5 Simple Steps to Green

According to Laurie David and Cambria Gordon, co-authors of The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming, the United States produces “25 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide, making us the biggest polluter on the planet.”  This can be an intimidating fact.  How can the average American family have a positive impact on such a global problem?

Here are five easy things your family can do:

1. Green Lights:  You can help save 500 pounds of CO2 in one year.  That is the same as taking 4.7 million vehicles off the road for a year!  How?  Replace your regular light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs.  Generally, these compact bulbs use one-third of the energy of an incandescent bulb.  Green lighting, along with turning off lights when not in use, can save your family money in energy costs.  Saving the planet = saving money …… welcome2green!

2.  Paper or Plastic?  Neither!  To make a dozen plastic grocery bags, requires roughly the same amount of petroleum needed to drive a car one mile.  Paper bags require the cutting and processing of trees that will take decades to re-grow.  Also, consider the amount of energy used to cut down, transport, and mill trees for those paper bags.  The solution - switch to reusable canvas bags. Consider how many bags you brought home from the grocery store on your last visit.  Now think of all the bags you would save by reusing canvas bags!

3.  Say Bye-Bye to Bottled.  Water that is.  Approximately 2,500,000 plastic water bottles get thrown away and make there way to landfills every day.  It takes these bottles an average of 1,000 years to break down.  In addition, most of the caps on these bottles are not recyclable.  So, even if you are doing your best to recycle your plastic water bottles, you may still be creating unnecessary waste. 

4.  Recycle!!!  I know this is not the first time that you have heard this, but it is one of the easiest and most effective ways to help.  Recycling alone can reduce your families pollution by up to 95%.  Imagine that!  This is not limited to, recycling plastic, glass and paper.  It can include such practices as donating unwanted items for others to use.  Buy used items yourself, my wife enjoys shopping for antiques. 

5. Welcome Others 2 Green.  The world does not need to be filled with eco-experts for us to enjoy success.  Talk to your community, friends, and family about all things green.  Write a comment on this site.  Share your knowledge, experiences, successes, failures, and resources with others.  Continue to explore websites like welcome2green.com.  Together, we CAN make a better future for Mother Earth.

Welcome2Green!  It is not as hard as you thought.