Green living is one of the best ways to lead a life that has a good balance of both ecology and economy. Contrary to popular beliefs, living green does not have to compromise your comfort or convenience. Green living is fairly straightforward once you figure out the ins and outs of living a green life. Here are the 5 easy tips that can get you started on living a green life:
1. Laundry cleaning can be very cost-effective if the rinse is done with cold water. According to a research conducted by the office of sustainability at Tufts University, about 90% of energy used in your laundry cleaning goes to heating the water. Rinsing with cold water will reduce your energy costs significantly and reduce your electricity bill.
2. As per the research conducted by US Environmental Protection Agency, fixing leaky faucets and toilets can save you about 3000 gallons of water every year! Just add food dye to your toilet tank – if the color shows up in bowl within 30 minutes, it means that your faucet is leaking. Don’t flush away your money, fix your faucets and toilets and save water in doing so.
3. Get a water filter for your home instead of drinking bottled water. Doing so will reduce your use of plastic bottles which in turn will result in less waste and more savings. About 40 million plastic bottles are thrown away every day with the garbage. What makes the problem worse is the slower-than-needed rate of recycling these plastic bottles. Use of steel made water bottles for office and commuting is quickly growing as a trend.
4. Eliminating meat just for one day a week can save about 5000 gallons of water for the whole year. Cows produce 1 lb of beef of every 2500 lbs of water they consume. From a bigger perspective, meat is one of the least energy-efficient foods. Moreover, livestock produces a lot of waste. According to Natural Resources Defense Council, livestock produces 130 times the amount of waste as generated by humans. Adopting vegetarian diet just one day a week is can result in a lot of long-term benefits. Besides, contrary to popular beliefs, vegetarian diet a wallet-friendly diet. The cheapest ground beef costs about $3 a pound, whereas, dried beans and lentils cost about $1 a pound.
5. Most of the home water heaters are set to 140 degrees – this is a little too hot for household water needs. Turning down your water heater to 120 degrees will do the job just as well. It will also result in significant energy savings. Additionally, according to a study conducted by Pace Law School Energy Project, just turning down your water heater by 10 degrees will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide by 400 lbs.
Developing greener habits is not as difficult as it appear. Starting out with making small choices and simple practices adds up to a major change in long run. Every single green decision that we make helps this world become a better place.