Five Steps to Helping the Environment

Recycling – Around 75 percent of the items most households throw away to rot in landfills for hundreds of years are recyclable. Recycling is the process of taking materials from a old item to create a new one. This includes plastics, paper, metals, glass, and hazardous wastes. By recycling you can prevent dangerous chemicals from soaking into our groundwater and help protect our natural resources. For more information on recycling and to find a recycling center near you, Click Here.

Light Bulbs – By switching out your ordinary incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs you can save hundreds of dollars a year in lighting costs and help out the environment. Another great option is L.E.D.( light emitting diode) light bulbs, but many of the brands do not produce as much light as compact fluorescent for the wattage they state. Although these light bulbs are more expensive than ordinary bulbs, they will make up for it in the money they save you over time.

Save Water – Make sure you have no leaky faucets, they can waste thousands of gallons of water a year. Low-flow shower heads, shorter showers, and insulating your water pipes arethe best ways to save water. Saving water not only will it help the enviroment, it will also save you tons of money when the bill comes. For more great ways to save water, Click Here.

Adjust Computer Settings – There are several modes in the Microsoft Windows operating system including hybernate and standby. When you put your computer into hybernate mode, it uses no power and can wake up in a matter of seconds. You can set your laptop to hybernate everytime you close it. Closing laptops and shutting down computers when not in use will save energy and give them a chance to cool off.

Unplug Unused Electronics – When you leave your chargers and other electronics plugged into the wall when you don’t need them they still use electricity, even if they are turned off. If you have several chargers, printers, etc. plugged in at your desk it’s a good idea to hook them up to a outlet strip, this way when you no longer need them you can turn off/unplug one cord instead of several.