Please feel free to add to this thread!
My pet project https://macgyverrevolution.neocities.org - has all kinds of goodies
A search engine which plants trees from the income their advertisers give them; all you have to do is turn off Adblock for their search engine, search for something, and they use 80% of the income towards that
www.ecosia.com
Their merch section
https://ecosia.teemill.com/
Blogs that have decent advice
https://www.sunshineguerrilla.com - note: this one's advice is somewhat unscientific and in some cases counterproductive so take it with a grain of salt
http://www.lisabronner.com/
https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/blog/
Some things I've hoarded which have a little of everything:
Here is my Instructables account https://www.instructables.com/member/HeadlessHorseman/
Instructables doesn't show my really good collections on my profile page, though:
Off-grid https://www.instructables.com/id/Off-grid-1/
Reuse https://www.instructables.com/id/Reuse/
Futuristic projects https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Future/
Eco-friendly realistic https://www.instructables.com/id/Eco-fr ... Realistic/
Frugal https://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap- ... our-Money/
Survival skills https://www.instructables.com/id/Survival-Basics/
Gardening https://www.instructables.com/id/Garden-8/
The other Instructables collections I have are linked on MacGyver Revolution; in the first link listed
Zero waste and Reuse
https://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?board=3.0
https://www.thriftyfun.com/tf/Better_Li ... index.html
https://zerowastehome.com/blog/page/22/
http://www.wicca-chat.com/bos/homespun/recycle.txt
Do-it-yourself
https://macgyverrevolution.neocities.org
www.thriftyfun.com
www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com
www.instructables.com
http://tinabaine.blogspot.com
http://www.wicca-chat.com/bos/homespun/ ... metics.txt
Vegetarianism/Veganism
http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... m.php?f=26
Gardening resources, gardening information, nationwide seed and plant swapping, and a gardening forum
www.davesgarden.com
How to get free seeds
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-get-fr ... en-1357720
How to get free plants
https://www.thespruce.com/get-cheap-fre ... ts-2736879
How to get free plant and seed catalogs
https://www.thespruce.com/free-seed-catalogs-1357756
Good seeds
www.reneesgarden.com
www.nativeseeds.org
Fascinating seed catalogs that I have not tried include Richters and seedman.com
Arbor Day
https://shop.arborday.org/content.aspx?page=memberships
I've actually bought stuff from them before and it grew very well. They also give you all kinds of stuff to grow when you are a member, or at least they did when I was one and had a garden. An Arbor Day membership is $10 and they either send you 10 free trees or plant them in your name. Well worth the cost!
Cheap trees
https://shop.arborday.org/
Eating locally
http://www.pickyourown.org/ - the best guide to finding local U-Pick farms
https://www.fieldtoplate.com/guide
Foraging, hunting, fishing
http://fallingfruit.org/
https://www.eattheweeds.com
https://honest-food.net/
Opting out of junk mail and telemarketing
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0 ... -and-email
Organizations that do eco-friendly stuff
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/
Places to learn about gardening and plants
https://mysticalmagicalherbs.com
For an answer as to "why" bother about any of this, meditate in nature. That's it. It'll tell you everything you need to know. If you don't give a shit, then is money a motivator? https://oldmooresalmanac.com/flog-your- ... stainably/ Because there is LOTS of money to be made here. As a matter of fact, it was precisely the lack of concern for the environment, public opinion, and fair working practices that made our United States steel industry (and our other manufacturing industries) lose dominancy in the world market. These ill-conceived business practices, held in most corporations at the time and still done today, caused the outsourcing of most labor and manufacturing jobs and the decades-long slump in our economy, and they continue to do so. That's right: this recession was a long time coming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel
For the people who don't think climate change exists
https://climate.nasa.gov/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/30000 ... te-change/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth ... e/climate/
https://www.globalchange.gov/
https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/
https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-d ... id=4764641 <-Donald Trump's funding logs. Koch Brothers fund him. They own these companies: https://www.investopedia.com/insights/c ... -brothers/
The Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences posted this Declaration http://www.ifees.org.uk/declaration/ from the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium
Pope John Paul II's message to Catholics on living an eco-friendly life http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul- ... peace.html
If there actually is a Wiccan message like these, then let me know, because I haven't heard of it. Till then I will assume we've been slackin'.
Resources for going green
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RegularJackass
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Re: Resources for going green
HABITS ONE CAN CULTIVATE + ONE TIME INVESTMENTS
Every little bit counts. Even doing just one thing out of this list is excellent. This isn't intended to be a list of things you absolutely have to do. For most people, including myself, doing all of this at once is completely impossible. What counts is not doing as much of this as possible as fast as possible, but making whatever changes you can sustain long term. I suggest starting small: nail down one thing at a time, and once you've got that down, if you want to do more, then add something else to your daily routine. Before you know it you'll be doing all kinds of stuff. You might also consider creating a commitment plan to achieve certain goals by a certain date - something various countries and corporations are doing already. For instance, by December 2019, I want to buy some recycling bins.
THE MOST IMPORTANT STUFF
Prioritize the stuff that matters first, such as health, personal relationships, family, and so on, because you won't be able to help the environment if your life is falling apart. With the important things in place however, you will be much better equipped to tackle everything else
If you own land, don't sell it to a developer. Seriously.
The Arbor Day foundation has a tool for determining your yearly carbon footprint. It also gives you the option to donate cash to them so they plant trees in your name, offsetting that carbon. This is helpful for individuals, for businesses, and for corporations. Give a yearly donation in the equivalent amount of how much carbon your family or business produced. Consider it your investment in the future of the planet. I was shocked at how much mine was at an initial estimate. 33 tons of CO2. $495. If it helps, lump it into your usual April 15 tax day nightmares.
https://www.arborday.org/carbon/
Check this out. Finally Youtube's Trending channel isn't total garbage. This team is planting 20,000,000 trees and you can help! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPJKxAhLw5I Donate some dough to them here! https://teamtrees.org/ Also: if you're scared of a scam then donate directly to the Arbor Day foundation, because it's going to the same place anyway. See the FAQ on the TeamTrees website.
Make as much money as you possibly can, in an eco-friendly and ethical manner. The more money, assets, and resources you have, the more of an impact you can make. With it, you can for instance buy land to protect it from developers, invest in clean energy startups, donate to charitable organizations that help the environment, invest in eco-friendly businesses, start your own eco-friendly business or franchise, start your own nonprofit that does environmental remediation, etc. You can also finance green candidates for political campaigns. Of course, you'll need hard work and savvy to pull it off as well as moneybags but having a boatload of cash is a good start.
Use a condom every time unless you really want kids. If you want kids, do seriously consider the effect of overpopulation on the health of the planet and make your decision accordingly. The Four Horsemen of Death, Famine, War, and Plague will be our constant companions if we don't do something drastic about overpopulation... and fast. I suggest effective birth control. http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... m.php?f=28 The Four Horsemen suggest something else. Also, the foster care system is full of orphaned and abandoned children who need good homes. Choose wisely.
If you do have kids in your life or in your future, then I suggest planting 10 to 100 trees for each. As that child grows, I suggest caring for the trees as if their survival helps your child's health - because in reality, it does!
Plant a tree for every special occasion in your life: the birth of a child, your wedding, achieving a business or personal goal, significant wedding anniversaries, whatever you can think of. You can even plant a tree every time your birthday rolls around.
Think about this: if every person on the planet planted and cared for 100 trees, that would be a total of almost 800 billion trees. Would you like to make your own forest with your own two hands? It's possible! That being said, it is important to plant trees that are native to your area, plant a variety of trees, make sure you can care for them until they can survive on their own, and ensure you aren't planting a monoculture but somewhere biodiversity can thrive. If at all possible, it is also important to ensure the area stays legally protected so that your legacy can live on, instead of having your hard work and efforts cut down someday. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8RE02iNII
Vote for every office you possibly can (register!), for people whose backgrounds you looked into yourself; see here for more details http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... ?f=66&t=57 Don't be afraid to debate political candidates with your family and friends - if you are civil about it, then it will help you get closer.
