If you are a regular WRAL reader, you have seen the myriad of article about Wake County's water supply. However, conserving water in your home is not only quite green, but it is also very easy. By making a few simple modifications to your daily life, you can conserve up to 20 or more gallons of water per day. This can make a significant difference in your water bill and your average daily use.
A few tips for conserving water in your home:
- Laundry: wash only full load; avoid using the permanent press cycle. A family of four should try to limit laundry to 4 full loads per week.
- Shower: one five-minute shower per day using a low-flow showerhead. With a standard low-flow showerhead, water use would be 12.5 gallons per shower. All showerheads manufactured after 1995 must flow at no more than 2.5 gallons per minute.
- Bathing, children: 4 tub baths and 3 sponge baths per week. Water use for tub baths is limited to 12 gallons per bath. For...
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Green meter: medium green
I recently happened across this excellent article that lists 163+ items that you can compost in your home composted at PlanTea, Inc. There are some items on the list that surprised me! Did you know that you can compost small amounts of animal hair and the lint from your dryer? I've started tossing my dog's after-brushing undercoat and my dryer lint in my compost bin.
Setting up a small compost bin is cheap and easy. My first compost bin was merely four stakes rounded with one-inch chicken wire. I lined the bottom of the bin with several inches of dead leaves and started my bin with a bagful of grass clippings and some weeds from my flowerbeds. I added leaves as they fell, my household compostable waste and a handful of blood meal, and with a few months, I had an excellent garden fertilizer.
One key in encouraging quick compost is to add all your materials in a...
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Happy Independence Day!
In the spirit of celebration with burgers and chips, here are a few tips on greening your cookout.
Find paper products that are home-compost biodegradable and toss them in your compost pile. Chinet plates, which are not only made from 100% pre-consumer milk carton stock, are fully biodegradable in your back yard compost bin – just remember to only toss in plates without any bits of grease or cheese on them.
Use your home cutlery, and wash it after use. If using plastic cutlery, keep it and use it next time. Most plastic cutlery will hold up in the dishwasher and can be used again and again. You can also purchase biodegradable cutlery made from bagesse, which is sugar cane fiber. Read the labels carefully, though, as many of these need the high heat, industrial compost bins. Lastly, look into bamboo veneerwear for both cutlery AND plates. Bamboo is a sustainable...
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Green meter: light green
SolesUnited (sm) is a program that allows you to recycle your old, tread-bare Crocs. According to Crocs, "SolesUnitedSM, the first-of-its-kind recycled footwear donation program, is dedicated to providing new recycled shoes to people in need around the world." The recycled Crocs are donated worldwide via a number of charities; the next recipient is YéleHaiti, a charity established by musician Wyclef Jean to aid his homeland.
All styles of Crocs are accepted. Donating your old Crocs is as easy as mailing a package. Unfortunately there are no donation location in the Triangle area. Our closest donation locations are in Wilson (Flower Shoes), Goldsboro (Plantation Shoppe) and in Greenville (Overton's Inc. and The Shoes Crate). You can find more details about donation locations on the "find...
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Green meter: light green
Looking for a great place to discuss being green? Looking for tips and answers? Looking for local green resources? Have a question that demands a quick answer? I've got the place for you! GOLO Greenies.
GOLO is an online community supported by WRAL.com and offers users the opportunity to make friends, post blogs, share photos and much, much more. GOLO recently launched a new feature called GOLO Groups. GOLO Groups allows you to connect directly with members who share similar interests on a highly personalized level. Last week GoLo user T-man created a group just for us - and by "us," I mean those of us who strive to live greener and make choices to reduce our carbon footprint day-to-day. T-man's description calls this group, "This is a group for the environmentalists in GOLO."
So if you're looking for some...
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