Question about 'becoming green-er'

Ok, so today is earth day. There's something I have felt for quite a while about being better to the environment, and I wanted to see if anyone else agreed. It seems that some of the things people suggest to be 'greener' are either very expensive (getting solar lights / heating, hybrid car, etc) or very impractical. I read an article today that suggested I DO NOT CUT MY GRASS because it would save on gasoline for the mower. Seriously? Is anyone going to live with 3' grass on their front yard and look like the losers who don't care about their property or their neighborhood's value?

At the risk of starting more drama .... I just wanted to know if I am the only one who feels this way. I am all for recycling, buying different light bulbs, etc. But if it's gonna cost me a fortune - sorry, I can't do it. If I had a fortune, maybe. And I'm not going to live like white trash with a jungle in my front yard to save on the 1/4 gallon of gas my mower uses.

Is it just me? I do love the environment and want to protect it, but I feel like a lot of the ways I read about are out of my reach or ridiculously impractical.

you could use one of those old rotary lawmowers, the ones you just push and the blades turn, no motor.....
may take longer but you also would get some exercise doing it!!

just a thought

it is very hard and can be very expensive to go Green, i try what i can....recycle, unplug things, washer on cold water, dish washer no dry cycle, energy saver bulbs, (cheap at costco), reuse anything i can, use mass transit when i can

the way i see it is that every little bit helps!!!

There are plenty of 'green' things you can do that are not expensive:
-Use a manual lawn mower.
-Bike or walk when practical instead of driving.
-using mass transportation
-Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store instead of paper or plastic bags.
-Eating organic/vegetarian: People think this is expensive to do, but Trader Joe's has many organic options and I find them much more affordable than Whole Foods.
-plant a tree
-if you have a yard, compost.
-don't use plastic water bottles- after one use, they start releasing toxins.
-recycle!
-hand wash dishes instead of using the dish washer.
This is just a snapshot. Let me know if you need more! I know so much about this topic.

I bought a drying rack.. I don't dry my clothes in the dryer.. surprisingly the clothes look like they'be been dry cleaned after air drying!!!

AND Saves money on electric or gas bill. depending on the dryer you have.

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Posted by JBoothIn2008

Ok, so today is earth day. There's something I have felt for quite a while about being better to the environment, and I wanted to see if anyone else agreed. It seems that some of the things people suggest to be 'greener' are either very expensive (getting solar lights / heating, hybrid car, etc) or very impractical. I read an article today that suggested I DO NOT CUT MY GRASS because it would save on gasoline for the mower. Seriously? Is anyone going to live with 3' grass on their front yard and look like the losers who don't care about their property or their neighborhood's value?

At the risk of starting more drama .... I just wanted to know if I am the only one who feels this way. I am all for recycling, buying different light bulbs, etc. But if it's gonna cost me a fortune - sorry, I can't do it. If I had a fortune, maybe. And I'm not going to live like white trash with a jungle in my front yard to save on the 1/4 gallon of gas my mower uses.

Is it just me? I do love the environment and want to protect it, but I feel like a lot of the ways I read about are out of my reach or ridiculously impractical.

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its very true and the government says how much they want to do but some of that is BS. The whole hybrid car thing is a very good point. I read one article about how easy it is to buy it in europe and not cost extra compared to other cars. meanwhile in the US they only make a certain amount, even if somebody has the money to buy it and wants it they are put on a 2 year waiting list for some models. I read this article a while ago so cant remember all the details but for some reason the government is controlling this

I buy fluorescent light bulbs which they say is good

BUT there are a bunch of things you can do that infact will help you save money, hold on ill post it in a few, its on my blog on myspace hahaha

here are a few things you can do that will save you money

If everyone replaced an ordinary light bulb with a compact fluorescent one, we would diminish as much global warming pollution as taking 7 1/2 million cars off the road...The bonus is that you can also save money on your bills...change just one 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 20-watt fluorescent bulb, thus preventing an average of 737 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere per 10,000 hours of use...This will also cut your yearly electric bill by $42.