Vote with your presence for only ethical and environmentally friendly businesses that you work for. Or start one yourself
Vote with your dollars for only ethically and environmentally friendly businesses that you looked into yourself - invest some time into looking up eco-friendly businesses for every area of your life. Break this up into sections because there's quite a lot out there. Once you have found some, tell everyone you know.
Get deeply involved in local and state politics. Yes, I know it's a pain. But how else are you going to prevent suburban sprawl and destruction of nature that's literally right where you live? The people living in the local area generally have the most impact on what happens there. In particular vote in local officials extremely carefully. Mayor? City council? State politicians? Those guys tend to be jerks. Watch 'em like a hawk.
Buy a piece of land, no matter how small or how cheap, in order to preserve the wilderness on it
Live in a place that is the right size for you. Too small and it's uncomfortable. Too big and it's impossible to clean, expensive, and bad for the environment.
Talk to your friends and family about these things, and see if you can work together to make your individual efforts more effective. The more of these things that you can do in collaboration with your friends and/or family, the better.
ELECTRICITY-RELATED
Turn off lights when not in use
Turn off and unplug stuff when not in use
Switch to LED lightbulbs
Get rid of the television; you can watch most TV shows on the computer anyway
Restrict time spent on the computer to 1 hour per day, maximum. Including time spent on cell phone apps.
If possible, switch your electricity source to clean energy, such as wind turbines or solar concentrators. Some electricity companies do this.
If and only if you have clean energy, switch your heating to electric and use electric cars, or better yet an electric motorcycle or bicycle. Instructables has directions for building your own electric powered bicycles, motorcycles, and cars. If you get good at making them and can make them adhere to safety regulations, you might be able to sell them.
When one appliance craps out, replace it with a new model that's as energy efficient as possible. They are called Energy Star rated appliances.
LAUNDRY RELATED
Put up a good clothesline or build one, and line dry laundry. Or, if it's dry enough inside your house, dry the clothes indoors on a compact drying rack. If you are an apartment dweller with just a patio, a good option is one of those metal laundry racks that lays horizontal at about hip height. One of my favorite tricks for drying clothes outside is to put t-shirts on plastic hangers and then hang those on the line. It saves space.
Reuse blankets for two weeks, sheets and pillowcases for a week, bath towels for a week, jeans for a few days, sweatshirts for a few days. Reuse the outer clothes you wear at least once before washing them. This is also cheaper if you have to use a laundromat.
Run an extra spin cycle before drying clothes to reduce the drying time
Hand-wash washcloths you use to clean with, like in the kitchen. To do this is simple: get some dish soap or Dr. Bronner's liquid soap and fill up the sink with hot tap water and dirty washcloths. Let that stuff soak for like 20 minutes, then rub the washcloths against each other and themselves to help scrape out any crud that got onto the cloth. Wring out each washcloth a couple times, swish it around in the water and then drain the sink. Wring out each washcloth and fill it up again, this time with hot water and no soap. Let that sit 20 minutes, wring each washcloth and swish around, let it drain and wring each washcloth out. Optionally, if you want these things sterile, boil (carefully) a pot of water or (this is much safer) a teakettle of water and pour it on there. Leave that on there until the water is cool enough, then wring out the washcloths and hang them somewhere to dry. Why bother with this? Because if you throw your washcloths in the laundry along with everything else your counters get dirtier instead of cleaner, especially if you use a laundromat. Ask me how I know.
FOOD-RELATED
Get an allotment to grow food on, a dacha, a plot in a community garden, or a piece of land. All for growing food. Growing food in an apartment doesn’t work all that well with our current technology, but you can always maximize balcony, patio, and window space by growing herbs. I use Fox Farm or Promix potting soil, Espoma fertilizer, collected rainwater or tap water, and whatever seeds or cuttings I can find. The Fedco seeds at Walmart are GMO free and work okay, but Renee's Garden and Native Seeds brand are my favorites.
Cook your own food. I loaded up my blog with easy recipes, or you can try www.thewoksoflife.com or just search for some recipe online
Do everything you can to not waste food. Even if all you have left from one meal is a bite, save that. Glass containers with plastic tupperware lids have been a great investment for me. Also, the better you get at cooking, the less food you waste, for a multitude of reasons.
Reduce consumption of animal products. A good initial start is to eat vegan at one meal a day. Then start eating just vegan food three days a week. It is important to note that not everyone can go vegetarian or vegan and remain healthy, so be very careful to eat a diet that doesn't hurt you.
Stick strictly to non-GMO food. Anything certified organic is also non-GMO. Here is where to, for instance, buy organic masa harina https://www.vitacost.com/bobs-red-mill- ... asa-harina
Attempt to buy strictly organic food if at all possible. In my experience the quality is worth the cost, but then again I'm willing to cut corners in the rest of my budget to afford it. YMMV.
Visit farmer's markets and U-pick farms whenever you can
CARBON FOOTPRINT RELATED
Take every opportunity you can to work from home. It's called telecommuting
Arrange carpooling to and from work with your coworkers, if you actually like them
Tell your friends whenever you're running an errand across town or driving way out somewhere so they can tag along if they want
Leave for your destination 20 minutes early so you don't feel like you need to speed. Road rage, quick acceleration, and going faster than the speed limit are all things that increase gas consumption and reduce efficiency.
Do your best to "coast" as much as you can in a car by taking the foot off the gas pedal and letting momentum carry you forward.
Invest some time in learning about car maintenance. Replacing the air filter, changing oil, changing transmission fluid, keeping the tire pressure at the proper level, etc. all help reduce fuel consumption.
Minimize travel that uses fossil fuel
Bundle all trips to the grocery store and to other stores into one car trip for the whole household per week. If you write down a list of meals you'd like to eat, and a grocery list, starting a few days before your grocery store trip, that makes it doable. Saves money as well.
Mopeds are underrated, if you can ride them well and accept the risks
When possible walk or bike
In theory, taking public transportation is an excellent choice. In practice, that only works in Germany and Japan because the U.S. public transportation system is BAD. You will constantly be late to work, miss important meetings, and get home late.
BUYING HABITS
Switch to eco-friendly cleaning and hygiene products
Try to never buy anything that doesn't make you really excited about purchasing it. Review every grocery list and casual purchase you make, spend more time shopping around for the best possible option, think twice before you actually spend the dough, and if possible, "sleep on it," with regards to making the final decision. Not only will this save you money but you'll be a lot happier overall.
Buy nothing frivolous; get stuff secondhand or free often. Secondhand stores, garage sales, and thrift stores are great; Goodwill and the Salvation Army are not only cheap but eco-friendly. Focus on a perspective of "need" when it comes to buying things as opposed to "want." There are so many websites and books out there that believe you can "go green" by buying more shit. That's ridiculous; you'll be more eco-friendly just by being broke and NOT buying much of anything, lol. That said, if you really know something would enrich your life and make you happier long term, then that isn't frivolous. Basically consider every purchase carefully, from the perspective of "will I still be proud of buying this ten years from now?" Also, whatever it is, buy the most eco-friendly, longest lasting, highest quality version of it. If it's locally made, so much the better.
Make a habit of stopping by the thrift store, garage sales, and secondhand stores whenever you drive by them
Make a habit of checking Craigslist and Ebay for cheap or free items you need, and for dates and times of local garage sales
Other places good to stop at when you drive by them: roadside fruit and farm produce stands, fairs, farmer's markets
This might sound gross, but I grew up without paper towels, paper napkins, plastic baggies, disposable dishware and cutlery, or tissues. We used sponges, rags... or toilet paper. For the other stuff we used ceramic and metal utensils. To-go food was in thermoses and plastic or metal lunch boxes, sometimes with heavy glassware sealed with a plastic lid. You actually don't need all that other stuff. That being said, I always use paper towels to clean the toilet.
