[ncgreenhotels] Great New Year's Tips

[Tom Rhodes]

Happy New Year to all our P2Assist and NCGreenhotels Listserv members!
We hope you all had a wonderful ChristmaHanukKwanza and a Happy New
Year!
Here are some great environmental tips from Joan Raymond at Newsweek
that I thought you would appreciate.
Thanks for your list membership. Please let your colleagues know that
our listservs are free and there is much to share and learn through
them.
Kindest wishes,
Tom Rhodes


Environment: Easy to Be Green 
By Joan Raymond 
Newsweek 
Jan. 8, 2007 issue - You don't have to ditch leather or sell your car to
help the environment. We've gathered 10 simple tips for living greener
in 2007. Hey, it's a lot easier than losing those 15 pounds.
1. Feed the Bees Pesticides, pollution and habitat destruction are
taking a toll on the birds and insects that pollinate about 80 percent
of the world's food supply (or about one out of every three bites of
food we eat), says Rose Getch of the National Gardening Association. To
lend a helping hand, plant a pollinator garden. Yellow, blue and purple
flowers will attract bees, while red and orange will attract
hummingbirds. For more information, go to kidsgardening.com.
2. Clean Up, Naturally Household chemicals contribute to both in-door
and outdoor pollution. This year, use more natural cleaners like the
Greening the Cleaning line at imusranchfoods.com. Or make your own using
vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice. For some great tips on green
cleaning, go to eartheasy.com.
3. Ditch Your Junk Not only is junk mail annoying, it kills trees. Do
yourself-and the forests-a favor by getting off the mailing lists of
companies you don't support. You can contact the firms yourself, or
check out subscription services like greendimes.com or 41pounds.org that
promise to lighten your junk-mail load. For more information:
thegreenguide.com.
4. Air Your Laundry Make like Grandma and line-dry your clothes once in
a while. It not only saves money, but also decreases your yearly carbon-
dioxide emissions. Likewise, run your washer on cold whenever
possible-and use it only when it's full.
5. Recycle Your Gadgets Don't clog landfills with old electronics. If
you're dumping a computer, manufacturers like Dell (dell.com), HP
(hp.com) and Apple (apple.com) offer recycling options. Or consider
donating. The National Cristina Foundation (cristina.org) will hook up
your old PC or Mac with a nonprofit organization. Drop off your old cell
phone at your local Staples store as part of a Sierra Club recycling
effort (sierraclub.org/cellphones/). To find a drop-off center for
rechargeable batteries and cell phones, check out the nonprofit
Call2Recycle program at rbrc.org. Take advantage of community resources
like hazardous-waste pickup or e-waste recycling events.
6. Cut the Lights Trade your old incandescent light bulbs for compact
fluorescent ones, says Jenny Powers of the Natural Resources Defense
Council. They use about 70 percent less energy than regular bulbs and
last 10 times longer. For help in picking the best bulb for your needs,
go to energystar.gov. Also, plug all your major electronics into a power
strip, suggests eco-lifestyle expert Danny Seo, author of "Simply Green
Giving" ($19.95; HarperCollins). Appliances and e-gadgets use
electricity even when turned off, but flicking the switch on the power
strip when you leave the house effectively unplugs them. Finally, check
with your local utility company to see if it offers a "green power"
option for its customers. Though that might cost slightly more, it's one
way of supporting renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power.
The U.S. Department of Energy provides comprehensive "green power" info
at eere.energy.gov/green power.
7. Eat Your Veggies Have a meatless Monday. According to the Cambridge,
Mass., environmental-advocacy group the Union of Concerned Scientists,
meat production is energy-inefficient, sucking up a lot of natural
resources. In fact, it takes about 16 pounds of grain to produce one
pound of beef. "You don't have to be a vegetarian-just take a break once
or twice a week," says group president Kevin Knobloch. "If everyone
tried to do something that simple, it could have a huge environmental
effect." And when you're shopping for that food, think local. It's more
fuel-efficient (your food didn't have to travel thousands of miles to
get to your table), and you're boosting the local economy. Use the
search engine at localharvest.org to find farms, markets and other food
sources in your area. And, of course, bring a reusable cloth bag to the
market so you don't have to take the plastic ones.
8. Save a Tree According to the folks at stop globalwarming.org, the
paper industry is the third largest contributor to global warming. If
every U.S. household replaced one toilet-paper roll with a roll made
from recycled paper, 424,000 trees would be saved. If every household in
the United States bought recycled napkins instead of virgin-fiber
napkins, we could save a million trees. If the thought of recycled paper
doesn't do it for you, plant a tree. According to the National Arbor Day
Foundation, the net cooling effect of one healthy tree is equivalent to
10 room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. You can go to
arborday.org to find out which trees will do well in your ZIP code. If
you don't have any room to plant, hundreds of eco-organizations have
tree-planting projects. All you have to do is donate money.
9. Turn On the Tap Instead of spending big bucks on bottled water, drink
the stuff that comes from your faucet. The reason? "It takes a lot of
oil to make and ship those bottles, and once they're empty, most wind up
in landfills or as litter," says Jen Boulden, cofounder of the online
environmental community idealbite.com. If you're squeamish (Americans
really do have some of the best tap water in the world), buy a water
filter. For comparisons, go to waterfiltercomparisons.net.
10. Find an Eco-Date There was the metrosexual. Then the retrosexual.
Now there's the ecosexual. So if one of your goals is to find that
special, ecofriendly someone in 2007, check out social-networking
communities like Vegan Passions (veganpassions.com), Earth Wise Singles
(ewsingles.com), Green Singles (greensingles.com) or Green Passions
(green-passions.com). Because two recyclers are better than one.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16399617/site/newsweek/ 


Visit us on the Web at: www.p2pays.org

Tom Rhodes
WasteReduction Specialist
NC WasteTrader
NC Division of Pollution Prevention & Environmental Assistance
1639 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699
(919) 715-6516


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