MarisueWrites.com » How To Go Green http://www.marisuewrites.com How to Write Articles, Posts, Essays & Blogs for Home Based Business & Website Monetization Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:26:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 How To Go Green, Simply http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-simply/ http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-simply/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 18:47:35 +0000 Marisue http://marisuewrites.com/?p=154 Simple things you can do everyday in the home: 

Shorten your shower by just 2 minutes.  Turing the shower water off 2 minutes earlier than normal will save 10 gallons of water and that adds up considerably.  You want to make a difference in our planet’s water resources?  If all of us saved just one gallon of [...]]]> Simple things you can do everyday in the home: 

Shorten your shower by just 2 minutes.  Turing the shower water off 2 minutes earlier than normal will save 10 gallons of water and that adds up considerably.  You want to make a difference in our planet’s water resources?  If all of us saved just one gallon of water from our daily shower, in one year it would equal t times the amount of freshwater taken from the Greak Lakes everyday.  The Great Lakes are the world’s largest source of freshwater…now  isn’t that something you’d like to help protect? 

Think Big by forming small habits.

Thermostats

Just One Degree- Up  In the Summer, and Down in the Winter could save nearly $100 per year on heating and cooling costs for your home.  Adjust a bit more, and save more!  How about a 10 billion dollar savings?  If we all just turned the dial down in the winter and up in the summer, we’d still be comfortable with a few clothing adjustments.  

The savings would be so large, to envision it, think of fuel for everyone in a state the size of Iowa for one year, free!

Recycle

We hear this all the time but it’s huge!!  Before you toss it, think about who could use it, or what could it be turned into??  Plus, if we just separated out our paper, plastic and glass from the trash, along with a bin for the aluminum products, the amount of waste sent to landfills would be decreased by 75%.  75%!! 

Right now,  our national waste would fill up the state of Pennsylvania.

 Hey, I’ve got an idea, since Texas is talking recession, maybe we could turn the state into a waste area…sorry, just spouting off about dump grounds, and thought of Texas, Bush, you know how it is.

No?  Well, where do you want your 4.5 pounds of daily trash to go?

We have to do something, folks.  We can’t just ignore the planet. 

Did You Know:  Americans are using at least w times as much water and energy per person as anyone else in the world.  That’s a pretty big problem considering the resources seem to be drying up.  What shall we do when there isn’t enough to go around anymore? 

Talk about a war.

]]> http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-simply/feed/ 0 How To Go Green By Recharging Your Batteries! http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-by-recharging-your-batteries/ http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-by-recharging-your-batteries/#comments Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:52:15 +0000 Marisue http://marisuewrites.com/?p=85 Did you know?  We use 2 billion disposable batteries every year, enough to run close to a billion toys!  Yikes!  As fast as kids use them, that’s a lot of power and money out of the pocket!

Behind the scenes: You might not think that the little batteries you use in your flashlights, radios or cameras could [...]]]> Did you know?  We use 2 billion disposable batteries every year, enough to run close to a billion toys!  Yikes!  As fast as kids use them, that’s a lot of power and money out of the pocket!

Behind the scenes: You might not think that the little batteries you use in your flashlights, radios or cameras could have any effect on the environment, but household batteries contain heavy metals!  The most common is mercury, a highly toxic substance that has become a major source of contamination at some hazardous waste dumps.  Another damaging source is cadmium. 

Those batteries you are taking out with the garbage end up in the landfill, where they corrode and break apart, releasing mercury or cadmium into the soil.  Batteries that are incinerated with garbage release dangerous mercury or cadmium into the air.

The Danger:

  • Long exposure to mercury can not only make people extremely sick, but can also affect behavior.  In the 1600′s hatmakers who used mercury to treat felt and fur began acting strangely.  Since no one knew tht the batters were showing effects of mercury poisoning, it was assumed they were just crazy.  Hence the expression, “mad as a hatter.” 
  • Nearly 50% of the mercury and 25% of the cadmium used in the US goes into batteries.
  • Almost 75% of all batteries used in the US are the alkaline type, which are 1% mercury.
  • The average annual use of mercury in batteries exceeds the federal limits on mercury allowed in garbage by 4 times.

Simple Solutions:

  1. Use rechargeable batteries.  They do contain cadmium, they last much longer than alkaline batteries and therefore contribute a little less to our hazardous waste problem.
  2. Recycle alkaline batteries.  Not widely available, the technology to extract mercury and other metals from batteries for re-use does exist.  Support it by recycling.

