10 Other Ways to Go Green
This is not your normal list of things to do to go green and save the Earth. This list goes beyond doing that. I included things that will be easy to do. And I included options to go extreme &n-; because you know you want to.
#1: Switch your toilet paper. That&';s right. This is something lots of people use. If we all switch, that will have a huge green effect. You&';ll want to switch to one that is especially friendly to septic tanks (even if you&';re not connected to one). That means it&';s also less likely to plug your pipes. And, it will be more likely to be made from recycled paper, rather than from freshly cut trees. Recommended Brands. We usually use Field Day, EcoGreen, or Natural Value. An interesting note from the link to Recommended Brands - avoid scented toilet paper as those chemicals used to make those scents can mess up your septic tank. And, even if you&';re not connected directly to a septic tank, what goes down your toilet usually ends up in one (usually owned by the city).
If you want to go extreme on this idea, maybe you can switch out your toilet for a composting toilet.
#2: Change up your laundry products. Speaking of fragances. Most fragrances used in cleaning products and perfumes are based on oil (petrochemical oil). Avoiding these fragrances will reduce your use of petrochemicals. You can start with the Laundry, unless you have to take your laundry to the laundromat. Some major brands, say they are fragrance-free, but they are anything but. If you have any doubt, smell it. Dryer sheets have fragrance in them. If you can, hang your clothes on the line. The sun will make them smell much better. Not only will switching your laundry products help save the earth, it will help those who are extremely sensitive to these toxic chemicals. They won&';t have to close up their place every time you do your laundry.
Want to get rid of the fragrances, but have to go to the laundromat because you rent and can&';t have a washer? There are very small washers for single people that might work for you. I haven&';t tried one yet.
#3: Change your trashbags. Compostable trash bags, food waste bags, doggie you-know-what bags (TMI), and storage bags are becoming more available. I prefer Biobag brand. That&';s mainly because they were available (online) 20 years ago. I was using Seventh Generation trash bags then, because they were made from recycled plastic. But I wanted to go more extreme.
I really like Biobag kitchen trashbags. However, they hold a little less than your normal kitchen trashbag. They&';re also fragile, so don&';t go cramming stuff in them which will puncture them. And, if you put lots of wet stuff in them, they&';ll start to biodegrade right then and there &n-; as per design. There are other brands which are a little stronger and a little larger.
Of course, the more you can recycle, the less trash you&';ll have.
#4: Downsize your vehicle. (A smaller car might save you money.) Rather than driving your Hummer or whatever large SUV around, consider trading it in on a smaller car. You might still want a small SUV so that you&';re up high where you can see, and so that you feel safer with all the large SUVs out there. The smaller and lighter a vehicle is, the less gas you&';ll be using. What&';s that? You&';re already driving an Electric SUV? Very good, but smaller is better still applies. You&';ll get more miles out of your charge. Electric Car Concierge (Advisor) - also for e-bikes, etc.
Extreme size this one: A) Give up your car and ride the bus (or walk) &n-; you&';ll get more exercise. B) Give up your car and use electric micromobility machines - e-bikes, e-skateboards, etc., even an electric motorcycle. C) Buy a very small electric car. Yes, they exist and are available in several locations. Chevy Bolt is the smallest of the big brand cars that are available in the US. BMW i3 is smaller, but is no longer made.
A bonus of driving a smaller vehicle is that you&';ll be able to slide in and out of traffic more easily. And if everybody does this it will greatly reduce traffic congestion.
#5: Clean your phone. I&';m talking smartphones here. How many apps do you have on your phone that you&';ll never use? Uninstall them. Of course there are some that your phone or your plan won&';t let you uninstall. If apps are not installed, they can&';t run in the background and use up your battery and you&';ll have more room for pictures. The more often you charge your phone, the more electricity you&';re using. And, unless you&';re on renewable energy, that electricity isn&';t all green. Other ways to save smartphone energy use include placing your phone in airplane mode, placing it on vibrate rather than ring, and not talking on the phone. On my phone anyway, making a phone call is what takes the most energy. Maybe playing videos does too, but I don&';t play those on my phone.
Going extreme? Force stop apps that are running in the background. Currently, the only two apps running in the background on my phone are ABP (ad blocker) and Message+ (texting). I want those to always be running and they don&';t drain my battery. I installed an App named Force Stop Apps (for Chrome). It shows me which apps are running in the background. It&';s supposed to allow you to force stop them from that app, but I can&';t figure that out. So, I go to Apps in my settings, find the app, and force stop it. It warns me that that app may no longer work. Haven&';t had any problems so far. And, I can always download and install that app again. Don&';t tell anybody, but I do this so I don&';t have to charge my phone so often, not because it saves electricity &n-; that&';s just a bonus.
#6: Trade in your gas powered generator for a solar generator (also called solar battery storage unit). This is the next idea that I want to personally try. Good units that will power a few things &n-; all your computer equipment, plus some extra &n-; run $500 to $1000 for a starting price. I have to wait until we have that much in our budget. I&';m also trying to figure out where the solar panel goes, since we&';re renting. When you need to charge the solar generator and there is no sun that day, you can charge it off your 110 outlets. There are other stand-alone solar chargers for cell phones and even laptops.
There are even solar chargers for RVs. Check out this solar awning from my friends at Xponent Power. That would be my first choice.
#7: Reprogram your website to save energy. If you&';re not a website programmer or if you are and don&';t know how to do this, that&';s ok. I&';m available as a consultant to help you or program it for you. (Note: Squarespace and Wordpress sites (and those which you built without programming) take more energy. There are some things you can do to save energy with them, but you&';re really limited.)
Side Note: Lots of people try to save energy by chosing dark mode for colors. That&';s usually doesn&';t save energy. Colors in the mid-range between dark and bright so that. You can also turn down the brightness on your laptop, tablet, phone to save energy.
Bonus for making your website save energy, is that it will probably be faster.
#8: Switch your sunscreen. Here, in Hawaii, only Ocean-Friendly sun screens are available for sale.
#9: Switch your bug killer. Fly swatters are good for flies. Diotamaceous Earth works for crawling insects and it&';s not harmful to people. Well the foodgrade variety is not harmful to people. Boric acid also works well for crawling insects. However, don&';t use it around pets and small children. And it&';s a good idea to wear a dust mask when using it, especially if you&';re poofing it.
#10: Switch your hand sanitizer. FDA gives some information on this. ... FDA List of Hand Sanitizer&';s to avoid. Most hand sanitizer&';s contain fragrance. Look for ones with natural fragrance to avoid fragrances made from petrochemicals.
Want to DIY? Look online for hand sanitizer recipes.
Please walk softly on your Mother Earth
10 Other Ways to Go Green
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