Your Garden

There are two major, but simple, changes you can make in your garden – keep a composting pile and water less, a lot less.

Let’s look at composting.

One of the main advantages of composting is that it allows you to stop using your garbage disposal so much (which is a waste of water and electricity) and it allows you to feed your garden organic matter.

Because food and yard waste are said to make up as much as 30% of the waste found in the waste stream, even turning some of the food scraps and yard waste into compost will undoubtedly reduce your contribution to that waste stream.

If you have a yard, you can create a small composting pile with a mixture of fallen leaves, grass and food scraps. Instead of pushing your food scraps down the drain or putting them in the trash, you can add them to the compost pile, which benefits the environment and your garden (providing organic material is infinitely better for your garden and environment than using pesticides and sprays).

Composting essentially involves turning the yard and garden wastes into decomposed matter which is then spread in gardens as an organic “feed” for the plants.

Some believe that starting a composting pile benefits your diet, as you think of ways to “feed” your pile and choose more good-quality food matter to add to the composting pile.

When you mow your lawn, leave the clippings on the ground to provide beneficial mulch back to the lawn.

Composting benefits the environment in several ways – by saving water, reducing the use of pesticides, and reducing your footprint on the waste stream – but if you’re focusing on the garden you have to focus on water.

Water is as big a pest in the garden as any other. It’s easy to overwater, and waste this precious resource.

While water is precious, there are many ways to reduce your consumption in the garden while still keeping your yard looking green and nice. One tip that many water watchers follow is to collect rainwater in barrels from your rain gutters. Put the barrels under your rain gutters during a storm and collect all the water, and then recycle the water in your yard.

Did you know? If you live in an average home in an area with average rainfall, your roof could collect as much as 22,500 gallons of water – that’s equal to 450 50-gallon rain barrels. That’s a lot of free water that you can use in your garden!

Check with your local water company; many offer the barrels for free to encourage water recycling.

Whenever possible, use a watering can to water your garden. You’ll use a lot less water than if you use sprinklers or a hose, and you can control the amount of water your yard gets.

If a watering can won’t work, don’t turn instead to a hose or sprinkler. Both are huge water wasters and can put off as much water in an hour as a family of four might use in an entire day. Switch instead to drip irrigation, which is much more conservation-friendly.

Follow a schedule for watering – water first thing in the morning or late in the evening. It’s cool at these times of day, reducing the chances that your water will simply evaporate.

If you live in a drought-prone area, consider getting rid of your lawn in favor or drought-resistant plants and landscaping. Since most people overwater their lawns anyhow, you’ll save water from not having to water the lawn. It will be less work for you as well.

Gas lawnmowers are bad for the environment. Many people think that getting an electric lawnmower is better, which is it can be. But there is still the issue of using the electricity, requiring the production of electricity and all the issues related to that.

How about a better option? Purchase a push mower. These require a lot more effort on your part, but they don’t contribute to any environmental concerns; you also get some good exercise at the same time. There is no bag to collect the clippings, but leaving them on the lawn provides the lawn with beneficial mulch, giving you a more beautiful lawn.

Your Food

There are so many choices to make – do you eat out, or at home? Do you buy organic food only or can you save a few dollars and not do that? Do you refuse the take-out container and bring your own? The many decisions are enough to make you lose your appetite altogether.

There are a few simple rules to think about when choosing your food: Make sure it’s local, natural and as unpackaged as possible.

Let’s look at local. There’s a reason why everyone talks these days about locally grown produce, about the superiority of buying from a farmer’s market or local stand. But why?

Even if you live in an agricultural area, there’s a good chance your food is being delivered from many, if not thousands, of miles away.

That tomato you added to your sandwich, for example, might have traveled across country before it got to you. That provides fresh emissions of fossil fuels into the environment and the chance that many people – some of whom might not be clean – have touched, breathed on and generally interacted with your tomato.

When you purchase locally grown produce, it travels little to get from farm to you and if it’s organic, there’s less chance that it’s been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals designed to make your tomato redder or your apple shinier. (Of course, since slugs, for example, are acceptable in organic farming, you should still clean your organic produce.)

Once you have chosen your organic, locally grown foods, how should you package them? Stay away from plastics, since the manufacture of them sends dangerous chemicals into the air and can also leech chemicals into your food. For reheating, consider using glass dishes.

If you’re really trying to be a good Green resident of the world, you’ll want to avoid buying take-out food as much as possible. The wrappers, boxes and containers are all bad for the environment, make their way into landfills at alarming rates and provide a real boon to that chemical release from landfills.

Whenever possible, try to pack your lunch, again staying clear of plastic containers. Even plastic wrap is a bad choice, so use wax paper and aluminum foil (which can be recycled) whenever possible. Skip the water bottle or packaged drink and fill a thermos with your beverage.

Did you know? In California, where residents are known to guzzle water at alarming rates, as many as 3 million water bottles are not recycled each day. Those bottles either clog up landfills, adding to that toxic emission, or they are incinerated, which is also a practice terribly bad for our air. If recycled, that number of bottles over the course of the year could produce as many as 16 million sweaters.

Of course even the most diligent Green of us will need to eat take-out now and then. If you do, choose restaurants or take-out venues that provide cardboard containers, not plastic. Get things wrapped in paper not plastic. Skip the drink if you can.

