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.
TrueLoveIn2008
Posted:
Member since
Re: Question about 'becoming green-er'
Posted by GinaZ
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.
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.
This is another point I was going to make - a lot of things I can't really do because I live in an apt. I don't pay for utilities, but I do try to use the dryer less - FH hates when his jeans are all stiff from air drying, so I can only do this so much! But I don't run the dishwasher until it's full, I recycle and I definitely reuse plastic bags. I was going to buy totes yesterday in Waldbaums, 99 cents each - but I know I will forget them and have to use plastic anyhow! I will buy a few though for when I just hanve to run in for a few items, and keep them in my car ...
But the manual lawnmower, I'm sorry, it's not practical. We mow the lawn at our house (we rent the top floor of a residential house) and it takes a while as is. I feel like the amount of gas used is minimal - I can't be pushing a manual mower for 2 hours for that. I hope that doesn't sound harsh or that I don't care about the environment -- but we all have LOTS to do, extra jobs, etc - it's impractical in today's world for most people.
TrueLoveIn2008
Posted:
Member since
Re: Question about 'becoming green-er'
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.
These are great ideas, Denise. I do wash my clothes in warm water mostly, unless I have a load of things that need to be in cold. Hot i use for towels / sheets only since they say it cleans better ... not sure if that is true. Luckily for us, we are alwasys hot in our apt. so I never use the heat hardly :) and the guy downstairs also always uses the hot water, so I think it is up to 120 degrees.
Does anyone know if the plastic drinking bottles you can buy at target, etc have the bad chemical in them? I just bought a squeezeable refillable bottle, rubbermaid, to avoid the plastic bottles from the store. is this safe??
