Go+Green!

Reduce waste while cleaning. Instead of using paper towels, use microfiber cloths. Go to methodhome.com and type in “DANNY” at checkout to get 20% off the purchase price of a set of towels. (expires February 3) Visit catalogchoice.org. It is a free website that will stop catalogs from being delivered to your home. You get to choose which catalogs to opt out of. It just takes a few minutes and you will be helping to make a big impact on our environment. Did you know aluminum foil is recyclable in many areas of the county? Just crumple it into a ball and put it in the recycling bin. If there is food stuck to it, rinse it under water and then place with your other recyclables. Please check with your local recycling company to see if it is accepted where you live! To cut down on water waste, put an inch or two of sand or pebbles inside each of two plastic bottles to weigh them down. Fill the bottles with water, screw the lids on, and put them in your toilet tank, safely away from the operating mechanisms. This may save ten or more gallons of water per day. Be sure at least 3 gallons of water remain in the tank so it will flush properly.  Save energy! Instead of using a screensaver (which causes your computer to run on full power), put your computer in “sleep” or “standby”. Also, be sure to turn off the computer at the end of the day!  **As you know, we are in the middle of a serious drought. Please do what you can to save water by never pouring it down the drain. Use leftover water from unfinished drinking glasses, pet dishes etc. to water plants or for other uses around the house. For additional suggestions to save water around the house, please visit** [|www.eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm] **.**  Compact fluorescent light bulbs put out as much light as regular incandescent bulbs, but last 8 to 10 times longer, and use anywhere from 50 to 75 percent less electricity for the same (or more!) light output. You will save money in the long run on both your electric bill and cost of replacing light bulbs while reducing your carbon footprint on the environment !  Did you know that tire pressure affects gas mileage? If your tires are not properly inflated, you could be reducing your gas mileage by up to 10%! Check your tires regularly so that you can save the environment and money too! Repainting? Choose a paint that is low in VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). It's healthier for your family and the environment. When you are disposing of paint, make sure you find out the proper location to drop it off. Paint should never be placed with the regular trash. Join an Eco-cause to collect plastic bottle caps to help save hundreds of baby seals, penguins, and turtles. Aveda has joined forces with shape magazine to collect plastic bottle caps to reuse for Aveda's limited edition retro clove shampoo bottles. From March 10 through May 10 you can bring in 25 or more caps and receive a free sample from Aveda's hair and body-care lines, limit one per customer. Visit aveda.com for store locations or mail in your caps instead to: Aveda Re-Cap Program, ACA Waste Services, 40 EADS Street in Babylon, NY 11704. Get a home- energy audit. Ask your local utility company to evaluate your heating and cooling systems. This service, which is usually free, can recommend ways to cut down on your home's environment-damaging carbon emissions. Do you carpool to work? eRideShare is a free service that links you with other commuters in your area. Visit erideshare.com for more information! Use hydrogen peroxide instead of bleach when doing laundry. It whitens just as well as is gentler to the earth. When bleach goes down the drain and eventually interacts with sewage water, it creates a poisonous combination. “Go Green” tip of the week Interested in green products and services? Visit the website www.greenerchoices.org to see an eco-friendly database compiled by Consumer Reports. “Go Green” tip of the week Reduce waste when packing your child’s lunch. Replace juice boxes, plastic bags and disposable silverware with reusable items such as sandwich containers! Let the dishwasher do the work. Don't bother prerinsing dishes with the idea that your dishwasher will work less hard. //Consumer Reports// has found that this added step can waste 20 gallons of heated water a day. All you need to do is scrape off leftover food. Enzyme-based detergents will help make sure the dishes emerge spotless. Go Green Tip of the Week: Lots of back to school laundry? Instead of using fabric softener which is harmful to the planet, your family and your wallet, consider an alternative. To soften fabrics and reduce static, add either 1/2 cup of vinegar or 1/2 cup of baking powder to the rinse cycle. Go Green Tip of the Week: Are your child’s Crocs falling apart or too small? Don’t throw them away and create more waste in our landfills. __The manufacturer recycles used Crocs into new shoes and donates them to underprivileged families.__ Mail them to: Crocs Recycling West, 3375 Enterprise Avenue, Bloomington CA 92316. Did you know that you can recycle your plastic dry cleaner bags? One place that accepts them is Harris Teeter. They have a contract with a company that uses them to make plastic decks. Or better yet, buy a reusable dry cleaner bag!  