Local Produce Preferred

Local Produce Preferred
Buy local produce as much as possible.

How it helps
Shipping produce from the other side of the world by plane, boat, or land uses fuel and increases carbon emissions. Buying produce grown by a neighbor or at least grown in your region will reduce emissions caused by shipping.

Make the change
Shop at local farmer’s markets for the ultimate in local produce. Pay attention to the stickers on produce in grocery stores; they tell you where it came from. Eating produce when it is in-season in your area means it is much more likely to have come from nearby instead of from another hemisphere.

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Mountain of Mail

Mountain of Mail
Cancel mailings that you don’t use or want.

How it helps
Many people, vehicles, manufacturing processes, and trees were involved in bringing you your own daily pile of ads and catalogues. If most of that information goes immediately to the trashcan or recycling bin, then why don’t you make the effort to cancel some of that excess?

Make the change
Catalogues are the easiest things to stop and are huge paper hogs, so start there. Most likely there is a toll-free number listed that you can call. They probably won’t include explicit instructions on how to cancel their mailing, but “customer service" should always be able to do the trick.

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Second Edition

Second Edition
Give older editions of textbooks to book drives collected for use in developing countries.

How it helps
Once again, you are finding a very good use for something that has already been manufactured instead of throwing it away so that someone else will have to buy a new one (and therefore cause more carbon emissions.)

Make the change
In developed countries, professors may constantly require the latest editions of textbooks even though very few changes may have been made. Luckily, people everywhere are not so frivolous. Look for on-campus collection boxes to send your textbooks to developing countries where books are more scarce.

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Used Textbooks

If you are a student, sell used textbooks back to the bookstore or online.

How it helps
Hopefully all of those trees that died and fumes that were released in the manufacture of your textbooks won’t have died in vain. You learned something in school, right? Now pass on the favor by reselling your books to other students.

Make the change
Many college bookstores buy back used textbooks to sell to other students for the next semester. A recent trend is to bypass the bookstore and list your books directly online. Search the web for some sites that can assist you with this process.

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More Magazines

Give magazines and books to medical facilities and nursing homes.

How it helps
Lots of trees and energy are used up during the printing process. Recycling your print materials by passing them on to organizations who might use them will prevent them from having to buy more new magazines and books.

Make the change
Pick out only your most interesting and current materials and think about who might enjoy them. Political news magazines quickly become outdated, so they are probably not as appropriate for waiting rooms as literary or general interest magazines.

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Newspaper 101

Use old pages of newsprint to clean your windows.

How it helps
You are getting another use out of the newspaper after you have finished reading it.

Make the change
This sounds like it will turn into a big, inky mess, but it actually works quite well. There are parts of the world where window washers exclusively use old newspapers on the job, and they know what they are doing!

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Wireless Waste

Donate your old wireless phone instead of throwing it away.

How it helps
Someone else can use your wireless phone and will be able to avoid purchasing a new one (and therefore commissioning a carbon-releasing process to produce another phone).

Make the change
If you don’t personally know anyone who would like to activate your phone with their own number, then donate your wireless phone to a charitable organization.

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Donate Old Computers

Donate your “outdated" personal computer to someone who can use it.

How it helps
Since the computer has already been manufactured, it is a shame to waste it.

Make the change
There are several organizations that accept donations of computers and give them to schools that cannot afford computers or to residents of developing countries.

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Merry Mulch

Mulch your live Christmas tree after the holidays.

How it helps
If you mulch your live tree rather than putting it in the landfill, it can resume its role in the carbon cycle as it was meant to.

Make the change
Check to see if there is a tree drive after the holidays where you live so that you can take advantage of this option. If not, you may want to organize one in your town. You could also just search out someone who happens to own mulching equipment.

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The Machine-less Fax

Use an email fax service rather than owning a fax machine.

How it helps
An email fax service allows you to scan documents into your computer and send them through your email to someone else’s fax number. Likewise, you will receive faxes to your number as email attachments. This saves on paper, ink, toner, the cost of manufacturing the fax machine, and the energy cost of running both a fax machine and a computer.

Make the change
If you didn’t even know that this option existed, get to it! You can search “fax service" to read more about the possibilities.

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Double Sided

Always make two-sided copies for any copies you may make.

How it helps
You will only need half the sheets of paper that you would have needed for the very same copying job. This reduction means an equivalent reduction in greenhouse gases produced by the paper manufacturing process.

Make the change
Most likely, people will not even notice or care if they have to flip to the other side of the page to finish reading what you have copied. Depending on the length of the document, you may save on staples as well.

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No Paper Plates

Use real dishware and wash it rather than using paper plates.

How it helps
The energy that you will use washing the dishes in between uses pales in comparison to the energy required for manufacturing and shipping new paper and Styrofoam plates.

Make the change
If you are a disposable plate junkie, wean yourself off of the paper plates by first moving to eating from paper towels. If you still can’t stop, we may have to stage an intervention.

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Bag the Veggies

Buy frozen veggies that come in bags, not boxes.

How it helps
Very intelligent people have calculated the energy resources needed to create commercial freezer bags and boxes, and it turns out that boxes take a ton more energy. Buy frozen veggies that come in bags for this reason.

Make the change
We’ve laid out the options. Just look in the freezer section.

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Tree-friendly TP

Buy recycled paper products like toilet paper and kitchen towels.

How it helps
If the toilet paper you buy is made fresh from a batch of newly cut trees instead of recycled paper, then you are using a lot more energy than necessary to stay clean and hygienic.

Make the change
Check on the label to discover the origin of your favorite toilet paper. And don’t worry, recycled toilet paper is made from recycled paper, not used toilet paper!

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