Quick Tips

While a wide selection of all natural cleaning products are lining more supermarket shelves then ever before, you might be impressed to find one of the most natural cleaners right in your refrigerator. Lemons have long been known for their fresh scent, but most people are unaware that their high acid content makes them a powerful antibacterial cleaning agent. Here are some great ways to use lemon while cleaning:

• Clean and sanitize your microwave by heating a combination of several thin slices of lemon and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe bowl for about one minute. Any lingering bacteria will be killed by the citric acid’s antibacterial properties. Additionally, the fresh lemon scent will help rid your microwave of any lingering odors.
• Rid your shower or tub of soap scum by spraying their walls with pure lemon juice. The citric acid will help break down the tough soap scum, and work to sanitize the overall environment.
• Watch the dirt and grime on your windows quickly dissolve like never before when you apply a mixture of four tablespoons of lemon juice and a half-gallon of water.

Avoid harsh pest control in your garden with a variety of all natural methods. Hand picking beetles or leaf munching caterpillars from your vegetables may seem like a lot of work, but there’s no doubt that it gets the job done. You can also apply a mixture of dish soap with water to the leaves of your plants to help kill any pests. However, make sure to do early in the day, rinsing the leaves with water soon after or the sun may burn the leaves of your plants.  Garlic oil and hot pepper spray are also well known for getting a handle on pest problems in the garden.

Companion planting works to combine plants that have a higher tendency to attract pests with those that pests tend to avoid. This works to benefit certain plants by providing them with pest control-without the use of harsh chemicals. The following are some examples of plants that work well for companion planting:

• Lettuce with strawberry/cucumber
• asparagus with tomato/basil/parsley
• onions with beets/lettuce/carrots
• cucumber with beans/sunflower/peas
• roses with chives
• spinach with strawberry/faba beans
• tomato with parsley/marigold/onion

When out for a walk, keep your pet on a leash to help protect the surrounding natural environment. This can also prevent possible harm to smaller animals who might be nearby in their own natural habitat. Additionally, using biodegradable bags to clean up your pet’s waste will help prevent it from becoming immortalized six feet under in the local landfill.

If you want to take it one step further however, try composting your dog or cat’s waste. Not every one has a yard that can accommodate this process, but doing so can help protect our waterways from being contaminated by run off containing pet waste.

To better green your feline’s zone, begin by nixing the clay-based kitty litter, which takes several decades to decompose. Produced by strip-mining, clay-based kitty litter is created through a process that causes irreversible damage to the environment. Reduce your cat’s carbon paw print by switching to biodegradable brand of litter, or consider making your own. This can be done by mixing a ¼ cup of baking soda into a litter box filled with shredded newspaper or chicken scratch (a combination of ground corn and seeds). Adding cedar chips will provide a fresh scent, but is completely optional. Scoop and dispose the litter as you normally would, or compost it to create a great fertilizer for trees and shrubs.

We love and treat our pets like family, so why not choose a greener lifestyle for them as well? Instead of picking up toys you know your pet will shred within a few days, opt for products made  from stronger, more durable materials such as hemp. When picking out fun toys play toys for  your pooch, choose toys made from nontoxic substances, such as Zogoflex, a tough rubber-like material designed to be recycled.

You can also provide your pet with a greener lifestyle in regard to its bedding. Avoid purchasing a new pet bed in the first place-they’re usually pricey anyhow, and tend to be made with cheap, low grade fabric and fillers that easily fall apart over a short amount of time. Instead make your own pet bedding by giving new life to some household materials you probably already have on hand. Making a re-purposed pet bed can be done in little time, and only requires minimal sewing skills. To create the outer case of the bed simply find  two old bath towels, lay one over the other, and after aligning them sew the towels together, leaving about a six inch hole for stuffing. Turn the case inside out so that the stitching is on the inside, and stuff with whatever soft materials you have available, such as old pillows, socks, or blankets. Presto, you now have a fabulous re-purposed pet bed!