Go Green Tip of the Week: Did you know that millions of gallons of gas are literally evaporating into thin air? You can help put an end to this by making sure you properly seal your gas cap and hear a clicking sound at least 3 times. Planning for Halloween? Design and create your own costume! Instead of shoddy store bought garb made of synthetics, encourage kids to repurpose old clothes and odds and ends around the house into funs and imaginative costumes they fashioned themselves! Make your own luminaries! Get the tin cans from your recycling bin, remove any lids and wash them. Use a hammer and nail to punch dozens of holes in the sides of the cans. Illuminate with candles made of soy or beeswax (clean burning and petroleum free – reduces air emissions). Every moment you spend idling your car's engine means time spent needlessly wasting gas, as well as rougher wear on your vehicle. Environmental Defense Fund found that idling for more than 10 seconds wastes more gas than is required for startup! If you need to warm up your car engine on a cold winter day, try to limit idling time to less than 30 seconds to keep your fuel emissions  low. Don’t make your fridge do extra work! Allow leftovers to cool off first and then put in a storage container. Putting hot food in the fridge raises the temperature and causes the fridge to work extra hard to get cold again. Prewash Stain Treatment Spray Put equal parts liquid dishwashing soap, ammonia and water in a spray bottle. Spray on stain immediately before washing. Don't allow the solution to stay on clothes more than a minute or so. Safe Scrubbing Powder Plain baking soda makes a good, safe scouring powder for surfaces including Formica, Plexiglas and fiberglass. Just dampen a cloth or sponge, dip it in dry baking soda and scrub away. It won't scratch the surface but provides enough abrasion to dislodge grime. Have you sent out your holiday cards yet? Consider e-mailing holiday greeting cards. According the Environmental News Network, Americans send 750 million greeting cards each year. They estimate that a 10 percent reduction could save an estimated 30,000 trees! Tips for wrapping presents: Instead of gift bags, buy reusable totes which come in all shapes and sizes! Instead of wrapping paper, reuse newspaper, brown paper bags, old posters or maps, pictures from calendar pages etc. __ If every American family wrapped just three presents in recyclable materials, we would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. __Reuse that ribbon! __ If every household reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet! __ Did you fly over the holidays? Go to carbonneutral.com to see how much CO2 you added to the atmosphere. Then, neutralize the damage. You can pay to have trees planted, or find out how many lights you need to switch to compact fluorescents. When you go to the ATM or pay at the pump for gas, opt out of getting a receipt. Imagine how much paper could be saved if everyone did this! Some stores, like Bruegger’s Bagels, ask if you would like a receipt. Take the time to write it in your checkbook instead. Lots of junk mail? Go online and put yourself on the “do not mail” list. This will take your name off mailing lists for 5 years. Make sure to do one for each person in your household. [|https://www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/] Would you like your refrigerator to work more efficiently? Pull it a few inches away from the kitchen wall to increase air circulation in the back which increases the efficiency of condenser coils. Twice a year, pull the fridge out completely and vacuum the back to remove dust and debris. Send old holiday cards to St. Jude’s Ranch for reuse. The children at St. Jude’s earn money be creating new cards out of old ones. Cut off the backs of the cards or send them intact. They can be mailed UPS "ground" or "bound printed matter" to:  St. Jude's Card Recycling, 100 St. Jude Street, P.O. Box 60100, Boulder City, NV 89006 Too many new phone books being delivered to your home? Take a look inside the cover or on one of the first couple of pages, many telephone book companies have a contact number or email address to request being taken off their delivery list. In addition, don’t simply throw away your old or unused phone books, they can be recycled at your local recycling center, such as the Jaycee Park on Wade Ave. 3 Winter -Savings tips: *set your home's thermostat to 68-70 during the day and 60-65 at night and when you're not home *change the filters in your heating system every month for optimum efficiency *make sure drapes and furniture aren't blocking any vents Keep all those plastic water bottles out of the landfill! Filter your own water at home using an inexpensive water filtration system along with metal water bottles, which are safe and can be used indefinitely. Stop air pollution! Have a "No Idling" policy in your car. While waiting in carpool, fast food, or bank teller lines, turn your car off instead of leaving it running. This will keep our air clean as well as save gas. SWAP IT! Don't throw away those clothes you've outgrown, donate them! Bring your old clothes to