If you care to read more, here are some other ways you can help

-Turn down your heat from 70-68 degrees, saving 630 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and $48 on the gas bill...for every degree you turn down the thermostat between 70 and 60, you save 315 co2 pounds and $23.

-Set your water temperature to 120 degrees, it will cut co2 emissions by up to 249 pounds, and saving as much as $22

-Turn your refrigerator from 37 to 40 degrees and the freezer up to 5 degrees...it will save 415 pounds of co2 and save $24

-Wash your clothes in warm rather than hot water(hot water is hard on fabrics anyways) you will save 37 pounds of co2...and only wash full loads, same goes for your dishwasher

The most obnoxiously omnipresent substance in any house is phthalates. It shows up in soft plastics such as toys, flooring, vinyl shower curtains, theyre also in soaps, shampoos, candles and coating on pills...Phthalates interferes with sexual development. Pregnant women who carried the highest levels of certain phthaltes were more likely to give birth to baby boys with smaller than average genitalia, incompletely descended testes, and shorter perinea.

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Posted by zoe282

See now that stuff you posted people can actually do! That's the stuff that they need to talk about more. Not the compost piles and such!

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yeah alot of things are ridiculous but seems they only talk about those things.

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Posted by Espo22

here are a few things you can do that will save you money

If everyone replaced an ordinary light bulb with a compact fluorescent one, we would diminish as much global warming pollution as taking 7 1/2 million cars off the road...The bonus is that you can also save money on your bills...change just one 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 20-watt fluorescent bulb, thus preventing an average of 737 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere per 10,000 hours of use...This will also cut your yearly electric bill by $42.


If you care to read more, here are some other ways you can help

-Turn down your heat from 70-68 degrees, saving 630 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and $48 on the gas bill...for every degree you turn down the thermostat between 70 and 60, you save 315 co2 pounds and $23.

-Set your water temperature to 120 degrees, it will cut co2 emissions by up to 249 pounds, and saving as much as $22

-Turn your refrigerator from 37 to 40 degrees and the freezer up to 5 degrees...it will save 415 pounds of co2 and save $24

-Wash your clothes in warm rather than hot water(hot water is hard on fabrics anyways) you will save 37 pounds of co2...and only wash full loads, same goes for your dishwasher

The most obnoxiously omnipresent substance in any house is phthalates. It shows up in soft plastics such as toys, flooring, vinyl shower curtains, theyre also in soaps, shampoos, candles and coating on pills...Phthalates interferes with sexual development. Pregnant women who carried the highest levels of certain phthaltes were more likely to give birth to baby boys with smaller than average genitalia, incompletely descended testes, and shorter perinea.

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These are some great ideas! We changed our lightbulbs to the ones that are energy saving and last longer. But a lot of these other ones dont apply to us because we live in an apartment building and do not have control over them. But good to know for when we have a house one day.

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Posted by GinaZ

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Posted by Espo22

here are a few things you can do that will save you money

If everyone replaced an ordinary light bulb with a compact fluorescent one, we would diminish as much global warming pollution as taking 7 1/2 million cars off the road...The bonus is that you can also save money on your bills...change just one 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 20-watt fluorescent bulb, thus preventing an average of 737 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere per 10,000 hours of use...This will also cut your yearly electric bill by $42.


If you care to read more, here are some other ways you can help

-Turn down your heat from 70-68 degrees, saving 630 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and $48 on the gas bill...for every degree you turn down the thermostat between 70 and 60, you save 315 co2 pounds and $23.

-Set your water temperature to 120 degrees, it will cut co2 emissions by up to 249 pounds, and saving as much as $22

-Turn your refrigerator from 37 to 40 degrees and the freezer up to 5 degrees...it will save 415 pounds of co2 and save $24

-Wash your clothes in warm rather than hot water(hot water is hard on fabrics anyways) you will save 37 pounds of co2...and only wash full loads, same goes for your dishwasher

The most obnoxiously omnipresent substance in any house is phthalates. It shows up in soft plastics such as toys, flooring, vinyl shower curtains, theyre also in soaps, shampoos, candles and coating on pills...Phthalates interferes with sexual development. Pregnant women who carried the highest levels of certain phthaltes were more likely to give birth to baby boys with smaller than average genitalia, incompletely descended testes, and shorter perinea.