Recycling

Recycling is a bit like the “big daddy” when we talk about being Green, because it’s one of the simplest things you can do to help the environment.

It requires little effort but provides big benefit. Keeping things out of landfills helps to reduce energy, preserve our land and natural resources and reduce the waste stream. And it goes beyond throwing your daily newspaper in the recycle bin.

But let’s start there: Your daily newspaper. When we talk about simple changes, this is definitely a simple change. Do you need a subscription to your daily paper every day? Is it necessary for you to bring in as much as 10 pounds of paper to your house every week? If not, cancel it and read your news online.

This might send you thinking about all the catalogs you get, the magazines you subscribe to but rarely read and the bills with all the inserts. Maybe you can get those bills online so there’s no paper coming to you each month.

Keep thinking … we know you’ll think of more.

When we talk about recycling, we are also really referring to the big three Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle. It’s drummed into our heads constantly these days, but for good reason. Let’s look at each one in order.

Reduce means what? In this case, it means stop buying so much stuff. When you buy more stuff, you end up getting rid of other stuff, which sends more stuff into the waste stream. These days, we all want the newest, best thing, but doing so is a negative notch on your environmental belt.

Reduce your consumption. We talked already about food and your choices when making your own food, buying food, etc., but reducing your consumption also refers in general to your consumerism. Americans, in particular, are known for their consumerism. If there’s a new doodad on the market, Americans run to buy it. But what about the old doodad still sitting in their homes? It gets thrown away.

So reducing mean stop this entire buying cycle and live better with what you already have. Anytime you think you need something new, ask yourself if the old one will do just as well. Ask yourself if you know how to properly dispose of the old one (perhaps someone else can use it?).

When you shop at the grocery store, bring your own tote bag. The question is no longer paper or plastic. The manufacture of paper bags send dangerous chemicals into the air (though these bags are recyclable), while the plastic bags sit in our landfills contaminating our air with all the dangerous toxins landfills provide.

Did you know? San Francisco became the first city in the United States to ban plastic bags in early 2007. But around the world, the movement has been afoot for a long time. In Bangladesh, South Africa, Paris and elsewhere, the plastic bags were dumped a long time ago, while Ireland levies a tax on the bags.

Instead, use your own tote bag, and reuse it each time you go shopping. Carry it with you always. Buy in bulk and skip the plastic bags to bag up your fruits and vegetables. Don’t buy individually packaged snacks and skip the juice boxes.

The message here is to think before you buy.

When you buy something, make choices for the future. Buy things you know can be recycled in some way, or buy items make from recycled goods (such as computer paper and printer ink). Buy high-quality items that won’t need replacing as quickly as lesser quality goods.

Our consumerism gets the best of us when something breaks or needs repair. It’s easier often to just buy a new doodad than to fix the old one, but repairing items, learning to keep them past their expected age of retirement helps the environment and your budget.

To that end, repair furniture that needs repair, learn how to mend your own clothes and donate items to thrift stores so others can reuse your old items.

Finally, recycle. Thanks to new efforts to get more people recycling, more cities, counties, states and countries are offering accessible recycling, with many picking up your recycling right at your curb.

Did you know? In America, the average person creates more than 4 pounds of waste every day. That’s about a ton of trash per person a year. How much of that do you think you could be reusing or recycling?

How you recycle and what you can recycle varies depending on where you live and who provides the service, so check with your local sanitation department to find out what services are available to you.

Now, part of recycling is education. Don’t assume everything is recyclable. Have you ever put packing peanuts or Styrofoam in the recycling? It’s not recyclable, so that’s a mistake. Some plastics aren’t recyclable. Make sure you understand what is recyclable and what’s not.

Some recycling centers will only take plastics, for example, that are labeled “1” or “2”. These numbers are found inside the recycling icon on the bottom of your plastic item. If you have a “5”, then, you’ll have to either put the plastic into the waste stream, or find another venue for recycling it. (The number, by the way, also indicates what kind of plastic the item is made from. See “resources” for more.)

When Shopping

Try to make solid Green choices when making purchases. Instead of focusing on the end result (recycling your cans and bottles, for example), think about being a good consumer at the start.

For example, when you purchase clothing, do you know some purchases are better than others? Here are some tips:

• Look for clothing made from organic cotton and hemp, which are produced without hurting the environment.

• Don’t assume that cotton itself is a best choice. Cotton requires a good deal of pesticide use for growth. Synthetics are made with chemical that hurt the environment.

• Look for clothing that can be washed at home; in other words, avoid clothing that is dry clean only. Dry cleaning uses solvents and chemicals that are very damaging to the environment.

If you are in the grocery store, look for items packed in materials that are recyclable, rather than packaging that will be thrown away.

Rice, for example, should be purchased in boxes rather than plastic bags. Better yet, buy your rice in bulk and package it in your own container brought from home.

Cardboard milk containers can’t be recycled. Look for milk in plastic jugs instead and recycle the plastic jug.

Finally, your best bet scenario is to look for product made from recycled materials. The most available items these days are paper products, like paper towels, toilet paper, and printer paper. But you can also buy pencils, flooring, and backpacks and handbags made from recycled materials.