Things you do not need: TV, cable, a lawn, an automated sprinkler system, fountains, plastic kids' toys, and the list goes on. In general the kind of stuff you'd see advertised on TV or in junk mail catalogs in the 90s pretty much all is in this category. Think about the stuff you have and how much cash/energy/resources it requires to maintain... and if you really need to keep it around or buy stuff like it. A wonderful person I know calls this kind of stuff "checheres" which means "frivolous junk you don't need that clutters up a space"
Dumpster dive
WATER RELATED
Don't go crazy with reducing water to the point that your hygiene and food safety suffers. Don't drink untreated rainwater, or lap water out of your local lake. Being sick, believe it or not, is way worse for the environment than regular hot showers, using safe drinking water, and a clean living space.
Turn off the tap when you’re done
Lawn? Nahhh. Find something else to put in its place that doesn't require watering. Or, of course, grow food there instead. There's a nationwide group for that btw http://www.foodnotlawns.com/
If you can, install low-flow faucets on sinks and low-flow showerheads
If you live in a desert or something like it, then don't grow water-hogging plants. Switch out everything for stuff that won't fry. In particular just let your lawn go all brown, or plant desert stuff in it. Lawns are Fn https://www.instructables.com/id/Giant- ... toolChair/ expensive and bad for the planet.
Fix leaking pipes and faucets!
Install low-flow showerheads and faucets, but consider your habits and if they are conducive to low-flow toilets. I have a vendetta against those things.
When you need to throw away some chemical or other, look it up online first to see the proper disposal method. That way you avoid contaminating waterways
Put a bucket in your shower and small containers in your sink. While you're waiting for the shower to heat up, collect the water in the bucket and use it for watering plants, washing your car, mopping the floor, flushing the toilet, or pouring into the laundry machine. While you're washing vegetables, collect the water in the containers and do the same. You can also take that water, walk it outside and dump it on the base of a tree.
If you have a dehumidifier, walk outside and dump the collected water on a tree.
Showers save more water than baths; switch to those if possible. If you are truly hardcore, do a Navy shower: shower just until damp and turn off the shower, soap up, then turn on the water again to rinse off. Takes less than 4 minutes.
Take the opportunity to wash your car when it rains, using a biodegradable soap and uh, the rain
Not for the faint of heart: skip flushing the toilet if you're only going to be flushing urine. Of course, if you have guests over you might want to skip this.
HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY STUFF
Sure you've heard this one before: lower the temperature in winter, raise it in summer. Compensate by wearing the right clothes for the right season. How to figure out the right settings for heating/cooling and the right clothes to wear: take a long walk each day.
Insulate your windows by either buying double-layered Argon-filled windows and/or by putting pink insulation panels in the windows in wintertime. You can get these from a hardware store.
Put up heavy white curtains OR thick white blankets cut into the proper size, held up with tacks, to cover windows. A cheaper alternative in winter is to tack up a sheet over the window or use a fitted sheet that holds itself on venetian blinds or curtain rods, over flattened cardboard boxes tucked behind the venetian blinds. Then stuff the space beneath that with some more sheets, rolled up towels, etc. It's not pretty but it works.
Double layers of curtains are a good investment to prevent heat loss and gain, especially if they are thick or blackout curtains
In wintertime, insulate windows using plastic film and bubble wrap on top of the pink insulation panels if used, as per this: https://www.homerepairtutor.com/how-to- ... nsulation/
The cheapest possible solution for reducing heat loss through windows is to line them with bubble wrap (optional) and then fill the space between window and venetian blinds with flattened cardboard boxes, but moisture accumulates and the boxes get gross. Only helpful in dry climates and I'm not sure if it's up to building code standards.
Before winter, install plastic film over windows. Canada's Worst Handyman actually has an episode about this. I believe you can get that stuff online...
Invest in attic insulation if you can. It helps. Instructables has instructions for installing your own, if you have that option.
Paint your roof white if possible.
Insulate heating ducts - again, if possible
Install draft protectors under doors and caulk around drafty windows and fixtures. To find drafts, walk around with a burning incense stick and watch where the smoke goes.
Use draft blockers on external doors. Failing that, roll up a towel and use it. Or, try this https://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-b ... t-stopper/
RESPONSIBLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Don’t waste if at all possible. Using excess resources to accomplish a given task is expensive anyway
Budget. It helps to keep track of this using an Excel spreadsheet
Buy most stuff with cash only, leaving cards at home. It's a psychological trick that works well to help you spend less. Note: Some places refuse to take cash these days, so be sure you know if this is doable before you set out somewhere.
Manage money responsibly. Listen to people like Warren Buffet and Suze Orman. Develop financial literacy; check out https://www.forbes.com and check out books at the library on money management, also look to Youtube for guidance on that. Also see https://money.howstuffworks.com and https://money.howstuffworks.com/persona ... tocks6.htm
Manage resources responsibly. Also helps to keep track of this using an Excel spreadsheet
Get organized. This will help you to manage time, money, and resources, and it will also help you keep track of everything. Regina Leeds has great books for this, and so does Marie Kondo
Dead every unhealthy habit. Soda, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. these are expensive, consume a lot of resources to be produced, and the packaging causes pollution
Laurie Cabot proposed an interesting idea in her book Celebrate the Earth. She says that it is a good idea to store one and a half years' worth (each) of food and water in your home and rotate it out regularly. This way not only are you prepared for emergencies, but you don't have to go to the store as often and waste resources. Considering the lower cost per item of buying in bulk, this is easier on your wallet too, long term. Pantry type products tend to store well, so focus on those, and preserved foods. Store these properly in bug-proof, moisture-proof containers. I would add to that idea with stockpiling of one and half years' worth of:
Toilet paper
First aid items and over-the-counter medicines
Backups of prescription medication for every person in the house that needs it
Pens
Notebooks
Organizers such as baskets, plastic bins, and folders
Salt
Menstrual hygiene products
Soap
Cleaning products
I bet you can think of your own ideas here.
GREEN THUMB STUFF
Propagate potted plants - for help keeping indoor plants alive try a book called The Unexpected Houseplant by Tovah Martin, or The Indestructible Houseplant, same author
One of the most exciting things you can do as someone who owns an apartment is to start trees from seeds. There are multiple ways of doing this on Instructables. Such as pear trees, oak trees, and apple trees, all from seeds. You can then give these as gifts to interested parties or even put them out on the street with a sign saying "free" for anyone to pick up.
Plant trees often
Make seed bombs with heirloom seeds NATIVE TO THE AREA and throw them everywhere neglected. Yep, guerilla gardening. Help out some pollinators.
ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION
Go outside as often as you can, to see how nature in your area is doing. If you don't know what's up, then you won't be able to do anything about it
Learn the Leave No Trace principles and adhere to them as much as you can, even in the city https://lnt.org/learn/7-principles - OR go a step further and do as an old camping maxim states: "leave it better than you found it." So if you find a great spot to picnic or hang out in, don't just clean up after yourself, pick up whatever detritus was there to begin with. I'm talking to you, Green Witches. If you've found yourself a hidey spot in the great outdoors and you really like to go there to unwind, that's a gift from Mother Nature to you, so it's only fair to give back by picking up some junk there the next time you go back, with some safety equipment like rubber gloves, a trash picker and trash bags. This was once a really popular trend called #trashtag on Twitter and Reddit. I hope it's still going
Cultivate a habit of clean-as-you-go both indoors and outdoors, especially in your living quarters and on any piece of nature that is public or owned by you
REDUCING WASTE
Recycle everything you can; compost if you can. Include recycling in your weekly trip because most houses do not have recycling of every kind; you’ll have to seek out what gets recycled where. It is important to have durable containers that you toss your recycling in, otherwise it piles up somewhere in your house and that gets annoying. I used to use cardboard boxes when I lived in places without a roach problem (yeah, I know). You can also use those reusable grocery bags to haul recycling. Handy!
Invest in things that will definitely reduce waste long term that have a low environmental cost to produce: a reusable water bottle - I like to carry two, bamboo toothbrush, cloth handkerchief, washcloths to clean with instead of paper towels, bento or metal lunchbox, beeswax food wraps (which you can make), glass food containers with tupperware tops, etc. I actually have this thing where I collect Ito-En green tea bottles to refill with water because they're disposable plastic but their design makes them more durable.