When it comes to feeding our families we do our best to choose healthy, all natural ingredients, so why not choose the same when it comes to feeding our pets? Make the switch by swapping out the low-grade pet food (junk food) for pet food that consists of natural and organic ingredients. Most conventional pet foods come from contents that are otherwise unfit for human consumption. Although these products might sustain your pooch, they also tend to include pesticides, hormones, and artificial preservatives and ingredients-all of which do nothing to promote and healthy lifestyle. Feeding your pet all natural foods that contain nutrients and vitamins, and have been preserved with natural substances help deter illness and disease, while also increasing Fido’s longevity.  Also, look for an all natural and organic pet food that has been minimally processed, created within humane conditions, and produced with sustainability in mind. Recommended: Blue Buffalo.

Going green goes out the door when it comes to American’s consumption of paper goods like paper towels and napkins. You can’t reuse them and recycling used towels and napkins is rare. According to figures from the EPA on municipal solid waste, we send about 6.8 billion pounds of disposable tissue products to landfills annually – tissue, paper towels, napkins, etc. – wads and wads of them, and less than o.5 percent of them get recycled.

So what do you do? Try cloth dish towels and rags. Definitely say no to paper when drying hands, wiping counters, drying dishes, etc. Turn your fam and friends onto cloth napkins. A throw back to days gone by, but a perk for the future for sure.

When you do have to grab the paper stuff, be sure to purchase recycled and chlorine free products. Get smart though – just because the label says “recycled” doesn’t always mean what it says. It could mean it’s made from leftovers from virgin paper runs, not post consumer recycled paper. Post consumer good, virgin paper bad.

Our paper product recommendations: Seventh Generation and Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value Paper Towels.

One hundred years ago 99.99% of people got by without cars. They took the train, they lived near their workplaces…. and they walked. Using fuel efficient cars is important, but we can save even more fuel by simply driving less and driving smart.

Check out public commuter options, and consider carpooling. Commute Smart makes it terribly easy (and profitable) to cut down on emissions, gas costs, and even make friends. They connect you with folks from your job and your community who are willing to carpool and then they pay you to do it! Sold!

Items you may be throwing away can contaminate land and water for thousands of years. Sure you won’t be here, but someone will and they will be dealing with your waste. You know the cycle…

Most communities have special disposal procedures for things like used oil and batteries. For instance used cooking oil can be taken to one of the City of Hoover’s nine fire stations for recycling into biodiesel fuel. Contact 205-444-7655 or fire@ci.hoover.al.us for locations.

Items like ink cartridges can probably be recycled where you bought them. And many of the new CFL bulbs contain mercury, so proper disposal is crucial. Check with the store you buy them from for options for proper disposal.

Bring your bags with you. By taking reusable bags to the grocery store, you can cut down on the 350 bags the average American uses each year and reduce needless deaths of marine life caused by plastic bags that end up in streams, rivers and oceans.

We know, we know… recycling in the City and surrounding areas is not a robust amenity. Curb-side pick up is not a given for all residents, so many of us have to cart our recyclables to the nearest center. “But where is it?” That’s the question we get from a lot of our followers, and we are so glad the Alabama Environmental Council hooked us up with the answer!

The AEC recently added a search database for you to locate places to recycle a variety of materials and items. Simply select the item(s) you plan to recycle and plug in your zip code, and voila! You are off to the nearest location to your home to get your recycle on.

Don’t forget the AEC Recycling Center is a wonderful resource in the heart of downtown Birmingham to take your recyclables.

When was the last time you actually looked something up in a phone book? Many folks opt to use their smart phones and the internet to look up phone numbers and addresses.

If you don’t use paper phone books, call to stop delivery all together. Telephone books make up almost 10 % of waste at dump sites. To discontinue the delivery of your phone book, contact AT&T at 888-757-6500 (open Mon-Fri 8am – 7pm EST & Sat 8am -5pm EST).

It’s happened to us all before – you order one item from a company, and then suddenly you are on their list to receive every catalog (and there affiliates catalog) in the mail. A total waste of paper, especially considering most major retailers have their catalogs available for perusing on-line.

Reduce the amount of catalogs mailed to you. Catalog choice is a free service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive. Sign up at: www.catalogchoice.org

You will easily reduce your yearly mail by several pounds and a few thousand sheets of paper.

Quick Tip: Give up the paper cups

Yes, we know it’s so tempting to grab a paper cup every once and a while – especially in the hustle and bustle of the office environment.  Unfortunately, it’s just not worth it!

There are an average of 130 billion paper cups used in the United States every year.  They are usually coated, so they can’t be recycled or composted, which means total waste.

