Last Chance to Sign Up!

This Saturday from 9:30 AM to 1 PM, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is cleaning up the highways with volunteers for the State Roadway Cleanup, and we need your help. This is an excellent way for you to get involved and improve your commute and your community. Roadside litter makes the appearance of a neighborhood or city less attractive to visitors and investors. Not to mention the chemicals from illegally dumped materials can leach into the ground and contaminate our ecosystems.

By volunteering for the State Roadway Cleanup, you can make a statement and show you care about our city.  To sign up or get more information, go to keepcincinnatibeautiful.org. Registration begins at 9:30 AM THIS Saturday at the Cincinnati Museum Center Union Terminal SE parking lot. Volunteers will then be transported to dozens of sites along 75 and 71 to pick up trash and landscape flower beds along the highway.

Make a difference in your environment.  Sign up to volunteer at KeepCincinnatiBeautiful.org!

Spring Cleaning!

Yesterday marked the first official day of Spring! Here are some ways to make your spring cleaning a little more earth-friendly:

Make your own household cleaning supplies! Most of your home can be cleaned with recipes that are a combination of hot water, vinegar, and baking soda. You can find recipes a number of places online at websites like organizedhome.com. Since you’re only making what you need, you’ll cut back on waste and toxins.

As you clean, aim for zero waste. Trade paper towels for reusable microfiber cloths or sponges and use a real broom, mop, and duster instead of disposable products.

Lastly, use this time to tackle bigger projects – areas that you generally gloss over – like vacuuming out your refrigerator coils to make the appliance more efficient, deep clean your carpet, and wash your curtains in cold water with an eco-friendly detergent.

Source: Tree Hugger

Greening your beer!

St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend, and I’m excited to share some tips with you about a subject I enjoy… drinking beer While you might kick back green beer this weekend, there are ways to actually drink green beer year round. I’m not talking about adding food color though, I’m talking about earth-friendly beer.

When deciding between a bottle or a can, consider this: glass is made more easily and uses less energy during production. However, the average beer can contains 40 percent recycled aluminum, while American beer bottles are typically composed of 20 percent to 30 percent recycled glass. Plus, the energy savings that accumulate when you recycle a ton of aluminum are far greater than they are for glass—96 percent vs. a mere 26.5 percent. So if your brewery uses cans that contain lots of secondhand aluminum, the bottle’s environmental edge narrows considerably.

If you’re hosting a party, skip them all together and go for a keg which is reusuable, cuts down on waste, and saves you money. If you’re dining out, reduce waste by ordering beer on tap!

Another suggestion is to drink local brews. Cincinnati has a great selection of tasty local beer that didn’t travel far to get here! So enjoy responsibly and have a safe and happy St. Patty’s Day!

Source: Slate.com

Save a forest without planting a tree!

Here are some easy ways you can save trees and protect our natural resources:

First, start by elimating junk mail. The average household receives 800 pieces every year. There are several websites that can help with this process if you don’t want to call each company directly. One such site, DMAchoice.org, can help give your mailbox a makeover. They’ll make sure you receive the mail you want while getting rid of the mail you don’t.

Next is a seemingly obvious one, buy recycled paper products. But we’re not just talking about office paper. Toilet paper in the U.S. is responsible for chopping one million trees every year. According to Greenpeace, Americans could save more than 400,000 trees if each family bought a roll of recycled toilet paper — just once. So look for products made with “post-consumer” recycled fiber.

Another way to save a forest without planting a tree is to borrow books! The average American family spends $118 on books, magazines, and newspapers every year so borrowing those items from the library will save money and waste a lot less paper! If you’re a student, look for opportunities to rent textbooks for class or buy used books instead of buying them new.

Lastly, when shopping for furniture or other building materials, look for products certified by FSC or SFI. FSC stands for the Forest Stewardship Council which sets standards to ensure the product was from a forest with a strong sustainable foresty plan. SFI stands for Sustainable Forestry Initiative which is similar but focuses on North American forests. These organizations make sure that companies chopping trees are planting more in their place!

Source: The Daily Green

Paperless Billing

Many companies started offering paperless billing within the last couple of years, but how many of us are taking advantage of this opportunity to “go green”? According to PayItGreen.org, if 20 percent of American households switched from paper to electronic bills, statements and payments each year, the collective impact would save:

• 1.8 million trees
• The production of 2 million tons of greenhouse gases
• Over a billion gallons of waste-water during paper production
• Over 100 million gallons of gas used to mail payments

Not to mention, the EPA estimates that paper accounts for 40% of today’s landfill waste. For every ton of paper you recycle, you save 3 cubic yards of landfill space, and most paper in a landfill can be recycled up to 12 more times! Lastly, while it might be a nominal amount for some, switching to paperless billing can save you over $20 a year on postage, and many companies offer incentives for switching that can lead to even more savings. Every transaction in the scheme of things is small, but each time, you cast a vote for a specific environmental and industrial future, and they add up!

Insulating

As I mentioned last week, my favorite Green Tips are not only good for the planet but they’re also good for your wallet. One way you can save on your electric bill this winter and cut down on carbon emissions is to insulate your water heater. According to The Daily Green, hot water accounts for 13% of a typical utility bill, so for a nominal cost, you can purchase an insulating jacket and reduce heat loss by 25-40%! And while you’re at it, now is a good time to make sure other areas of your home are properly insulated such as doors, windows, and chimneys. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, drafts can waste 5% to 30% of your energy use. And lastly, make sure you replace your furnace filters once a month during heating season. Dirty filters restrict airflow and increase energy demand.

Money and Energy-Saving Laundry Tips

Our favorite Green Tips are the ones that save you money, and The Daily Green gives us some ways we can save money and conserve energy when doing laundry. The easiest way is to use the cold water cycle. 90% of the cost to wash your clothes comes from the fuel needed to heat the water, and hot water is not necessary for cleaning clothes, especially if you use a high efficiency detergent like Tide Coldwater. Next, while it’s not always convenient, line-drying your clothes can save you about $85 a year, and even better, it preserves your clothing. All that lint you find in the dryer is made up of tiny fibers beat out of your clothing during machine drying. Thirdly, check your washer settings. Try quick cycles to reduce wash times and high-spun modes to reduce drying time.