Hoard aluminum cans and plastic bottles, then bring them in bins to a recycling center that pays money to earn some extra cash
Get in the habit of selling your excess stuff on eBay, on Craigslist, and in garage sales. The planet benefits because no new resources are consumed to make the item you sell. You benefit because you get money. Win win. Actually, you can turn this into a side gig, especially if you make it known to friends and acquaintances that you'll take junk off their hands.
Whenever you see an opportunity to reuse something you'd otherwise throw out, take it. Don't hoard things just because you can, though, or see reusing things as some kind of religion; just look at your recycling bin and trash can as free resources. www.thriftyfun.com can help you look up uses for things you'd otherwise throw out such as shower curtains, wine corks, and so on
Learn to repair things. Gradually become a handyman by tackling small projects here and there. Seemingly minor repairs such as fixing a dripping faucet save a lot of resources in the long run. Also if you get good enough at repairing stuff you can earn money from it. This covers everything from plumbing to minor construction to car repair to electronics. There is a lot to learn, and a lot to gain.
Learn how to make things last. Maintaining the stuff you own and repairing it is a lot better than trashing it and buying a completely new one. "Use it up, wear it out, make do or go without"
Bring necessities with you every time you leave the house so you don’t have to buy non-eco-friendly goods (e.g. food, bottles of water, plasticware etc.). A roomy purse, messenger bag, or backpack will work wonders and save you money.
Speaking of necessities, learn to pack food ahead whenever you leave the house. A packed lunch, packed breakfast, and packed snacks will save you money and prevent you from having to buy stuff at a restaurant. Most restaurants really aren't eco-friendly at all
Be prepared:
-Stick survival goods and miscellaneous necessities in the trunk of your car, in your work cubicle, and in the basement or pantry of your house. That way you won't have to buy more non-eco-friendly goods and/or spend a fortune.
-Rigorously plan every trip outside your house so that you don't wind up lost or in a bad situation
Have a box in your house for donations, and regularly bring it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army
You can donate old wire coat hangers to retirement homes
You can donate ratty old towels and blankets to animal shelters
You can donate old crayons here https://thecrayoninitiative.org/collect/#at-home
Use the Craigslist Free listing service to get stuff off your hands if it's still useful, particularly if it's large, like furniture
Have a very large bag in your house for saving fabric scraps... if you'll use them. Even if you don't, chances are that someone on Craigslist will want them. Some people really like to sew.
Have a large container in your house for accumulating scrap paper... if you'll use it. If not, off to the recycling center it goes
Have a couple of small boxes for storing buttons that fall off clothes. If you don't use them, someone else would love them. Guaranteed.
You can recycle electronics at Best Buy and Staples. Yes, EVERY Best Buy and Staples.
You can recycle used motor oil and car batteries at every Advance Auto Parts.
You can recycle VHS tapes, cell phones, greeting cards, Christmas lights and more as per this list https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/su ... n-recycle/
You can recycle a whole bunch of strange stuff, such as chip bags, cigarette butts, and broken guitar strings, by shipping it to Terracycle
https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades - if you're not sure that it can be recycled, check here
You can recycle old cars, trucks, and vehicles by donating them to the Salvation Army. Call 1-800-SA-TRUCK aka 1-800-728-7825. Even if the thing isn't running you can still call them and ask if they'll take it.
Have clutter that's still useful but you need to get rid of it? Fear not! http://www.missminimalist.com/2011/04/w ... n-do-good/
Start to use this list of what you can do with stuff besides throw it in the trash: https://www.sunshineguerrilla.com/2019/ ... ow-in.html
Join Freecycle to locally gift stuff you don't want to people who actually want it https://www.freecycle.org/
Go zero waste gradually
Dumpster dive, if you are prepared enough and can handle the risk and the smell. Instructables has good guides for this.
THINGS NOT TO DO
Don't go by plane... at all.
Don't go for vacations in far-flung places
Don't buy a Hummer or mom van or gas guzzler. There are five seats in regular cars for a reason.
Don't litter or illegally dump
Don't blame all environmental problems on the rich and powerful. That's bullshit
Don't consider buying "eco-friendly" products as replacements for products you already have to be automatically "green." Or worse, consider buying new products or services like massive "green" remodels, expensive solar panels, and electric cars to be the solution. It is not that simple.
Don't buy or build a McMansion
Don't skip voter registration and voting and then get angry about all the environmental problems caused by politics
Don't contribute spectacular amounts of pollution or waste spectacular amounts of resources on frivolous stuff (casinos in Las Vegas and factories in China, I'm looking at you...)
***NOTE: boy did I ever misspeak with this particular section. I have changed it to say what I meant it to say. Doy!*** Don't confuse wants with needs. You do not NEED a lawn. You do not NEED coffee. You do not NEED new fashionable clothes every time the seasons turn. Etc. By all means buy cool stuff and keep it around, but know in the back of your mind what your physical needs are, and how they differ from what you want. Keep your desires in check so that what you buy actually makes you happy, instead of going overboard in a consumerist frenzy. In other words...
Don't be greedy
DIY
Make one eco-friendly project from Instructables or another good website per day
Learn to make your own whatever-it-is you want or need. I won't pretend this isn't a major challenge. Start small. Again, tackle small projects here and there. Instructables can really help with this. This covers a whole world of material goods and skills - sewing, pottery, basket weaving, carpentry, and so on and so forth. The more of these skills you learn, the better. Here are a few links that can help: http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... t=6&p=6#p6
http://www.lisabronner.com/everything-y ... sing-less/
Make your own soap in bulk for family use twice a year. It's complicated to get started but simple to keep up with once you know how it works. If it turns out you enjoy making the stuff, you can always make extra and sell it.
COMMUNITY STUFF
Certain things can only be done well with a lot of neighbors who like each other. These include:
Make a Mom Network - https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/cr ... and-money/ this has serious potential. Especially if dads get in on it too. Or dads can make their own network. If you don't have kids, how about creating a Friend Network in the same way, with the specific goal of saving money and helping each other out?
Making community gardens
Making and maintaining community compost piles
Seed and plant swaps
Hosting swaps of tools, items, etc. The UK has things called "boot sales" which are like many garage sales next to one another but out of the trunk of a car
Every little bit counts. Even doing just one thing out of this list is excellent. This isn't intended to be a list of things you absolutely have to do. For most people, including myself, doing all of this at once is completely impossible. What counts is not doing as much of this as possible as fast as possible, but making whatever changes you can sustain long term. I suggest starting small: nail down one thing at a time, and once you've got that down, if you want to do more, then add something else to your daily routine. Before you know it you'll be doing all kinds of stuff. You might also consider creating a commitment plan to achieve certain goals by a certain date - something various countries and corporations are doing already. For instance, by December 2019, I want to buy some recycling bins.
THE MOST IMPORTANT STUFF
Prioritize the stuff that matters first, such as health, personal relationships, family, and so on, because you won't be able to help the environment if your life is falling apart. With the important things in place however, you will be much better equipped to tackle everything else
If you own land, don't sell it to a developer. Seriously.
The Arbor Day foundation has a tool for determining your yearly carbon footprint. It also gives you the option to donate cash to them so they plant trees in your name, offsetting that carbon. This is helpful for individuals, for businesses, and for corporations. Give a yearly donation in the equivalent amount of how much carbon your family or business produced. Consider it your investment in the future of the planet. I was shocked at how much mine was at an initial estimate. 33 tons of CO2. $495. If it helps, lump it into your usual April 15 tax day nightmares.
https://www.arborday.org/carbon/
Check this out. Finally Youtube's Trending channel isn't total garbage. This team is planting 20,000,000 trees and you can help! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPJKxAhLw5I Donate some dough to them here! https://teamtrees.org/ Also: if you're scared of a scam then donate directly to the Arbor Day foundation, because it's going to the same place anyway. See the FAQ on the TeamTrees website.
