If you are concerned about the environmental impact of shipping your parcels and packages overseas, there are many ways that you can minimise it. Reducing your carbon footprint is something that you can do in all areas of your life, including when you send items abroad. Here are five effective ways to reduce your environmental impact the next time you send a package overseas.
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Recycling is one of the easiest things you can do to protect the environment and improve the quality of living. While recycling may be important for us as human beings, it’s even more important for the future of our environment. Here are some great tips to help you help the environment!
By finding a convenient place to collect all recyclable items, you can’t complain about it ever being “easier” to throw your plastic bottle in the regular garbage can. Set up recycling bins in your kitchen or your garage, this way when it comes time to recycle something, you have a specific spot you know you’re supposed to put it. Read the rest of this entry »
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When it comes to metal, everybody has their favorite Whether you love gold that glitters, swoon over sparkling silver or can’t be parted from your platinum, it always seems to be the precious and rare ones that get all the attention but what about some of the more common metals? While these expensive examples live the high life, important everyday materials such as aluminium and copper are taken for granted. Just look at the way we commemorate wedding anniversaries. The long and successful marriages of 25, 50 or 70 years are dubbed silver, gold and platinum respectively whereas poor tin is used for just 10 years. Still an achievement in marriage terms of course, but rarely as celebrated as some of its illustrious cousins. So with this in mind, here are a few ways you can recycle those old tins. Let’s show our appreciation to our humble friend tin and do our bit for the environment in the process.
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For those who still remember that prescient maxim spouted by physics teachers the world over – energy is never lost, just converted – now might be the time to consider what this means for our homes. For most of us, turning off the light when we leave a room is automatic. Knowing what other changes to make in order to save energy, though, can be trickier, yet the solutions we choose don’t have to be groundbreaking. Here are my top tips to drastically save money and protect the environment, from the small to the large.
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Sounds simple enough, yet how?
Being a vagabond is great and all, but I also believe in community and sustainability! How could I accomplish all parts of my equation at once? I mean, isn’t community and sustainability accomplished successfully by living in one location with a group of people, following models of communal or group living, farming and running co-ops? And isn’t tramping around comprised of moving from one place to another quite often, rarely being somewhere long enough to build community or become part of an already established one, coupled with spending way too much time in cars, busses, trains, or airplanes and chain supermarkets to be sustainable? Read the rest of this entry »
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What was that rustling in the bushes near the pond? It sounded like pebbles or twigs falling through the leaves, yet the air was still. The curious noise stopped me as I walked to the barn. Looking up, I could see something shaking a topmost branch of the butternut tree. Then I spotted the red squirrel knocking butternuts from the twigs and letting them fall down through the branches and brush to the ground. Later he will gather them one by one to store under the stonewall or perhaps in a tree trunk.
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Most of the information that is available on being “green” reflects actions that you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. These recommendations focus on things like recycling, being more responsible in selecting products and using less energy. One that is often neglected is family disaster preparedness. This is an area of being “green” that we all need to spend a little time on.
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Whether you like it or not, the bad weather is coming, and it’s going to arrive hard and right in your face. If last year’s winter is anything to go by in the UK then we will be in for more heavy snow, ridiculously low temperatures and high winds. The country was fairly caught out last year and many roads and railways were disrupted. Read the rest of this entry »
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Composting is the best way to achieve two noble ideas into practical action. Of course, a kitchen compost bucket and other similar containers are necessary. Basically, a kitchen compost bucket can be anything from a simple manual bucket with a tight lid to an electronic device with a turning mechanism where the raw materials for compost can be mixed. Many dedicated do-it-yourself enthusiasts can make their own kitchen compost containers from scrap materials like old pails although many homeowners will also want to purchase ready-made composting containers for convenience. These ready-made kitchen compost buckets can be purchased from online sites and gardening supply stores. Naturally, online shopping comes highly-recommended.
