Enviro Tips for Families

There are plenty of things that we can all do to help the environment and decrease our carbon footprint. Enroll your family and do your part to save the planet.  Here are a few ideas featured in the Student Organizer to get you started.

1. Recycle batteries: Batteries leak acid and can be very harmful to the land and water. Instead of throwing them away, keep a small box to store all your dead batteries and bring them to be recycled.
2. Hand-wash dishes with eco-friendly dishwashing liquid. To conserve water, it’s best not to use the dishwasher at all. If you do, use eco-friendly dishwashing detergent and only run the washer when it is completely full.
3. Host a movie night. Invite friends over to watch Before the Flood, Leonardo Dicaprio’s compelling documentary on global warming.
4. Discover your climate impact and how you can offset it by visiting carbotax.org
5. Look for secondhand clothing. It’s boho and cheap… and a great way to recycle. Hold occasional swap parties with your friends so you can trade trendy stuff for a fraction of the price and it’s easy on the planet.
6. Pick Up Litter. Keep your environment beautiful – Claim a spot in your town to keep litter-free on a regular basis or give out litter bags at events. Encourage your friends to help too.
7. Garden sustainably and get a great workout. Replace gas and water-guzzling equipment with traditional tools to help you work up a sweat and create a beautiful, sustainable space.
8. Take the locavore challenge! Try to eat only foods raised within about 100 miles from home.
9. Use a clothesline! Your clothes will smell fresh, naturally. It costs nothing, requires no electricity, and creates no pollution.
10. Save a “recycled” pet. Adopt From a local shelter or rescue to save thousands of puppies and kittens that are abandoned every day.
11. Look for used textbooks: The production of brand new textbooks contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and can cost a lot! Take advantage of used bookstores or websites that specialize in used textbooks. Try to borrow, trade, and sell textbooks and look for them online.
12. Out of paper. Simply put this phrase at the bottom of your automatic email signature: “Please help save the environment: Consider not printing this e-mail.”
13. Take shorter showers! Challenge yourself and your roomies to avoid taking any shower over 5 minutes. Avoid wasting water and help conserve it for other important things.
14. Host a create-your-own-decorations party! Invite friends to create holiday ornaments made from old greeting cards or cookie dough, garlands made from strung popcorn or cranberries and potpourri made with cinnamon and cloves.
15. Use a reusable mug. The key is to get one that is dishwasher safe without a handle. It makes them less awkward to pick up and easier to transport also makes them easier to chuck in a bag to take home.
16. Choose to Reuse! Reduce waste by curbing use of disposables. We can save more trees by using less paper products, and we can keep more plastics and styrofoam out of the landfills by using less throwaway utensils and containers.