Green Tips From Homeschool Twins

If you haven’t quit reading by now, I have one last thing to tell you. Did you know that 19 billion catalogs are mailed each year to American consumers? Everyone loves getting a new catalog in the mail.  Right? Wrong.  About 53 million trees are used a year to make catalogs; that is 3.6 million tons of paper used. Not only do the trees deteriorate but 53 billion gallons of water is also used in the production process. That is enough water to fill eight Olympic sized swimming pools. I know you are now thinking what can I do to help.  Well, you can go to Catalogchoice.com and cancel the catalogs you don’t need. Look at all the catalogs you receive each month and think, “How many of these do I truly need? What ones can I get rid of?” Making this change will save the environment.

Well, I’ve got a few more friendly environmental tips for you.  Did you know that making plastic bags requires the energy equivalent to 4 million barrels of oil a year? If you think you are off the hook for using paper bags, you aren’t. Paper bags use 14 million trees annually, and paper doesn’t biodegrade easily. There is one good side to using paper bags; you can use them over and over again. One solution is to use reusable bags. If you go to Reusablebags.com you can find many choices of reusable bags. Or, you can find reusable bags for $1 at Harris Teeter or Trader Joes.   In New York City, reducing the use of grocery bags by one per person a year would reduce waste by 109 tons and save 11,000 dollars in disposal costs.  Well, if everyone in the world changed their use of plastic bags, think of how much waste we could prevent.  Shop around. Find some bags that fit your needs; select the style and buy a few! Make a difference today.

Believe it or not, Christmas trees can also be a major Christmas time waste. Last year only 16 percent of Christmas trees bought were recycled even though mulching trees is pretty simple. You can change these numbers by picking your tree up and moving it to the nearest local recycling center. You can make a difference.  Are you green yet?

The other thing that creates a lot of waste during the holidays is plastic.   About 750 million bottles and glass containers are used during the holiday season. You can make a difference today by buying drinks in larger containers and recycling them. That goes for aluminum products too.  Using a two liter of coke instead of a 12 ounce one can save tons of wasted aluminum and plastic. If you just like using smaller containers, then make sure everywhere you go you look for a recycling bin. Recycling one more can or bottle than you did the other day is one of the first steps in making our world cleaner. If you’re not convinced, then check out this picture by Chris Jordan: http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:YmkkSj13UE4J:www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php+chris+jordan+plastic+bottles&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us