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The sight of nature is such a stress buster that many of us are longing for that nature trip. Well, if we weren’t limited by our budgets, people would not be playing virtual farming games on the Internet just to get their dose of nature. And unlike what you see in Farmville, you really don’t need hectares of land to cultivate nor a special education on agriculture. Some have turned to their own backyards for a relaxing and nurturing activity which is home gardening. Not only it is a great hobby to get into, but it also makes any yard appearance priceless. And just like your online farm, they could be equally easy to grow and understand.
There are even apps that can work with your mobile device on how to nurse dying plants to health which is one of the most discouraging scenarios for new gardeners. So fret not, use your modern gadgetry for nature and check out the following apps that are all you need for a green thumb.
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As the winter months lie ahead temperatures can be expected to plummet, meaning high utility bills for homeowners as they try to minimize chattering teeth and goose bumps. With constant rises in the cost of electricity and gas it’s important for homeowners to try and keep whatever heat they produce within the four walls of their home so they don’t essentially, burn money. Practicing good insulation techniques can help to reduce the amount of heat lost, making for a warm home at a lower cost. Read the rest of this entry »
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Most of us may give very little thought to the water that gushes out of our faucets every time we turn them one. The cost of the water we use only becomes apparent when a bill comes through our letter box at the end of each month. Water is a valuable commodity that we should not take for granted and here are 5 changes you can make that will help you save water and cut your bill.
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If you’re environmentally aware and interested in doing your bit, the best place to start is at home. Here are seven simple things you can do to make it more eco friendly…
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Offices have been so renowned for producing excessive waste that laws have had to be implemented to prevent hazardous materials from being disposed of in a regular wheelie bin. Allegedly twice as much waste is produced from commercial buildings than residential ones. In 2010 the environment minister dismissed the suggestion of implementing general recycling laws on businesses. Instead he decided that encouraging companies to recycle would be more effective than forcing them to do so. However, disposing of hazardous waste inappropriately is still illegal.
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Have you ever seen a tree trunk painted white? How about lavender? Maybe you thought the people who owned these trees were just crazy? Maybe they wanted to paint their trees to match their house or to make their yard look pretty? Well actually there is a logical reason behind it.
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Every year it seems like gas costs more than it did the year before. Of course, your paycheck is probably not increasing at the same rate, so gas price increases can put a dent in your budget. If you are paying so much for gas that you are worried you are going to have to visit a cash for cars store, sell your car, and start walking everywhere, do not worry. There are five easy ways that you can save on gas while driving.
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Our home guzzles up a lot of energy and though you may be living a greener lifestyle taking public transportation or carrying re-usable bags at the shops, there are still a lot to be done at the domestic department. Many studies now prove the devastating results of carbon emission on global warming and as carers of this planet, we must do our bit to guarantee the safe conditions we’ve had for the future generation. Read the rest of this entry »
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People all over the world are becoming more and more interested in ‘greening’ their homes and getting a healthier lifestyle for themselves. Awareness of what we are doing to the planet is making us look at what we are also doing to ourselves, our lifestyles and the health of the planet seem to run in parallel.
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I just read about a new type of solar based water heaters for households, that are already on the market. The setup is pretty much the same as with normal solar water heaters. There are panels for absorbing solar heat, a pump and a an indoor tank for accumulation. But with this type, there is no water circulating. Instead the system uses gas that will boil at a temperature about 0 degrees. The gas will then be transported inside to a compressor and this will create a temperature at about 100 degrees. The pump and compressor uses a minimum of electricity – far less than the popular ground- air- or lake heating system.
The amazing thing about this setup is that:
I just came across this Canadian invention that lets you reuse the thermal energy from your shower. The great thing about is that is so simple and it is has no moving parts meaning no energy consumption. The downside is that it has to be build in with your drain. This is on my list for my future house. Check it out at http://www.ecodrain.ca/
The cold water that you usually mix with the hot water gets heated by the used water. This increases the efficiency of the water heater by 25%-40%, says ecodrain.