Other Info:  About 40% of all battery sales are made during the Christmas Season.  See if you can reduce that percentage!  Find a battery recycling location here

]]> http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-by-recharging-your-batteries/feed/ 0 How To Go Green By Eliminating White Styrofoam! http://www.marisuewrites.com/go-green-by-eliminating-white-styrofoam/ http://www.marisuewrites.com/go-green-by-eliminating-white-styrofoam/#comments Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:24:50 +0000 Marisue http://marisuewrites.com/?p=79 Stop!  Go Green by deciding not to purchase anymore white styrofoam cups or plates!  In 500 years they will still be in the dumping ground!

Did you know?  We produce enough stryofoam cups every year to circle the earth 436 times!

What is that white stuff shaped into a cup?  Styrofoam is actually polystyrene foam.  It’s made from benezene,  [...]]]> Stop!  Go Green by deciding not to purchase anymore white styrofoam cups or plates!  In 500 years they will still be in the dumping ground!

Did you know?  We produce enough stryofoam cups every year to circle the earth 436 times!

What is that white stuff shaped into a cup?  Styrofoam is actually polystyrene foam.  It’s made from benezene,  known carcinogen, converted to styrene, and then injected with gases that make it a foam product.  The gases often used are CFC’s which eat ozone molecules, depleting the Earth’s vital ozone layer.

Don’t ask me why we still make them, they should be outlawed!!  At this time, non-CFC foam only trades one kind of environmental problem for another, there are just no good substitutes. 

The Garbage: 

  • Polystyrene foam is completely non-biodegradable; it just won’t go away.  Even 500 years from now, that foam just won’t go away.  Can you imagine your morning’s coffee cup still sitting on the earth’s surface hundreds of years from now?
  • All styrofoam, contians large amounts of air and takes up a lot of space for its weight.  This means it wastes enormous amounts of precious space at already full landfills.
  • Polystyrene foam is deadly to marine life.  It floats on ocean surfaces, breaks up into pellets resembling food, and is consumed.  When sea turtles eat styrofaom, it’s buoyancy keeps them from diving; and it clogs their systems, starving them to death.

Simple Solutions:

  • Just don’t use it.
  • Avoid foam packaging in egg cartons, disposable picnic goods, etc.
  • Ask for paper cups and plates for your to go foods.

Source:  The Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702 or go online.

]]> http://www.marisuewrites.com/go-green-by-eliminating-white-styrofoam/feed/ 0 How To Go Green In The Kitchen http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-in-the-kitchen/ http://www.marisuewrites.com/how-to-go-green-in-the-kitchen/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:05:01 +0000 Marisue http://marisuewrites.com/?p=68 Let’s keep going green simple, add things to do as you think about them, but let’s start by taking a look at plastic.  And, what’s in our paper?

Did You Know? If 25% of American homes used 10 fewer plastic bags month, we’d save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year. To make plastic wrap, manufacturers add “plasticizers” that are potentially harmful chemicals [...]]]> Let’s keep going green simple, add things to do as you think about them, but let’s start by taking a look at plastic.  And, what’s in our paper?

Did You Know?

  • If 25% of American homes used 10 fewer plastic bags month, we’d save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.
  • To make plastic wrap, manufacturers add “plasticizers” that are potentially harmful chemicals that can even work their way into our food!! 
  • Our coffee filters, paper towels, are white, because they’re bleached.  That may look really clean, but it’s not a benign aesthetic; the process of bleaching paper is responsible for creating dioxin, which is a deadly toxic that has been dumping into American waterways. 
  • Lots of the time, paper is bleached white despite the fact that we rarely look at it or care about it’s color.  Americans buy billions of bleached coffee filters every year, and then throw them away after one use.  What difference would it have made if we purchased the brown, unbleached ones? 

Simple Solutions:

  • Use reusable containers to store food in your refrigerator instead of habitually wrapping food in aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
  • Use unbleached coffee filters.  Check your local supermarket, or contact Rockline, Inc., PO Box 1007, Sheboygan, WI 53082, or online.  Reusable cotton coffee filters could be used.
  • Keep rags in the kitchen to wipe up spills instead of using paper towels every time.  Then wash and reuse the rags.  Still cheaper, and especially if you dry your rags outside on the line.  I know, how old-fashioned!
  • Use biodegradable wax paper to wrap sandwiches instead of foil or plastic.  Or, for sandwich and freezer bad addicts:  Biodegradable, non-toxic bags made of 100% cellulose.  Write to Earth Care Co. Box 3335, Madison, WI 53704, or online.
  • Other kitchen products are also available by mail from Seventh Generation, 10 Farrell St., South Burlington, VT 05403, and online.

Warehouse of Information Fact:

  • Appliances, heating, and cooling cost the average US home well over $1000 a year in energy.
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