manufacturers like Dell (dell.com), HP (hp.com) and Apple
(apple.com) offer recycling options. Or consider donating.
The National Cristina Foundation (cristina.org) will hook up your old PC or Mac
with a nonprofit organization. Drop off your old cell phone at your local Staples store as part of a Sierra Club recycling effort
(sierraclub.org/cellphones/).
To find a drop-off center for rechargeable batteries and cell phones, check out
the nonprofit Call2Recycle program at rbrc.org. Take advantage of community
resources like hazardous-waste pickup or e-waste recycling events.

6. Cut the Lights Trade your old incandescent light bulbs for compact
fluorescent ones, says Jenny Powers of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
They use about 70 percent less energy than regular bulbs and last 10 times
longer. For help in picking the best bulb for your needs, go to energystar.gov.
Also, plug all your major electronics into a power strip, suggests eco-lifestyle
expert Danny Seo, author of "Simply Green Giving" ($19.95; HarperCollins).
Appliances and e-gadgets use electricity even when turned off, but flicking the
switch on the power strip when you leave the house effectively unplugs them.
Finally, check with your local utility company to see if it offers a "green
power" option for its customers. Though that might cost slightly more, it's one way of
supporting renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power. The U.S.
Department of Energy provides comprehensive "green power" info at
eere.energy.gov/green power.

7. Eat Your Veggies Have a meatless Monday. According to the Cambridge, Mass.,
environmental-advocacy group the Union of Concerned Scientists, meat production
is energy-inefficient, sucking up a lot of natural resources. In fact, it takes
about 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. "You don't have to be a
vegetarian—just take a break once or twice a week," says group president Kevin
Knobloch. "If everyone tried to do something that simple, it could have a huge
environmental effect." And when you're shopping for that food, think local. It's
more fuel-efficient (your food didn't have to travel thousands of miles to get
to your table), and you're boosting the local economy. Use the search engine at
localharvest.org to find farms, markets and other food sources in your area. And, of course, bring a reusable cloth bag to the market so you
don't have to take the plastic ones.

8. Save a Tree According to the folks at stop globalwarming.org, the paper
industry is the third largest contributor to global warming. If every U.S.
household replaced one toilet-paper roll with a roll made from recycled paper,
424,000 trees would be saved. If every household in the United States bought
recycled napkins instead of virgin-fiber napkins, we could save a million trees.
If the thought of recycled paper doesn't do it for you, plant a tree. According
to the National Arbor Day Foundation, the net cooling effect of one healthy tree
is equivalent to 10 room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. You can
go to arborday.org to find out which trees will do well in your ZIP code. If you
don't have any room to plant, hundreds of eco-organizations have tree-planting
projects. All you have to do is donate money.

9. Turn On the Tap Instead of spending big bucks on bottled water, drink the stuff that comes from your faucet. The reason? "It takes a lot of
oil to make and ship those bottles, and once they're empty, most wind up in
landfills or as litter," says Jen Boulden, cofounder of the online environmental
community idealbite.com. If you're squeamish (Americans really do have some of
the best tap water in the world), buy a water filter. For comparisons, go to
waterfiltercomparisons.net.

10. Find an Eco-Date There was the metrosexual. Then the retrosexual. Now
there's the ecosexual. So if one of your goals is to find that special,
ecofriendly someone in 2007, check out social-networking communities like Vegan
Passions (veganpassions.com), Earth Wise Singles (ewsingles.com), Green Singles
(greensingles.com) or Green Passions (green-passions.com). Because two recyclers
are better than one.

© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.

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