There are many publications & websites with more than enough information on how to live green. Although being a realtor in Toronto gives me plenty of changes to talk about the many ways of eco-friendly living with my clients, my topic today will be a bit more specific. Most people have already read the most important eco-tips, so we are not going to try to summarize them here again. Instead, I would like to contemplate on groceries, water and electric current - as the three fundamental resources that we, who live in developed countries, tend to use without further thinking.
Food
As I hope that most people don’t just dump paper, glass and metal waste but recycle it, the rest of your household rubbish will be mainly groceries. The majority of the food that we throw out is in most cases in perfect condition and in some cases even in the original wrapper or box. The shocking fact is that between 20 and 30% of all food bought by Canadian families is dumped later. Together with the food thrown out in shops and restaurants, it makes between 7 and 14 billion tonnes of food dumped annually. Speaking in money language, it means annual waste of $3 to 5 billion {in Canadian dollars).
These figures are quite surprising, aren’t they? With so many organizations trying to help people affected by lack of food, while at the same time so much of it is being wasted straight under our noses. Now you might decide “OK, so I will take our leftovers, pack it and send it somewhere else where people are hungry.” But hold your horses, that is not the smartest thing to do, we have some more practical advice for you. 1. Try using leftovers. For example if you had some rice remaining from yesterday’s dinner, you could have made stuffed peppers today. 2. A good way of preventing groceries going past the expiry date is arranging your food cabinet by this criteria: older food, that is going to expire soon, is stocked in the front, while the longer lasting products can stay in the back of the shelves. 3. It may happen that you know beforehand that there is some food you are not going to be able to use before its expiration date. Instead of throwing it out, try to find a local charity or soup kitchen and bring your food there when it’s still serviceable. If you cannot eat all the food you have bought, there are enough people even in your community who will be grateful to eat it - hunger is not limited to Africa. 4. Do not dump leftovers - mulch it. Maybe you will oppose that you don’t have a garden. But your neighbour might have one and may be able to help you to get rid of your leftovers.
Water
There are a lot of ways how to save water in your household, and I suppose you know at least a few of them too. But there is one interesting side of {home~household~family] water saving - toilets, as places we use to get rid of our excrements. Nowadays, toilets are absolutely inherent - when they are functioning alright, we don’t even need to pay any attention to them. But try to discover the amount of water your family uses every month just for flushing the toilet. You might be astonished by the big number you get out of this. And has it ever occurred to you that this amount is not essential, that flushing your toilet can be done using less water? You can try these two tips to using less water for flushing: 1. There are new types of toilets available, that are using just the minimum volume of water necessary. Just check out your local shop - you might be amazed what choices regarding toilets there are today! 2. Another way of reducing the amount of water for flushing is to fit a few plastic bottles filled with water into the tank of your toilet. It may take some time to find out just how much is the minimum volume of water for your toilet to keep functioning.
Electricity
Here the situation is similar to the one with water and wasting it - there are a lot of advices on how to save electric energy to be found in books, magazines and on the Internet. What I personally regard as being the biggest electricity waster is the commonly used tumble dryer. Nowadays, people are not used to waiting before they get something they want or need at the moment, and they sometimes consume too much energy getting it, just because it will be ready faster. Of course we no longer want or have the time to wash our clothing by hand, and it is true that by using dishwashers we can waste less water. However, think about tumble dryers. Ask yourself - do you really need your laundry to be dry instantly, instead of waiting one or two days for it to dry by itself? If you really wish to “live green”, use your tumble dryer only in crisis situations or get rid of it (sell it) altogether. In addition to the environment, you will save some money on your electricity bills as well.
{ 0 comments… add one now }