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These are some great ideas! We changed our lightbulbs to the ones that are energy saving and last longer. But a lot of these other ones dont apply to us because we live in an apartment building and do not have control over them. But good to know for when we have a house one day.

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maybe just with your refrigerator though, you can change the temp on that and save a little bit of money.

i work for a marketing company and all we do is promote energy efficient products. and one thing every person can do that could potentially make a huge difference is to change a few of the light bulbs in their home to those spiral compact fluorescent bulbs...

i've posted this on this site before a WHILE ago...but if every household in the country changed ONE bulb in their home, the reduction in pollution would be equivalent to removing over a MILLION cars from the road.

and if you go to home depot right now, there's a promotion where you can get 4 of those bulbs for less than $4.

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Posted by JeanetteandSteve

i work for a marketing company and all we do is promote energy efficient products. and one thing every person can do that could potentially make a huge difference is to change a few of the light bulbs in their home to those spiral compact fluorescent bulbs...

i've posted this on this site before a WHILE ago...but if every household in the country changed ONE bulb in their home, the reduction in pollution would be equivalent to removing over a MILLION cars from the road.

and if you go to home depot right now, there's a promotion where you can get 4 of those bulbs for less than $4.

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My house has mostly HIGH hATS....Do they make energy efficient ones???

I have a Prius & love it. I bought is and plan to have for a long time....

I try to be concious to unplug appliances & recycle always at home. I re use bags and buy the lightbulbs. I'm upgrading my kitchen and using all energy star appliances. Little things. I think they will help

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Posted by JeanetteandSteve

i work for a marketing company and all we do is promote energy efficient products. and one thing every person can do that could potentially make a huge difference is to change a few of the light bulbs in their home to those spiral compact fluorescent bulbs...

i've posted this on this site before a WHILE ago...but if every household in the country changed ONE bulb in their home, the reduction in pollution would be equivalent to removing over a MILLION cars from the road.

and if you go to home depot right now, there's a promotion where you can get 4 of those bulbs for less than $4.

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fh always says how much he recycles and how hes the one who does it and how i always talk about doing things but i always say that hey i use the fluorescent light bulbs and how good that is. So glad to see how true it is hahahaha

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by GinaZ

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Posted by Espo22

here are a few things you can do that will save you money

If everyone replaced an ordinary light bulb with a compact fluorescent one, we would diminish as much global warming pollution as taking 7 1/2 million cars off the road...The bonus is that you can also save money on your bills...change just one 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 20-watt fluorescent bulb, thus preventing an average of 737 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere per 10,000 hours of use...This will also cut your yearly electric bill by $42.


If you care to read more, here are some other ways you can help

-Turn down your heat from 70-68 degrees, saving 630 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and $48 on the gas bill...for every degree you turn down the thermostat between 70 and 60, you save 315 co2 pounds and $23.

-Set your water temperature to 120 degrees, it will cut co2 emissions by up to 249 pounds, and saving as much as $22

-Turn your refrigerator from 37 to 40 degrees and the freezer up to 5 degrees...it will save 415 pounds of co2 and save $24

-Wash your clothes in warm rather than hot water(hot water is hard on fabrics anyways) you will save 37 pounds of co2...and only wash full loads, same goes for your dishwasher

The most obnoxiously omnipresent substance in any house is phthalates. It shows up in soft plastics such as toys, flooring, vinyl shower curtains, theyre also in soaps, shampoos, candles and coating on pills...Phthalates interferes with sexual development. Pregnant women who carried the highest levels of certain phthaltes were more likely to give birth to baby boys with smaller than average genitalia, incompletely descended testes, and shorter perinea.

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These are some great ideas! We changed our lightbulbs to the ones that are energy saving and last longer. But a lot of these other ones dont apply to us because we live in an apartment building and do not have control over them. But good to know for when we have a house one day.

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maybe just with your refrigerator though, you can change the temp on that and save a little bit of money.

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true, but It makes me nervous to turn it down more cus once I did this and stuff went moldy. But It may have been a crappy fridge.