the ecomoderate

Sometimes it feels like there isn’t enough time in the day for everything let alone living a more eco-friendly lifestyle.  But here’s a few easy and painless actions you can take to get you on the right track:

• Put leftovers in reusable storage containers.
• Buy a lunch box/bag for work or school, and reuse containers instead of using plastic bags, waxed paper or aluminum foil to store foods.
• Don’t forget to recycle all aluminum cans and plastic bottles, including plastic bottles from laundry soap.
• Recycle all newspapers; write on both sides of a piece of paper before recycling it.
• Buy a reusable shopping bag.
• Most grocery stores have a plastic-bag recycling bin.
• Instead of buying new books and magazines, obtain a library card. Libraries are a wonderful place to visit and explore.
• Buy items that you use a lot — such as cereal, snacks, fruits and vegetables — in bulk.
• You can replace paper towels by using a hand towel and a sponge to clean up spills. Also, a dishcloth does a great job cleaning dishes. All of these items can be laundered and hung out to dry.
• Buy appliances that offer lower energy consumption.
• Buy low-energy fluorescent light bulbs rather than incandescent ones.
• Rent, borrow or share household goods that are infrequently used, such as a power tools, ladders, garden tillers and rug cleaners.
• Recycle clothing by donating to a local charity or reselling at a local thrift store, a garage sale or a bazaar. Hand-me-down gently used clothing is a wonderful way to save money and be environmentally friendly, plus you can add it as a write off for your taxes.
• Avoid littering, and always recycle. Most states have a litter-patrol program, which you can join to help keep neighborhoods litter-free.
• If your community or waste management vendor does not have a recycling program, call the local municipality and offer to start one.

We are definitely a technology driven society! The new iPhone arrives in stores and it sells out in minutes. The Wii is a whole other story.

Now that you have the latest and greatest what do you do with the old one? That’s a question I have been asking myself every time I see the dinosaur fax machine sitting in my garage and the XBOX 360 my husband played for about 2 weeks a few years back.

In fact, according to the EPA 66.5 million pounds of used electronics were recycled in 2008.

E-waste is growing three times the rate of other municipal waste.

TVs are only a small part of this growing problem. If electronics that contain lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium such as; electronic circuit boards, batteries and color cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are improperly disposed of these toxins are released into the environment through landfill leachate or incinerator ash.

Responsible recycling of your e-waste will alleviate some of the environmental burden.  In fact, in just one year, over 112 million pounds of steel, glass, plastic and precious metals were recovered from disposed electronics.

Visit the Earth911 website for a list of recycling locations near you. Or try RadioShack’s Online Trade-In Program and get a Radio Shack gift card for your e-waste.  Just don’t throw it in the trash.