Make as much money as you possibly can, in an eco-friendly and ethical manner. The more money, assets, and resources you have, the more of an impact you can make. With it, you can for instance buy land to protect it from developers, invest in clean energy startups, donate to charitable organizations that help the environment, invest in eco-friendly businesses, start your own eco-friendly business or franchise, start your own nonprofit that does environmental remediation, etc. You can also finance green candidates for political campaigns. Of course, you'll need hard work and savvy to pull it off as well as moneybags but having a boatload of cash is a good start.
Use a condom every time unless you really want kids. If you want kids, do seriously consider the effect of overpopulation on the health of the planet and make your decision accordingly. The Four Horsemen of Death, Famine, War, and Plague will be our constant companions if we don't do something drastic about overpopulation... and fast. I suggest effective birth control. http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... m.php?f=28 The Four Horsemen suggest something else. Also, the foster care system is full of orphaned and abandoned children who need good homes. Choose wisely.
If you do have kids in your life or in your future, then I suggest planting 10 to 100 trees for each. As that child grows, I suggest caring for the trees as if their survival helps your child's health - because in reality, it does!
Plant a tree for every special occasion in your life: the birth of a child, your wedding, achieving a business or personal goal, significant wedding anniversaries, whatever you can think of. You can even plant a tree every time your birthday rolls around.
Think about this: if every person on the planet planted and cared for 100 trees, that would be a total of almost 800 billion trees. Would you like to make your own forest with your own two hands? It's possible! That being said, it is important to plant trees that are native to your area, plant a variety of trees, make sure you can care for them until they can survive on their own, and ensure you aren't planting a monoculture but somewhere biodiversity can thrive. If at all possible, it is also important to ensure the area stays legally protected so that your legacy can live on, instead of having your hard work and efforts cut down someday. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8RE02iNII
Vote for every office you possibly can (register!), for people whose backgrounds you looked into yourself; see here for more details http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... ?f=66&t=57 Don't be afraid to debate political candidates with your family and friends - if you are civil about it, then it will help you get closer.
Vote with your presence for only ethical and environmentally friendly businesses that you work for. Or start one yourself
Vote with your dollars for only ethically and environmentally friendly businesses that you looked into yourself - invest some time into looking up eco-friendly businesses for every area of your life. Break this up into sections because there's quite a lot out there. Once you have found some, tell everyone you know.
Get deeply involved in local and state politics. Yes, I know it's a pain. But how else are you going to prevent suburban sprawl and destruction of nature that's literally right where you live? The people living in the local area generally have the most impact on what happens there. In particular vote in local officials extremely carefully. Mayor? City council? State politicians? Those guys tend to be jerks. Watch 'em like a hawk.
Buy a piece of land, no matter how small or how cheap, in order to preserve the wilderness on it
Live in a place that is the right size for you. Too small and it's uncomfortable. Too big and it's impossible to clean, expensive, and bad for the environment.
Talk to your friends and family about these things, and see if you can work together to make your individual efforts more effective. The more of these things that you can do in collaboration with your friends and/or family, the better.
ELECTRICITY-RELATED
Turn off lights when not in use
Turn off and unplug stuff when not in use
Switch to LED lightbulbs
Get rid of the television; you can watch most TV shows on the computer anyway
Restrict time spent on the computer to 1 hour per day, maximum. Including time spent on cell phone apps.
If possible, switch your electricity source to clean energy, such as wind turbines or solar concentrators. Some electricity companies do this.
If and only if you have clean energy, switch your heating to electric and use electric cars, or better yet an electric motorcycle or bicycle. Instructables has directions for building your own electric powered bicycles, motorcycles, and cars. If you get good at making them and can make them adhere to safety regulations, you might be able to sell them.
When one appliance craps out, replace it with a new model that's as energy efficient as possible. They are called Energy Star rated appliances.
LAUNDRY RELATED
Put up a good clothesline or build one, and line dry laundry. Or, if it's dry enough inside your house, dry the clothes indoors on a compact drying rack. If you are an apartment dweller with just a patio, a good option is one of those metal laundry racks that lays horizontal at about hip height. One of my favorite tricks for drying clothes outside is to put t-shirts on plastic hangers and then hang those on the line. It saves space.
Reuse blankets for two weeks, sheets and pillowcases for a week, bath towels for a week, jeans for a few days, sweatshirts for a few days. Reuse the outer clothes you wear at least once before washing them. This is also cheaper if you have to use a laundromat.
Run an extra spin cycle before drying clothes to reduce the drying time
Hand-wash washcloths you use to clean with, like in the kitchen. To do this is simple: get some dish soap or Dr. Bronner's liquid soap and fill up the sink with hot tap water and dirty washcloths. Let that stuff soak for like 20 minutes, then rub the washcloths against each other and themselves to help scrape out any crud that got onto the cloth. Wring out each washcloth a couple times, swish it around in the water and then drain the sink. Wring out each washcloth and fill it up again, this time with hot water and no soap. Let that sit 20 minutes, wring each washcloth and swish around, let it drain and wring each washcloth out. Optionally, if you want these things sterile, boil (carefully) a pot of water or (this is much safer) a teakettle of water and pour it on there. Leave that on there until the water is cool enough, then wring out the washcloths and hang them somewhere to dry. Why bother with this? Because if you throw your washcloths in the laundry along with everything else your counters get dirtier instead of cleaner, especially if you use a laundromat. Ask me how I know.
FOOD-RELATED
Get an allotment to grow food on, a dacha, a plot in a community garden, or a piece of land. All for growing food. Growing food in an apartment doesn’t work all that well with our current technology, but you can always maximize balcony, patio, and window space by growing herbs. I use Fox Farm or Promix potting soil, Espoma fertilizer, collected rainwater or tap water, and whatever seeds or cuttings I can find. The Fedco seeds at Walmart are GMO free and work okay, but Renee's Garden and Native Seeds brand are my favorites.
Cook your own food. I loaded up my blog with easy recipes, or you can try www.thewoksoflife.com or just search for some recipe online
Do everything you can to not waste food. Even if all you have left from one meal is a bite, save that. Glass containers with plastic tupperware lids have been a great investment for me. Also, the better you get at cooking, the less food you waste, for a multitude of reasons.
Reduce consumption of animal products. A good initial start is to eat vegan at one meal a day. Then start eating just vegan food three days a week. It is important to note that not everyone can go vegetarian or vegan and remain healthy, so be very careful to eat a diet that doesn't hurt you.
Stick strictly to non-GMO food. Anything certified organic is also non-GMO. Here is where to, for instance, buy organic masa harina https://www.vitacost.com/bobs-red-mill- ... asa-harina
Attempt to buy strictly organic food if at all possible. In my experience the quality is worth the cost, but then again I'm willing to cut corners in the rest of my budget to afford it. YMMV.
Visit farmer's markets and U-pick farms whenever you can
CARBON FOOTPRINT RELATED
Take every opportunity you can to work from home. It's called telecommuting
Arrange carpooling to and from work with your coworkers, if you actually like them
Tell your friends whenever you're running an errand across town or driving way out somewhere so they can tag along if they want
Leave for your destination 20 minutes early so you don't feel like you need to speed. Road rage, quick acceleration, and going faster than the speed limit are all things that increase gas consumption and reduce efficiency.
Do your best to "coast" as much as you can in a car by taking the foot off the gas pedal and letting momentum carry you forward.
Invest some time in learning about car maintenance. Replacing the air filter, changing oil, changing transmission fluid, keeping the tire pressure at the proper level, etc. all help reduce fuel consumption.
Minimize travel that uses fossil fuel
Bundle all trips to the grocery store and to other stores into one car trip for the whole household per week. If you write down a list of meals you'd like to eat, and a grocery list, starting a few days before your grocery store trip, that makes it doable. Saves money as well.
Mopeds are underrated, if you can ride them well and accept the risks
When possible walk or bike
In theory, taking public transportation is an excellent choice. In practice, that only works in Germany and Japan because the U.S. public transportation system is BAD. You will constantly be late to work, miss important meetings, and get home late.