Stay committed to using a mug or thermos – even when the convenience of a paper cup seems so attractive!  After all, no one ever said being a greenie was easy…

Quick Tip:
Give up the Hollywood showers – 20 minutes in the shower equals wasted gallons of water. Decrease your shower time and install some water saving gadgets to conserve more.

Install a low-flow showerhead to save 15 to 25 gallons of water per day (depending on the number of people showering in your home). You will also save on energy and hot water bills if your hot water tank is well insulated and the proper size for your home.

You can even go one green step further, by also installing low-flow toilets and aerators in all your faucets. You can find all theses supplies at any local home improvement store.

In case you didn’t know: “aerators restrict the flow of water, compressing it into a higher-pressure discharge than regular faucets. They also introduce air bubbles into the water, making it feel like there is a larger water flow. They reduce water flow by about 50 percent or more.”www.energyhawk.com

Quick Tip:

Cleaning-up a broken CFL light bulb is not as easy as pulling out the broom and dustpan. CFL bulbs contain small amounts of mercury which if consumed can be dangerous to your health. Don’t worry, the mercury can’t harm you just by using the bulb, however, proper clean up is necessary if one breaks.

Check out Energy Star’s guide to cleaning-up broken CFL bulbs:

http://energystar.custhelp.com/

Select question #8

Quick Tip:
Separate bottle caps from your recyclable bottles.

Contrary to popular belief, plastic caps from shampoo, detergent, water bottles and more are not easily recyclable. You are actually tainting your good works, by not separating the two.

Bottle caps can get caught in the nooks and crannies of recycling machines, causing them to stall or even break down. However, there is a solution!

Richard Joseph SalonSpa and the Alabama Environmental Council are teaming up to recycle plastic bottle caps. Take your caps to Richard Jospeph SalonSpa or have a box sent to you for collection. All caps are sent to Aveda for recycling.

For more information check out www.richardjosephsalonspa.com/

Quick Tip:
Freshen up your indoor air with a little green.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently ranks indoor air pollution near the top of a handful of constant threats to human health. (Not good.) As a matter of fact, indoor air is normally two to five times more polluted than outside air. And to think, you thought you were getting away from all of the outdoor pollution by escaping to the sanctuary of your home.

One solution to this problem is to utilize purifying plants in your home. Some of the most effective plants are bamboo palm, Chinese evergreen, dragon tree, English Ivy, peace lily, and snake plant. (Unfortunately, some can be hard to find locally, so try searching on-line.)

These plants reduce carbon dioxide, reduce airborne chemicals and VOCs (stuff that comes from cleaners and paint in your home), and cultivate healthy levels of humidity.

Who knew a potted plant could be so multi-functional!

Quick Tip:
Say no to take-out extras.

In the land of the drive-thru, carryout, and delivery it’s easy to forget you’re a greenie when trying to eat between appointments or needing a quick fix for dinner idea desperation.

On a recent trip to a local fast food restaurant in Birmingham, the MGB.com crew assessed the extras of carryout dining. For two grilled chicken salad orders, we received plastic silverware (fork, knife, spoon, and salt and pepper packets), a super-sized plastic bag, way too many napkins, a flier advertising restaurant specials, and a menu – all waste that we didn’t need.

Try specifying in your order that you only need your food and none of the additional fanfare. When you can, place your order inside and take in one of your reusable totes to carryout your order. If taking your food home, be sure to also say no to plastic silverware and condiments and use your own.

Show those fast-foodies what being a greenie is all about!

Quick tip: All across our city pots and pots of coffee are brewed every day. From the home to the office, many of us can’t function without that morning cup of java. Take your coffee experience one step further by reusing the coffee grounds as fertilizer for your plants, and as other household remedies.

Here are some ideas:
• Old coffee grounds are nutrient-rich for plants that thrive in an acidic soil; Add used coffee grounds to the pots of indoor plants and work used coffee grounds into your garden soil before seed planting. After your plants start to emerge, work in coffee grounds near the plants.
• Wipe out nasty scents in your fridge with a bowl of coffee grounds and a splash of vanilla
• Remove furniture scratches with wet coffee grounds and a diaper rag.

If you want to pick up some extra grounds for composting and fertilizing or for your other household needs, stop by your local coffee shop and offer to take them off their hands. Many will be happy to share them with you!