Quick Tips

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

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/

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!

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!

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!

Combat water waste by incorporating rain or moisture sensors in your outdoor sprinkler system.

Moisture sensors tell your sprinklers to spray only when your garden’s dry (and save you up to 40% of your outdoor water use), while rain sensors shut your sprinklers off when it rains (saving you up to 10%).

These are savings that will definitely saturate your next water bill!

MGB Recommends: Nelson EZ Pro Moisture Sensor – reads soil moisture and other characteristics, and waters as necessary; install it beneath your lawn ($250).

Toro Wireless Rain Sensor – rain sensor that lets you choose when your sprinklers should shut off based on rainfall; setup takes as little as 10 minutes ($48).

Use reusable fabrics and bags instead of traditional wrapping paper for gifts.

Did you know, if every American family wrapped just three gifts in reused or reusable materials, we’d all save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields, every year?Enough said!

Consider using tea towels or wine bags, or even craft your own bags and wrapping from cuts of old clothes or linens.

We know, it sounds like a stretch, but is saves money and won’t generate additional waste!

Let the package be your guide.

All things being equal, select foods at your local market and other items that have less packaging. The less packaging you have to get rid of, the better the world is, right?

Don’t toss it out – re-engineer it!

Stop and think before you automatically consider a broken item destine for the trash. Maybe it can be reincarnated before it leaves your home. You may be able to do some dismantling and salvage parts to reuse yourself or to recycle, donate, or sell.

For example, the wheels and handle from a broken push lawn mower can be reused in building a wagon for your little one. A broken broom handle can be used as a plant stick or hanging rod.

Get into the habit of looking at broken items differently to help divert as much as possible from the waste stream.

So your package has been delivered, now what? Keep the packaging materials on the move – recycle the materials used to ship your goods.

If you receive a shipment packaged in plastic peanuts or that crackly plastic stuff, locate a shipping company, like the UPS Store or Pak Mail that will take them off your hands.

Check out the Plastic Loose Fill Council at www.loosefillpackaging,com to locate the closest drop-off location where leftover plastic packaging can be reused. Yeah, there’s a website for that too.

Running shoes worn out? Grind them up!

Recycle your worn out athletic shoes through Nike. They will take them off your hands and turn them into Nike Grind – a material used in sports surfaces. How cool is that?

Fore more details, check out www.nikereuseashoe.com.

So if you are going to break the greenie cardinal rule and buy plastic, at least buy “good plastic.”

When buying plastic containers, try to buy those that are labeled with a 1 or 2 within the chasing arrows symbol. These two types of plastics are widely recycled. Avoid buying plastics with numbers 3 through 7 – they are difficult to recycle.

If you are still trying to figure out the green thing, at least let your appliances take some of the guesswork out of it for you.

Purchase energy efficient, “smart,” appliances, like a dryer with a moisture sensor setting. The dryer will automatically shut off when the clothes are dry, saving energy, water, and wear and tear on your clothes.

Even though they’re so much fun to play with, ditch the foam peanuts (polystyrene) when packing items to ship.

Use crumpled newspapers as packing material instead. The production of polystyrene depletes the ozone and takes several hundred years to degrade in landfills. Need we say more?

After hauling all of Christmas lights down from the attic, you anxiously plug in the first strand only to be dissapointed by a big fat nothing. What can you do with old, broken holiday lights?

Recycle them!

Many home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s will recycle used holiday lights, but for a local resource, try Technical Knock Out. They will take your used lights for free. All you have to do is drop them off!

Look them up in our Green Guide under “Recycling.”

So it’s happened again… the drain is clogged! Don’t run out to the store and purchase toxic chemicals to get things flowing again.

To fix a slow drain, pour half a cup of baking soda down the drain and follow it with half a cup of white vinegar. Let it sit for twenty minutes to a half hour, then pour about two quarts of boiling water down the drain.

Purchase renewable energy:

Did you know that buying two 50kWh block of Renewable Energy per month for a year is equivalent to planting 125 trees or not driving 2,000 miles, according to Alabama Power Company? Wow!

Doing so can help reduce emissions from fossil fuels and, is also relatively inexpensive with a minimum $2.25 per month premium to replace 5% of your average energy usage.

To learn more about Renewable Energy, visi thttp://www.alabamapower.com/residential/renewable.asp

Recent studies have revealed that the water in our nation’s lakes and oceans are chock full of hormones, medications and other toxins. If you are dumping your meds down the drain or simply throwing them in the trash, sadly, you are most likley contributing this very dangerous problem. “Disposal via the toilet takes your drugs into the local sewage system. Modern water treatment plants are not fully designed to deal with medication disposal. The long-term health risks posed by consumption of even minimal quantities of these medications in drinking water and the full extent of environmental damage remains unknown.” (about.com) Yikes!

Instead of trashing your expired meds or flushing them down the toilet, consider taking them back to the pharmacy from which they came.

Cheers!  Here’s a tip for choosing your next bottle of wine

The buzzword with wines these days seems to be organic. Rumor even has it that there’s no hangover if you buy organic. Perhaps. But there’s more to it than how you feel the next day.  “When you put the label ‘organic’ on something, it’s likely to sell,” says wine enthusiast Christy Farr. “But sustainability is the thing that really matters.” So what’s the difference? “A wine may be organic, but it’s not necessarily sustainable,” says Farr. “Sustainability integrates the whole growing culture.”

Organic may reduce environmental impact on some of the growing process—meaning the growers may cut down, but not eliminate, the use of some pesticides. Sustainable growers are purists—there are no pesticides at all.

If you’re a resident of Hoover, then curbside recycling is a must! Recyclables should be placed on the street in appropriate containers by 7 am on Wednesday mornings. (To request a recycling bin, simply call 205.444.7796)

Recyclable items include: aluminum cans (no other products made of aluminum), glass, plastics with recycle labels embossed with numbers 1 through number 7, (no plastic flower vases), plastic bags (grocery and shopping), tin cans (food cans only, no paint cans or other products made of tin), paper, and cardboard.