BUYING HABITS
Switch to eco-friendly cleaning and hygiene products
Try to never buy anything that doesn't make you really excited about purchasing it. Review every grocery list and casual purchase you make, spend more time shopping around for the best possible option, think twice before you actually spend the dough, and if possible, "sleep on it," with regards to making the final decision. Not only will this save you money but you'll be a lot happier overall.
Buy nothing frivolous; get stuff secondhand or free often. Secondhand stores, garage sales, and thrift stores are great; Goodwill and the Salvation Army are not only cheap but eco-friendly. Focus on a perspective of "need" when it comes to buying things as opposed to "want." There are so many websites and books out there that believe you can "go green" by buying more shit. That's ridiculous; you'll be more eco-friendly just by being broke and NOT buying much of anything, lol. That said, if you really know something would enrich your life and make you happier long term, then that isn't frivolous. Basically consider every purchase carefully, from the perspective of "will I still be proud of buying this ten years from now?" Also, whatever it is, buy the most eco-friendly, longest lasting, highest quality version of it. If it's locally made, so much the better.
Make a habit of stopping by the thrift store, garage sales, and secondhand stores whenever you drive by them
Make a habit of checking Craigslist and Ebay for cheap or free items you need, and for dates and times of local garage sales
Other places good to stop at when you drive by them: roadside fruit and farm produce stands, fairs, farmer's markets
This might sound gross, but I grew up without paper towels, paper napkins, plastic baggies, disposable dishware and cutlery, or tissues. We used sponges, rags... or toilet paper. For the other stuff we used ceramic and metal utensils. To-go food was in thermoses and plastic or metal lunch boxes, sometimes with heavy glassware sealed with a plastic lid. You actually don't need all that other stuff. That being said, I always use paper towels to clean the toilet.
Things you do not need: TV, cable, a lawn, an automated sprinkler system, fountains, plastic kids' toys, and the list goes on. In general the kind of stuff you'd see advertised on TV or in junk mail catalogs in the 90s pretty much all is in this category. Think about the stuff you have and how much cash/energy/resources it requires to maintain... and if you really need to keep it around or buy stuff like it. A wonderful person I know calls this kind of stuff "checheres" which means "frivolous junk you don't need that clutters up a space"
Dumpster dive
WATER RELATED
Don't go crazy with reducing water to the point that your hygiene and food safety suffers. Don't drink untreated rainwater, or lap water out of your local lake. Being sick, believe it or not, is way worse for the environment than regular hot showers, using safe drinking water, and a clean living space.
Turn off the tap when you’re done
Lawn? Nahhh. Find something else to put in its place that doesn't require watering. Or, of course, grow food there instead. There's a nationwide group for that btw http://www.foodnotlawns.com/
If you can, install low-flow faucets on sinks and low-flow showerheads
If you live in a desert or something like it, then don't grow water-hogging plants. Switch out everything for stuff that won't fry. In particular just let your lawn go all brown, or plant desert stuff in it. Lawns are Fn https://www.instructables.com/id/Giant- ... toolChair/ expensive and bad for the planet.
Fix leaking pipes and faucets!
Install low-flow showerheads and faucets, but consider your habits and if they are conducive to low-flow toilets. I have a vendetta against those things.
When you need to throw away some chemical or other, look it up online first to see the proper disposal method. That way you avoid contaminating waterways
Put a bucket in your shower and small containers in your sink. While you're waiting for the shower to heat up, collect the water in the bucket and use it for watering plants, washing your car, mopping the floor, flushing the toilet, or pouring into the laundry machine. While you're washing vegetables, collect the water in the containers and do the same. You can also take that water, walk it outside and dump it on the base of a tree.
If you have a dehumidifier, walk outside and dump the collected water on a tree.
Showers save more water than baths; switch to those if possible. If you are truly hardcore, do a Navy shower: shower just until damp and turn off the shower, soap up, then turn on the water again to rinse off. Takes less than 4 minutes.
Take the opportunity to wash your car when it rains, using a biodegradable soap and uh, the rain
Not for the faint of heart: skip flushing the toilet if you're only going to be flushing urine. Of course, if you have guests over you might want to skip this.
HOME ENERGY EFFICIENCY STUFF
Sure you've heard this one before: lower the temperature in winter, raise it in summer. Compensate by wearing the right clothes for the right season. How to figure out the right settings for heating/cooling and the right clothes to wear: take a long walk each day.
Insulate your windows by either buying double-layered Argon-filled windows and/or by putting pink insulation panels in the windows in wintertime. You can get these from a hardware store.
Put up heavy white curtains OR thick white blankets cut into the proper size, held up with tacks, to cover windows. A cheaper alternative in winter is to tack up a sheet over the window or use a fitted sheet that holds itself on venetian blinds or curtain rods, over flattened cardboard boxes tucked behind the venetian blinds. Then stuff the space beneath that with some more sheets, rolled up towels, etc. It's not pretty but it works.
Double layers of curtains are a good investment to prevent heat loss and gain, especially if they are thick or blackout curtains
In wintertime, insulate windows using plastic film and bubble wrap on top of the pink insulation panels if used, as per this: https://www.homerepairtutor.com/how-to- ... nsulation/
The cheapest possible solution for reducing heat loss through windows is to line them with bubble wrap (optional) and then fill the space between window and venetian blinds with flattened cardboard boxes, but moisture accumulates and the boxes get gross. Only helpful in dry climates and I'm not sure if it's up to building code standards.
Before winter, install plastic film over windows. Canada's Worst Handyman actually has an episode about this. I believe you can get that stuff online...
Invest in attic insulation if you can. It helps. Instructables has instructions for installing your own, if you have that option.
Paint your roof white if possible.
Insulate heating ducts - again, if possible
Install draft protectors under doors and caulk around drafty windows and fixtures. To find drafts, walk around with a burning incense stick and watch where the smoke goes.
Use draft blockers on external doors. Failing that, roll up a towel and use it. Or, try this https://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-b ... t-stopper/
RESPONSIBLE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Don’t waste if at all possible. Using excess resources to accomplish a given task is expensive anyway
Budget. It helps to keep track of this using an Excel spreadsheet
Buy most stuff with cash only, leaving cards at home. It's a psychological trick that works well to help you spend less. Note: Some places refuse to take cash these days, so be sure you know if this is doable before you set out somewhere.
Manage money responsibly. Listen to people like Warren Buffet and Suze Orman. Develop financial literacy; check out https://www.forbes.com and check out books at the library on money management, also look to Youtube for guidance on that. Also see https://money.howstuffworks.com and https://money.howstuffworks.com/persona ... tocks6.htm
Manage resources responsibly. Also helps to keep track of this using an Excel spreadsheet
Get organized. This will help you to manage time, money, and resources, and it will also help you keep track of everything. Regina Leeds has great books for this, and so does Marie Kondo
Dead every unhealthy habit. Soda, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. these are expensive, consume a lot of resources to be produced, and the packaging causes pollution
Laurie Cabot proposed an interesting idea in her book Celebrate the Earth. She says that it is a good idea to store one and a half years' worth (each) of food and water in your home and rotate it out regularly. This way not only are you prepared for emergencies, but you don't have to go to the store as often and waste resources. Considering the lower cost per item of buying in bulk, this is easier on your wallet too, long term. Pantry type products tend to store well, so focus on those, and preserved foods. Store these properly in bug-proof, moisture-proof containers. I would add to that idea with stockpiling of one and half years' worth of:
Toilet paper
First aid items and over-the-counter medicines
Backups of prescription medication for every person in the house that needs it
Pens
Notebooks
Organizers such as baskets, plastic bins, and folders
Salt
Menstrual hygiene products
Soap
Cleaning products
I bet you can think of your own ideas here.
