Green Living Tips & Ideas

Posts Tagged ‘Food Scraps’

In what manner will you take care of your rubbish bags? It is a significant task you might consider in the direction of exhibiting recycling awareness. You must have sometimes noticed the communities or social groups or some schools well taking care of waste to offer a live example that how much it is significant to take care of waste. And thus, one has to think of taking care of waste in one’s own household.

Prior to making your hard work for managing your trash or waste you should learn about the recycling facilities in your region. This may help you make your task easier. You may find some recycling companies making use of certain recycling equipments like materials handling balers, marathon compactors, nexgen baler, shredder and conveyor machines, trash compactors and many more. The most important thing is to learn regarding recycling things so that you may keep up your atmosphere clean.

There are several things you could do to show your recycling awareness. It is a significant task which can be done making use of a pair of rubber gloves with an intension of taking your rubbish bags out to a yard. You can also estimate how many days it takes to accumulate the waste because it depends on the frequency of your waste disposal. If there is a party in your home, there will be a big stock of rubbish.

Sort Out Your Rubbish:

First of all, you need to understand that how much waste is really recyclable and what sort of waste is difficult for recycling. To make your waste disposal and recycling task easier, sort out your rubbish:

1. Sort out all of your rubbish and make separate pile of those rubbish which cannot be recycled just as plastic.

2. You can also sort out the things like cooked food scraps and vegetable scraps which are hard to recycle.

3. Don’t disregard to make separate pile of glass for recycling.

4. If possible, use different bins for unlike type of waste so that at the time of waste discarding and recycling it will be easy for you to sort them out.

Observe your household things and consider discarding useless things. You might find some cans or useless bottles at your house that can in fact be washed out or can be taken care of. Learn the secrets of waste management and recycling and compactor and other waste management tools and make your home specious and clean.

Author: Carolyn Capalbo

With the coming of a new year, we have the chance to better our lives and turn over a new leaf. Why not start by living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Clip this list of green alternatives and see how many you can apply to your daily life. You may be surprised at just how green you can be with very little effort, and who knows, maybe it will be contagious.

Water your garden with a rain barrel. Hook up a rain barrel to your downspout or attach a fancy copper water catcher and start storing water for those hot summer days. Your barrel will weigh over 400 lbs when full, so ensure you find a level place to store it. One quarter inch of rain will yield 200 gallons of water.

Gather your neighbors and start a community garden to grow your own vegetables. This is a great idea especially for people with limited yard space or apartment dwellers.

Set up a composter and treat your garden to free compost. Fill it up with any non-meat food scraps, vegetable peelings coffee grounds, leaves and grass cuttings. Your plants will love it and you’ll be buying less garbage bags.

Plant a tree. Build your own forest by planting trees and seedlings. They look beautiful, provide shade and habitats for animals and birds. They’ll even do their part to improve air quality by filtering out pollution and boosting oxygen.

Find alternatives to insecticides. Fight garden pests with organic means, such as dish detergent and water. Take some Ivory Liquid detergent mixed with water at a ratio of one to two percent and spray your plants to coat bugs and suffocate them.

Use solar power to light your walkway. Save money on bulbs and electricity with solar powered garden lights. You’ll love the wire-free installation. Where solar isn’t practical switch to low voltage or LED lighting.

When landscaping, focus on using native species of plants to help stop the spread of invasive, non-native vegetation.

Make a habitat. Help support our feathered friends by hanging feeders or bird houses, set up a bird bath and plant shrubs that bear fruit.

Let nature take care of mosquitoes naturally. Build a backyard bat box and let them feast on between 500 to 1,000 mosquitoes per hour. That sure beats spraying bug repellent.

Remember push mowers? They’ve become all the rage as an eco-alternative to gas mowers for cutting your lawn. They save money, mess and you get additional exercise.

Don’t forget the mulch. Adding mulch to your garden in the winter protects your plants from the cold and in the summer months keeps the soil cool, prevents water loss and helps to control weeds.

Reduce, reuse and recycle every chance you get. It may take some time, but just by being aware you will increase your practice of the 3 “R’s”. The next time you go to throw out that old piece of lumber, fencing, or light fixture, stop yourself and take a load to the local reuse store. You may also find that reclaimed lumber fits the bill for your next building project.

About the Author:

Carolyn Capalbo is an expert military relocation specialist and real estate agent serving Northern Virginia real estate. Visit Just4Real.com to find updated market information about areas in Prince William, including Ashburn VA real estate.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Turn Over a New Leaf and Resolve to be Green

Author: Vera Pappas

What difference can one homeowner make to the environment? Why, when big polluters are making “green” changes, do we need to change our daily living habits? The answer is simple… children! By making slight and easy changes in the way we look at, and treat Planet Earth today, future generations of children will have learned by example.