Wiley // this // Thursday during Science Night, or on Friday if you forget. And then come to Wiley's Clothing Swap on Saturday March 14 from 9:00 am till noon to pick out some "new" clothes to take home! You don't have to donate clothing to get clothing ~ it's all free! RECYCLING, PART I: are you doing your part…correctly? This is the complete list of items currently accepted for recycling in Raleigh's curbside program (items should be rinsed, free of food, caps removed, and crushed/flattened, where applicable):  · Glass food and beverage containers · Food and beverage cans · Aluminum foil and trays · Plastic bottles (cap removed, soft plastic beverage ring ok) · Gable top cartons (caps removed) · Drink boxes (straw removed) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">· Newspaper and all inserts <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">· Magazines and catalogs <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">· WHITE paper, including junk mail & envelopes <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">· Corrugated cardboard (3’x3’ or smaller) <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">· Paperboard, chipboard and paper tubes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> RECYCLING, PART II: are you doing your part…correctly? These items are NOT accepted for recycling in Raleigh's curbside program: · Plastic grocery bags · Glass such as: windows, bulbs, dishes, mirrors, ceramics · Yogurt and margarine cups / containers · Plastic take-out (clamshell-type) boxes · Styrofoam // · // // Colored paper or colored envelopes, checkbooks, books, carbon paper, paper with adhesive backing (stickers), napkins, tissues, or unopened mail // // · // // Take-out pizza boxes // · Trash Recipe for a Toxic Free Drain Cleaner: Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda into the problem drain, followed by 2 cups of boiling water. If that doesn’t do it, repeat, but follow the baking soda with a 1/2 cup of white vinegar and cover the drain for several minutes, allowing the fizzing of the chemical reaction between the baking soda and the vinegar to break up the gunk. Those are carbon dioxide bubbles! Then, flush that with a teapot full of boiling water. Go Green Tip of the Week: Did you know that reusing one glass jar saves enough energy to power a light bulb for 4 hours?! Ideas for reuse: store sauces, soups etc. in the fridge or freezer, use in the garage to hold nails, screws, nuts and bolts, store cotton balls or Q-tips in the bathroom. Go Green Tip of the Week: Do you have household hazardous waste products, like CFC light bulbs, paint, or batteries, to dispose of? To find a recycling or drop-off location near you, call 1-800-CLEANUP or visit earth911.com. Storage tip: Set aside a box for these items and drop them off once a year. Be even more green and gather items from your neighbors as well! Switch to cloth napkins. A household of four that replaces paper napkins with reusable cloth ones could save $70 per year or more on napkin costs, and reduce their waste by up to 40 pounds per year. If every household made this shift, we could prevent 1.5 million tons of paper napkin waste from entering the landfill each year! Looking for a fun way to be green on Halloween? Go reverse trick or treating! It works like this: When someone hands your child a piece of candy, your child hands back fair trade chocolate. The chocolate is attached to a card detailing the social and environmental justice issues in the cocoa industry and how Fair Trade chocolate helps cocoa farmers across the world. You can order the free Fair Trade chocolate kits from http://globalexchange.org. Click on “fair trade”. If you are participating in the program as part of a larger group (school, congregation, community group, etc.), the deadline for ordering a kit is October 1. For individuals, the deadline is October 13. Buy pumpkins, apples and other seasonal items from a farmer's market. It will not only taste better but saves energy. "Most foods in the United States travel an average of 1,300 miles...burning large amounts of fossil fuels," according to the Web site for the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America held in Detroit in 1999. Buying directly from the farmer also cuts out the "middleman" and increases the farmers cut or share of the profits. Two uses for the liners in cereal/snack boxes: 1.Cut one side open and you have a sheet of waxed paper. 2. Pack your sandwich or snack in it (instead of in a plastic bag). 5 uses for vinegar: 1. replace liquid fabric softener 2. replace dishwasher rinse aid 3. dilute with water and use to wash windows and mirrors, wipe clean with newspaper before recycling it 4. mix with water and spray on shower curtain to prevent mildew 5. remove calcium deposits by using full strength and allowing it  to set
 * Another tip for cheap and green cleaning: Use vinegar to help remove stains, wax buildup and mildew on windows, fireplaces, grout, paint brushes, glass, and coffee pots. Window and mirror cleaner: put 1/4 cup of vinegar in a 16-ounce spray bottle and fill with water. A few drops of detergent may be added to prevent streaks. Spray. Rub with a lint-free rag or sheet of newspaper. **