GREEN THUMB STUFF
Propagate potted plants - for help keeping indoor plants alive try a book called The Unexpected Houseplant by Tovah Martin, or The Indestructible Houseplant, same author
One of the most exciting things you can do as someone who owns an apartment is to start trees from seeds. There are multiple ways of doing this on Instructables. Such as pear trees, oak trees, and apple trees, all from seeds. You can then give these as gifts to interested parties or even put them out on the street with a sign saying "free" for anyone to pick up.
Plant trees often
Make seed bombs with heirloom seeds NATIVE TO THE AREA and throw them everywhere neglected. Yep, guerilla gardening. Help out some pollinators.
ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION
Go outside as often as you can, to see how nature in your area is doing. If you don't know what's up, then you won't be able to do anything about it
Learn the Leave No Trace principles and adhere to them as much as you can, even in the city https://lnt.org/learn/7-principles - OR go a step further and do as an old camping maxim states: "leave it better than you found it." So if you find a great spot to picnic or hang out in, don't just clean up after yourself, pick up whatever detritus was there to begin with. I'm talking to you, Green Witches. If you've found yourself a hidey spot in the great outdoors and you really like to go there to unwind, that's a gift from Mother Nature to you, so it's only fair to give back by picking up some junk there the next time you go back, with some safety equipment like rubber gloves, a trash picker and trash bags. This was once a really popular trend called #trashtag on Twitter and Reddit. I hope it's still going
Cultivate a habit of clean-as-you-go both indoors and outdoors, especially in your living quarters and on any piece of nature that is public or owned by you
REDUCING WASTE
Recycle everything you can; compost if you can. Include recycling in your weekly trip because most houses do not have recycling of every kind; you’ll have to seek out what gets recycled where. It is important to have durable containers that you toss your recycling in, otherwise it piles up somewhere in your house and that gets annoying. I used to use cardboard boxes when I lived in places without a roach problem (yeah, I know). You can also use those reusable grocery bags to haul recycling. Handy!
Invest in things that will definitely reduce waste long term that have a low environmental cost to produce: a reusable water bottle - I like to carry two, bamboo toothbrush, cloth handkerchief, washcloths to clean with instead of paper towels, bento or metal lunchbox, beeswax food wraps (which you can make), glass food containers with tupperware tops, etc. I actually have this thing where I collect Ito-En green tea bottles to refill with water because they're disposable plastic but their design makes them more durable.
Hoard aluminum cans and plastic bottles, then bring them in bins to a recycling center that pays money to earn some extra cash
Get in the habit of selling your excess stuff on eBay, on Craigslist, and in garage sales. The planet benefits because no new resources are consumed to make the item you sell. You benefit because you get money. Win win. Actually, you can turn this into a side gig, especially if you make it known to friends and acquaintances that you'll take junk off their hands.
Whenever you see an opportunity to reuse something you'd otherwise throw out, take it. Don't hoard things just because you can, though, or see reusing things as some kind of religion; just look at your recycling bin and trash can as free resources. www.thriftyfun.com can help you look up uses for things you'd otherwise throw out such as shower curtains, wine corks, and so on
Learn to repair things. Gradually become a handyman by tackling small projects here and there. Seemingly minor repairs such as fixing a dripping faucet save a lot of resources in the long run. Also if you get good enough at repairing stuff you can earn money from it. This covers everything from plumbing to minor construction to car repair to electronics. There is a lot to learn, and a lot to gain.
Learn how to make things last. Maintaining the stuff you own and repairing it is a lot better than trashing it and buying a completely new one. "Use it up, wear it out, make do or go without"
Bring necessities with you every time you leave the house so you don’t have to buy non-eco-friendly goods (e.g. food, bottles of water, plasticware etc.). A roomy purse, messenger bag, or backpack will work wonders and save you money.
Speaking of necessities, learn to pack food ahead whenever you leave the house. A packed lunch, packed breakfast, and packed snacks will save you money and prevent you from having to buy stuff at a restaurant. Most restaurants really aren't eco-friendly at all
Be prepared:
-Stick survival goods and miscellaneous necessities in the trunk of your car, in your work cubicle, and in the basement or pantry of your house. That way you won't have to buy more non-eco-friendly goods and/or spend a fortune.
-Rigorously plan every trip outside your house so that you don't wind up lost or in a bad situation
Have a box in your house for donations, and regularly bring it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army
You can donate old wire coat hangers to retirement homes
You can donate ratty old towels and blankets to animal shelters
You can donate old crayons here https://thecrayoninitiative.org/collect/#at-home
Use the Craigslist Free listing service to get stuff off your hands if it's still useful, particularly if it's large, like furniture
Have a very large bag in your house for saving fabric scraps... if you'll use them. Even if you don't, chances are that someone on Craigslist will want them. Some people really like to sew.
Have a large container in your house for accumulating scrap paper... if you'll use it. If not, off to the recycling center it goes
Have a couple of small boxes for storing buttons that fall off clothes. If you don't use them, someone else would love them. Guaranteed.
You can recycle electronics at Best Buy and Staples. Yes, EVERY Best Buy and Staples.
You can recycle used motor oil and car batteries at every Advance Auto Parts.
You can recycle VHS tapes, cell phones, greeting cards, Christmas lights and more as per this list https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/su ... n-recycle/
You can recycle a whole bunch of strange stuff, such as chip bags, cigarette butts, and broken guitar strings, by shipping it to Terracycle
https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades - if you're not sure that it can be recycled, check here
You can recycle old cars, trucks, and vehicles by donating them to the Salvation Army. Call 1-800-SA-TRUCK aka 1-800-728-7825. Even if the thing isn't running you can still call them and ask if they'll take it.
Have clutter that's still useful but you need to get rid of it? Fear not! http://www.missminimalist.com/2011/04/w ... n-do-good/
Start to use this list of what you can do with stuff besides throw it in the trash: https://www.sunshineguerrilla.com/2019/ ... ow-in.html
Join Freecycle to locally gift stuff you don't want to people who actually want it https://www.freecycle.org/
Go zero waste gradually
Dumpster dive, if you are prepared enough and can handle the risk and the smell. Instructables has good guides for this.
THINGS NOT TO DO
Don't go by plane... at all.
Don't go for vacations in far-flung places
Don't buy a Hummer or mom van or gas guzzler. There are five seats in regular cars for a reason.
Don't litter or illegally dump
Don't blame all environmental problems on the rich and powerful. That's bullshit
Don't consider buying "eco-friendly" products as replacements for products you already have to be automatically "green." Or worse, consider buying new products or services like massive "green" remodels, expensive solar panels, and electric cars to be the solution. It is not that simple.
Don't buy or build a McMansion
Don't skip voter registration and voting and then get angry about all the environmental problems caused by politics
Don't contribute spectacular amounts of pollution or waste spectacular amounts of resources on frivolous stuff (casinos in Las Vegas and factories in China, I'm looking at you...)
***NOTE: boy did I ever misspeak with this particular section. I have changed it to say what I meant it to say. Doy!*** Don't confuse wants with needs. You do not NEED a lawn. You do not NEED coffee. You do not NEED new fashionable clothes every time the seasons turn. Etc. By all means buy cool stuff and keep it around, but know in the back of your mind what your physical needs are, and how they differ from what you want. Keep your desires in check so that what you buy actually makes you happy, instead of going overboard in a consumerist frenzy. In other words...
Don't be greedy
DIY
Make one eco-friendly project from Instructables or another good website per day
Learn to make your own whatever-it-is you want or need. I won't pretend this isn't a major challenge. Start small. Again, tackle small projects here and there. Instructables can really help with this. This covers a whole world of material goods and skills - sewing, pottery, basket weaving, carpentry, and so on and so forth. The more of these skills you learn, the better. Here are a few links that can help: http://www.witchesandsandwiches.com/for ... t=6&p=6#p6
http://www.lisabronner.com/everything-y ... sing-less/
Make your own soap in bulk for family use twice a year. It's complicated to get started but simple to keep up with once you know how it works. If it turns out you enjoy making the stuff, you can always make extra and sell it.
