Going Green: A New Year's Resolution

What's your New Year's Resolution?

2015 is only a few days away!  This year, why don't you make a resolution about going green?  Green living is not only a great personal choice, but also yields positive results for the planet as a whole.

For the new year, why don't you try these simple, green, steps:

1. Sort garbage from recyclables.  

Recycling is the easiest way to go green.  Before you dump everything in your trash bin or throw things down the garbage chute, make sure that you are checking to see if any products can be recycled.  It is such an easy tip, but so many people forget!

Having a Green Holiday

Gift Wrapping Gone Green

Have you done all of your holiday shopping?

If so, it's time to think about gift wrapping.  This year, consider this:

In the US, the annual trash from gift wrap and shopping bags totals over 4 million tons. If everyone wrapped just three gifts in reused paper or fabric gift bags, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 hockey rinks.

Here are some green tips to keep in mind before you give your friends and loved ones their gifts.

1. Use environmentally friendly wrapping paper

Choose wrapping paper made using fibers such as hemp, or paper using recycled content.

Putting Our Waste Into Perspective

Waste By The Numbers

We all know that recycling is good for the environment and an easy way to live a green life.

This is the time of year for holiday and New Years Eve parties. When cleaning up, it might seem easier to just discard of all the trash.  Sorting through recyclables doesn't matter all the time, right? It's fine to take just a few days off?

When committing to a green lifestyle, it is important to take every opportunity you can to promote sustainability. Taking one day off of recycling might seem like not a big deal, but in the long-run, the effects can be devastating to our natural resources.

Consider these figures:

The Life of Your Soda Can

This can will go on a journey!

You walk into the closest grocery store and buy a can of soda.  Simple, right?  You have probably done it so many times that it seems normal, even dull, to think about.

Every time you make the choice to recycle, instead of dispose, a soda can- it goes on a journey.  The life of a soda can really begins from the moment is is recycled.

Here are the steps many of your cans have gone through:

1. Customer takes can to a recycling center or puts it into a recycling bin.

Don't Waste Your Food!

When you were a kid, you might have heard your parents or a family member say, "Don't play with your food!"  Though it may have seemed like a minor reprimand, wasting food is actually a serious issue.  In the United States alone, every year about 40 percent of all food is thrown away.  In our last blog post about Thanksgiving, we touched upon ways to reduce food waste.  Not wasting food is a very simple and easy step to living a green life.

Some simple tips to not waste your food:

1. Eliminate impulsive grocery store buys.
Impulsive buys are not only a huge waste of money but also a waste of food.  Only shop for food you know you will eat.