Tag: recycling

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Eco Tips Featured Recycling

4 Ways to Reduce Junk Mail and Paper Waste

Excess junk mail and paper waste… almost every household seems to have this problem. From credit card advertisements, free sweepstakes opportunities, magazine subscriptions you didn’t order, and of course the very popular free coupons. The coupons may come in handy.  As for everything else, the likelihood of them meeting your paper shredder is definite.  There are a few ways that you can decrease the pile of paper waste and junk mail in your home.

Unsubscribe Magazines and Newsletters: If you like receiving magazines or store catalogues, you can get these online.  For example, if you have a Nook, Kindle, or iPad, these subscriptions can be continued digitally and without the use of paper.  It would cost less as well to have your subscriptions electronically transferred to your portable reading device.

Opt-out: Sign up at the website optoutprescreen.com where you can remove your name and mailing address from the mailing list for credit card and insurance providers.  This will definitely decrease the amount of junk mail you receive!

Avoid Sweepstakes and Contests: If you have entered a contest or sweepstakes online, which requires you to give the website your home address, you will receive a lot of junk mail! Those guys won’t let you off easy.  They will want you to sign up for another contest or be part of a great deal in town! Try to avoid these sites.

Pay Bills Online: With current technology, banks, insurance companies, and other service providers have been able to give their customers the online bill pay option.  Rather than receive your bill in the mail, you can sign up online to receive an alert when the time comes to pay a certain bill. After that, you can go to the insurance site or your online bank account and pay the bill! That makes less bills coming through the mail. Most banks are trying to promote the option of bill paper to decrease the amount of paper waste!

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Eco Tips Furnishings Home Design Home Improvement

The Easiest Way to Conserve Water and Save Money

With a lot of the country in a serious drought (Kansas, Texas, Nebraska just to name a few), it is nice to know that the average consumer can make a difference saving water and money by just switching their showerhead! When you get a low-flow showerhead you are able to save you and your family some money and a lot of water.

The average American uses about 2,500 cubic feet of water every year, that’s the equivalence of about an Olympic sized swimming pool!  A typical shower uses up to 25 gallons of water and on average the typical American uses about 100 gallons of water daily (this number can change depending on the length of the shower.)

A low-flow shower head has the ability to cut your bathing water consumption by up to 70%. According to the EPA by “letting your faucet run for five minutes uses as much energy as it takes to keep a 60-watt light bulb lit for 14 hours.” Just by switching your shower head to a low-flow model you can save a lot over the course of a year:

  • With a traditional, 2.5gpm showerhead, you’ll use 5,250 gallons of water on showering in one year.
  • With a 1.5gpm, low-flow showerhead, you’ll use 3,150 gallons of water over the course of one year.

(Remember these numbers are an estimate and are based on a single person household, these numbers can double and triple depending on the amount of people in your home.)

Low-flow showerheads are super simple to install and start around $10. There are so many styles and variations you can choose from, there is bound to be something that you end up loving. For instance some models have “flow-adjusting dials and a pause button, which allows you to break for a bit of lathering up, then return to the same temperature and pressure.” If you are looking for a simple way to improve your water consumption and help reduce your water footprint, it’s time to take a trip to your local home improvement store!

Sources: lowflowshowerheads.org, (http://lowflowshowerheads.info/water-saving-stats/), hometips.org, (http://www.hometips.com/buying-guides/showerheads-low-flow.html).

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Articles Featured Recycling

5 Things You Should Be Recycling

You should already have the basics of recycling down — glass, plastic, paper. However, there are plenty of other household items and materials that can be re-used. Have you thought about recycling hangers, pantyhose or sporting equipment? We’d love to hear about other household items that you recycle. Feel free to send us an email or post helpful comments with your suggestions.

Dry Cleaning Hangers. Dry cleaners are thrilled to have you bring your hangers back for recycling since it saves them the added time and money it takes to buy new ones.

Plastic Grocery Bags. Check to see if your local grocery store has a recycling container for plastic grocery bags outside the main entrance.

Panty Hose. No Nonsense started the first panty hose recycling program and they accept all brands. No Nonsense turns used panty hose into park benches, playground equipment, ropes, and even carpeting. Call 1-800-575-3497 for more information.

CFL Light Bulbs. CFL light bulbs can be taken in to your local Home Depot for recycling. These bulbs also contain mercury, which is toxic to people and the environment, so it’s especially important that they are disposed of in an eco-friendly manner.

Used Sporting Equipment. Equipment that is still useable can be donated to a local Goodwill store or taken to a second-hand sporting good store such as Play It Again Sports.

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Articles Home Decor Recycling

3 Great Ways to Recycle Wine Bottles

Most of us have played the role of party host and then noticed an array of empty wine bottles left around the house in the aftermath. Sure, you can toss the bottles into a blue recycling bin, but how about getting a little creative? Here are three fun ways you can get the most out of those empty wine bottles after the toast:

  • Cut a small circular hole about a half inch wide in the bottom of the bottle with a glass cutter, fill with a short strand of Christmas lights, put the cork back in the top, and add some raffia to create a unique lighting solution for the top of your wine cabinet or bar area.
  • Use angled cuts on bottles with a glass cutter to create an eco-friendly vase for flowers or vines.
  • Look online or ask your local wine boutique if they sell forged iron wine bottle candelabras. Wisteria.com and WineEnthusiast.com both sell wine bottle candelabras that can be inserted right into the neck of the empty bottle.