Teach the Children

My children love the outdoors, because I expose them to it. They also love computers, and I am sure if we exposed them to fast foods they would love that as well. It’s all about making good choices and being a good example. I’m not talking about wearing hemp clothing or eating granola all day long although there are those who do. You do not have to be that committed to be a part of the “Green Initiative”. For those who merely have a healthy respect for the world we live in and want to take action to help improve the environment, there are many simple changes that we can make, and teach our children to do the same.

Recycling

There is more to recycling than paper, plastic and bottles. Organic waste is one of the largest contributors to landfills which causes methane gas, the principle component of natural gas, is released into the atmosphere and is a contributing factor in the depletion of the ozone layer, which in turn plays a major part in global warming. Organic waste such as leaves, grass clippings, and non-animal food scraps do not decompose efficiently enough in landfills yet makes the best compost for your vegetable garden, flowers, trees and shrubs.

Composting is Easy

Composting can also be fun, especially if you enjoy gardening, and is even more rewarding when you think about the thousands of acres of open space being saved through the very simple practice of recycling and composting. All good gardeners know that there is nothing better for your plants and turf than good old fashioned hand made compost. There are many different types of composters on the market today that make the task of composting very easy and will protect against attracting stray or wild animals. You can even quicken the process of making compost by using safe and organic composting accelerators giving you compost within a few weeks.

Use Organic Products

Using organic fertilizers and control products also cuts down on soil, air and ground water pollution. Sure it’s easy to buy a bag of name brand fertilizer or pesticide; however it is just as easy to find organic products now more than ever. In fact, it is also just as cheap. The larger name brand companies are beginning to put out their own lines of organic gardening products, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Getting Rid of Insects

Rather than spraying for insects which would be both timely and costly, install a bat box or two in your trees and let them take care of the bugs for you! Adding ladybugs or praying mantis to your garden is much more fun than spraying weekly for bugs. If you live in a rural area and zoning allows for livestock, chickens are an amazing bug control. Yes, just a couple of chickens running loose in your yard will eat up to 1 million fleas and ticks daily.

Conserving Water

Where droughts are prevalent each year conserving water is a must. Watering your yard can account for up to 40% of water consumption. Catching rainwater with rain barrels to water your yard or garden is just as easy as dragging out your hose and will save you a substantial amount of money on your water bill. One 80 gallon rain barrel can capture 3,275 gallons of water per year and you’ll be putting the water back into the underground aquifer. Not routing rainwater from your roof to your garden will only serve to tax drainage systems rather than benefit vegetation or replenish natural, underground aquifers.

Most rain barrels are made from either 100% recycled plastic or reused food industry barrels, so either way you will also be putting renewable resources to good use and your plants and flowers will thank you for it.

Plant a Tree

Every tree planted helps remove CO2 from our atmosphere, depletion of the ozone layer. There are many other benefits to growing trees in your own yard or community for that matter. They provide homes and a safe haven for the many wild animals that still reside among us. Mature trees help shade our home from the sun, cutting down on energy consumption when using air conditioning. One of the more proactive and well established non-profit organizations is the Arbor Day Foundation which encourages the planting and care of trees worldwide.

Pervious Patios and Walkways

For every 1,000 square feet of pervious patio, driveways or walkways, you can prevent an average of 12,100 gallons of storm water runoff from going into your communities drain system. This same water will help to recharge our lakes, wetlands and groundwater.

Green Up the Inside of Your Home

Green Living not only pertains to what affects us outside, but on the inside of the home as well.

We can reduce waste going into landfills by composting our table scraps. We can save precious trees by using toilet paper made from recycled paper, and to stop using napkins and paper towels all together. An average household can save up to $120.00 per year by not buying paper towels and napkins. How do you go without them? Use cloth napkins that can be washed. And for wiping up spills and cleaning, there is nothing better to use than cloth rags.

Changing out your old traditional light bulbs for the energy saving type is an easy switch. Not only do they last longer, they run on less energy, which saves you money and the world precious resources. Wrapping your hot water heater, insulating your electrical outlets, and sealing leaky windows can also save lots of energy. Then there are the really simple changes one can make such as, turning off the lights when you are not in the room, keep the heat turned back to 68 degrees or below, only use the air conditioning when necessary, washing your clothes in cold water and only when you have a full load and that goes for the dishwasher too. You can save and cool your boiled cooking or bath water to water your houseplants. The list could go on and on…

Make a List

There are many changes that you can to help improve our environment. Gather everyone in your household and discuss how your family can contribute to the health of the world we live in. Children are the most receptive to new ideas and will have a lot of fun making their own top ten lists. By our making good choices today, our children will make even better choices tomorrow.

About the Author:
This article may be reproduced and/or distributed. Written by Vera Pappas, Co-owner of Green Nation Gardens, suppliers of unique and eco-friendly green living products for home and garden. Visit GreenNationGardens.com Today!

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Green Living Tips