There are so many things we use and choose in our daily lives that we never give much thought, but those little choices “add up” and maybe, just maybe, those little things amount to a great big deal.
Here are ten crazy, little facts I’ve discovered that you can consider the next time you need to make one of these choices:
- ATMs – don’t get a receipt if you don’t need it. Annually, these receipts use enough paper to stretch two billion feel long!… and then get thrown away. (Same goes for gasoline pump receipts!)
- Books – borrow from the library or buy secondhand. 400,000 trees are needed to print books annually.
- Candy & ingredients – buy the loose bulk kind instead of the wrapped and packaged versions. The majority of the wraps and papers are not recyclable and can be heavily treated with chemicals.
- Luggage tags – buy some! Americans alone use paper tags, from ticket counters, equivalent to sixty million sheets of paper each year. And request e-tickets to save even more paper.
- Matches – choose paper matches over wood matches or lighters. They’re often made of recycled paper, whereas wooden matches require 5.5 million trees per year and lighters create harmful and toxic landfill waste.
- Music – consider music downloads instead of buying CDs… every month 45 tons of unwanted CDs wind up in landfills.
- Napkins – take only what you need instead of grabbing a whole stack and then throwing them away, unused. If everyone took just one less it would keep a billion tons out of the landfill annually.
- Pens – buy the refillable kind. The US discards 1.6 billion disposable pens each year and a refill is no more expensive that a disposable pen.
- Q-tips – buy the kind with a paper spindle instead of plastic…they’ll actually biodegrade, the plastic won’t.
- Voicemail – answering machines in the US use two billion kilowatt hours annually and then create electronic trash when they stop working. Sign-up for voicemail with your phone service provider.
There are plenty of things in our daily lives that deserve the mantra “don’t sweat the small stuff”, but these are truly little choices you can make without ever breaking a sweat!
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[...] 10 little things you may never think about… but should. – Mom Goes Green Great list from Doreen. I need to give up the wood matches. [...]
there are sooooooo many little things you can do. my shock is the amount of paper central american countries go thru for no reason at all. for instance in a restaurant you’ll first get your order taken, then they write another receipt to show you, once you pay you get three more receipts, one for official filing, one for your records and one just becasue. it’s such a sin and they don’t have a clue about it!!!!!
The Travel Expert(a) and an Expat with a Twist
marina – never thought about restaurant receipts but your are so right! It IS an awful waste. Can you imagine how much THAT amounts to annually!
Brewed Fresh Daily – THANKS! And cut out that wooden match abuse!
How about tissue paper? Shouldn’t we promote the use of handkerchief?
Hi! Can you imagine. also, what they do in these countries is when you enter parking lots they give you a paper that you have to give back when you leave, to kind of prove it’s your car. however, they throw the paper out. some parking lots have now gone to use plastic little things that you reuse, but by far all of them!
Using the Kindle should save trees, no?
Ben – sure! Tissues could be included but I’ve always thought hankies were kinda gross!
marina – you’re right on that one too!
Michele – a great point! Thanks for an excellent suggestion!
[...] Goes Green lists 10 little things you may never think about… but should, when it comes to living an eco-friendly [...]
[...] – CDs are so passe, right? Remember that statistic about 45 tons of CDs winding up in landfills monthly… [...]
[...] it just so happens there IS a time when sweating the small stuff might actually do a world of good. I will begin this explanation by first saying that I’ve always [...]
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