ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Creating a Tree Free environment in your home and workplace has major benefits for the environment and will greatly reduce your carbon footprint.

Consider reading your newspaper and magazine subscriptions online. World and local news can be sourced on the web and it is more up-to-date than the daily papers. Newspaper publishingis a carbon-intensive industry. It can’t be great for the environment to slaughter CO₂ gulping forests to produce newsprint. Also consider the hundreds of thousands of copies of newspapers distributed by fuel guzzling planes, trains and lorries before consumers send them on, after brief perusal, to the landfill. Doesn't make sense!

If you enjoy reading newspapers and/or magazines offline, consider reading them at a local library. If they don't carry a newspaper or magazine you like, find out if you can buy a subscription for the library (this is a great way to introduce sustainable/environmental magazines to people in your community).

Now is the perfect time to cut down on junk mail. Did you know that each year millions of trees and billions of gallons of water are used to create junk mail, most of which never gets recycled?

Consumers can stop junk mail easily. Visit the Green Dimes website to make sure you only get the mail you want... http://www.greendimes.com/

If you print documents, print on once-used paper and/or bleach-free, recycled paper with the highest post-consumer waste content available (or hemp/alternative-source paper, if you can afford it).

Create and use note pads from once-used paper.

Switch to electronic banking.

Replace paper napkins with cloth napkins. Replace paper towels with a special set of cloth towels/napkins - store the used ones in a small container in your kitchen and just wash and reuse.

Purchase bleach-free, toilet paper that is made from the highest post-consumer waste content you can find (80% minimum)

Leave messages on a reusable message board.

Make your own cards/letters from once-used products or handmade paper or dried leaves.

Distribute company information and post company material online. Did you know every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City?

Don't print out each memo or email you receive. Read and delete the ones you don't need to save and electronically file others you might refer to later.

Whenever possible, make two-sided copies.

Save even more paper by using the blank sides of used sheets of paper for note-taking and printing drafts.

Most of the tips have been supplied by members. If you have more tips and ideas, add these to the comments section and we will add these to the article - Lyn.