Green your 2011 & add greenbacks to your wallet

Given the financial challenges many people are still experiencing as well as the current stresses endured by Mother Earth, below you will find seven ideas for greening the earth while adding some greenbacks to your wallet Consider incorporating at least one of the following practices into your new year.

1-    Eat the foods that keep your body fit: Most health conscious and/or weight-loss diets advise you to eat your vegetables, to cut out fatty red meat and to avoid processed foods. Incorporating these three suggestions in your diet can help you to save money while easing some of Earth’s burden. Vegetables and grains are the least amount of energy for production, while meat production often involves a number of inputs and processes that a 2007 UN Food and Agriculture Organization study has linked to global warming. Processed and packaged snack food and packaged prepared  meals are popular for people with little time to cook, but they tend to cost more – for the planet, your body and your wallet. Packaging in all shapes and sizes (plastics, paper, aluminum, Styrofoam, foil etc.) is taking up a lot of real estate in landfills throughout the United States. Processed foods take their toll on your health as they can be much harder to digest, and processed foods are often more expensive when all the costs hidden by subsidies and health risks are added up. Consider reducing your intake of highly processed foods by replacing them with whole foods purchased in bulk – especially fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and dried fruit.

2-    Walk if you’re going less than one mile or bike for slightly longer trips: This simple action will reduce your spending on fuel and maintenance for your car and decrease your carbon foot print. An added benefit is that you will be building muscle and melting away unwanted pounds while doing your errands.

3-    Minimize your exposure to toxic chemicals: If you make your own cleaning solutions you avoid the standard hazardous chemicals (ammonia, bleach, lye, formaldehyde and alcohol) that are included in most cleaning products. Look through your pantry and pull out some of these eco- friendly and less harmful cleaning products (baking soda, Borax, Castile soap, white vinegar, lemon juice). Learn more about using these here. 

4-    Use reusable bags when shopping: Over 50,000 bags are used every 5 seconds in the U.S. For a visual on this, click on this image put together by artist Chris Jordan in his exhibition “Running the Numbers.” Using your own bag lightens up the plastic load in city dumps. Reusable shopping bags are available at many grocery stores. In Washington, DC and in other cities around the country laws have been established to charge an extra fee (about 5 cents) for each plastic grocery bag you use. Every little bit adds up – so if you consider how many bags you bring home between shopping and picking up a sandwich here and a bottle of wine there, you could be saving about $40 – $50 a year by using your own. Try it – you will find that it does not take long to make it a habit that sticks.

5-    Cut back on paper towels: paper towels are a bottomless pit of expenses especially if you are reaching for one every time you clean your hands while cooking or eating, when you wipe up spills, clean your windows, counters and appliances, scrub the bathroom, etc. Why not make the switch this year to using a few old cloth rags for spills, cleaning and messes, and fabric napkins at the table. The advantage is that cloth versions can be washed and reused. You will save money and help to cut down on the 3,000 tons of paper towels that end up landfills every day.

6-    Eliminate Phantom power: You could cut your energy bill by as much as 10 percent over the course of the year simply by eliminating power leaks throughout your home. Unplug the charger for your cell phone, i-pad, mp3 player, etc. You can also invest in chargers that stop drawing current when the device’s battery is fully charged. Put those goods that are always on like your television, DVD player or stereo on a power strip to turn off all your appliances at once, or on a timer so that they automatically shut off overnight.

7-    Responsibly recycle e-waste: did you get a new electronic gadget for Christmas, or have you recently upgraded your cell phone? Do you have a stash of old gadgets, chargers, etc? Most people feel paralyzed because they don’t know what to do with all this electronic stuff so they stash it in a drawer. Especially after hearing that some enterprises that say they’ll recycle these gadgets for free end up shipping them to foreign countries where often women and children are not given protective gear while using dangerous chemicals and processes to extract microchips, gold and other recyclable materials from them. If what you want to recycle is relatively new, an option is to donate them to a reputable reuse organization, like the National Cristina Foundation or World Computer Exchange. They will match donated computers to charities and agencies, or send requested working items to educational institutions in developing countries.