COMMUNITY STUFF
Certain things can only be done well with a lot of neighbors who like each other. These include:
Make a Mom Network - https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/cr ... and-money/ this has serious potential. Especially if dads get in on it too. Or dads can make their own network. If you don't have kids, how about creating a Friend Network in the same way, with the specific goal of saving money and helping each other out?
Making community gardens
Making and maintaining community compost piles
Seed and plant swaps
Hosting swaps of tools, items, etc. The UK has things called "boot sales" which are like many garage sales next to one another but out of the trunk of a car
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH
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RegularJackass
- Site Admin
- Posts:95
- Joined:Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:54 am
- Contact:
Re: Resources for Going Green
If you are lucky enough to have your own house with a garden:
Make a commitment to stick to organic, eco-friendly growing methods only
Don't get in over your head. Start small and start slow with gardening. It's a lot harder than it looks
To have a higher success rate, take a walk around your neighborhood and see if you can identify what grows wild, without irrigation or any kind of care. If it's edible or useful, growing that in your garden should be way less of a headache than growing other stuff.
Pick up a book called Self-Sufficiency on ¼ Acre by Brett Markham and try out what it says, and/or The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith. Other books that may be of interest include Herbs by Lesley Bremness, Mushroom Farming by Tradd Cotter, Deep-Rooted Wisdom by Augustus Jenkins Farmer aka Jenks (alert: there's some racism in there; recommended anyway due to quality of gardening advice), and The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. I recommend these books out of personal experience with gardening and the knowledge my family-o-farmers has passed down to me.
Other books that might potentially help include the Rainwater Harvesting series by Brad Lancaster. However, you'd need an engineer to look over anything you'd want to build out of it because interfering with the water table can destroy your house. Fun.
Make it a personal goal to grow and preserve all your own fruits and vegetables. Likely this will help you to stay healthy as well as fit.
Do what you can to preserve the harvest somehow. Canning, drying, freezing, whatever. If you don't have the time, give some of it away, just don't waste it. Also, some editions of the Joy of Cooking have canning recipes in the back of the book.
Invest in drip irrigation if at all possible
To start seeds in an eco-friendly way, get some plastic flats with drainage holes and drip trays, a south-facing window, regular organic potting soil (Fox Farm is my choice), and a table. Wait until March or April. Fill the flats with the soil, sprinkle on seeds, gently cover them with a tiny amount of soil and mist them three times a day with a plant mister or spray bottle, using cooled chamomile tea if you need to control mildew. Don't add too much water. Take them outside for sunlight whenever it is warm enough. Once their roots become large enough, transfer each to a small plastic pot. Keep taking them outside for sunlight whenever possible. Once large enough, transplant those into the garden. After transplanting everything, scrub the plastic flats and plant pots with soap and hot water until clean, and then soak it in a bleach bath or hydrogen peroxide bath. Then dry it and it's ready for next years' seed starting.
Invest in things for vertical gardening if you can. You can use bamboo or sticks for 1-3 years before they rot, but they are more eco-friendly. Used nylon pantyhose can be used to hold up growing squash on a vine, or to tie heavier vines to a sturdy trellis
Enrich the soil often. Free additions to a compost heap include the coffee grounds from coffee shops, bags of vegetable scraps from organic grocery stores, trimmings from healthy non-poisonous garden plants, grass clippings, leaves, spent tea leaves, and untreated sawdust from sawmills. Also you can usually get free manure from a horse stable or a friend who farms animals. Fish meal is also excellent, but costs money. Some people simply plant fish guts from a local shop into the soil itself and let it rot there. I'm not one of them, but I've seen firsthand how it boosts soil fertility. Soaking well-rotted manure in a bucket of water until it dissolves also makes an excellent plant food. Water things with it and see for yourself how they thrive. Here is a little more on it: https://www.thespruce.com/using-manure- ... en-2539481
Consider planting the following patches in your backyard: something for honeybees, something for native pollinators, something for wildlife, something to sequester carbon like a tree or whatever, and just letting one patch grow wild as long as there's no poison ivy or something like that
Talk to your neighbors, learn about your city's ordinances, and check with any homeowner's association, and then consider backyard beekeeping, and raising chickens in the backyard. A goat is probably too much lol
Add a birdbath and a bird feeder to your yard
Add a bat house and bee waterer to your yard
Consider raising some butterflies. I believe you can get mail-order cocoons of monarchs. If you do, be sure to also grow milkweed, but thankfully that's easy to grow. A patch of nettles is also good because that's the sole food source of one kind of butterfly. If nothing else, grow some nettles and milkweed and see if any butterflies show up.
Transform your front yard into a food-producing garden or something equally eco-friendly like a rain garden, xeriscape, bee garden, or wildlife haven, by first checking your town's laws, talking to your neighbors, and consulting any homeowner's association, planning it out so it looks pretty, and then keeping it well kept so it still looks pretty. If you can do all of the above - food, wildlife, pollinators - so much the better.
Propagate plants and save seeds to give as gifts
Consider selling excess produce at a farmer's market so that the people in your community can eat more local foods, and so that you can earn dosh
Talk to your neighbors. They might grow stuff too, and then you'll be able to swap produce
Check local ordinances and if possible collect rainwater with which to water the garden
Check local ordinances and if possible build a graywater system with which to water non-food-producing plants. This requires engineering expertise.
Plant large deciduous trees so that they shade the roof in summer, lowering AC bills. This requires basic knowledge of the sun's position at different times of the year
Plant a windbreak of evergreen trees so that they protect the house from cold winter winds. This requires knowledge of where prevailing cold winds come from in your location
Join a local gardening club if you can
Make a commitment to stick to organic, eco-friendly growing methods only
Don't get in over your head. Start small and start slow with gardening. It's a lot harder than it looks
To have a higher success rate, take a walk around your neighborhood and see if you can identify what grows wild, without irrigation or any kind of care. If it's edible or useful, growing that in your garden should be way less of a headache than growing other stuff.
Pick up a book called Self-Sufficiency on ¼ Acre by Brett Markham and try out what it says, and/or The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith. Other books that may be of interest include Herbs by Lesley Bremness, Mushroom Farming by Tradd Cotter, Deep-Rooted Wisdom by Augustus Jenkins Farmer aka Jenks (alert: there's some racism in there; recommended anyway due to quality of gardening advice), and The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. I recommend these books out of personal experience with gardening and the knowledge my family-o-farmers has passed down to me.
Other books that might potentially help include the Rainwater Harvesting series by Brad Lancaster. However, you'd need an engineer to look over anything you'd want to build out of it because interfering with the water table can destroy your house. Fun.
Make it a personal goal to grow and preserve all your own fruits and vegetables. Likely this will help you to stay healthy as well as fit.
Do what you can to preserve the harvest somehow. Canning, drying, freezing, whatever. If you don't have the time, give some of it away, just don't waste it. Also, some editions of the Joy of Cooking have canning recipes in the back of the book.
Invest in drip irrigation if at all possible
To start seeds in an eco-friendly way, get some plastic flats with drainage holes and drip trays, a south-facing window, regular organic potting soil (Fox Farm is my choice), and a table. Wait until March or April. Fill the flats with the soil, sprinkle on seeds, gently cover them with a tiny amount of soil and mist them three times a day with a plant mister or spray bottle, using cooled chamomile tea if you need to control mildew. Don't add too much water. Take them outside for sunlight whenever it is warm enough. Once their roots become large enough, transfer each to a small plastic pot. Keep taking them outside for sunlight whenever possible. Once large enough, transplant those into the garden. After transplanting everything, scrub the plastic flats and plant pots with soap and hot water until clean, and then soak it in a bleach bath or hydrogen peroxide bath. Then dry it and it's ready for next years' seed starting.
Invest in things for vertical gardening if you can. You can use bamboo or sticks for 1-3 years before they rot, but they are more eco-friendly. Used nylon pantyhose can be used to hold up growing squash on a vine, or to tie heavier vines to a sturdy trellis
Enrich the soil often. Free additions to a compost heap include the coffee grounds from coffee shops, bags of vegetable scraps from organic grocery stores, trimmings from healthy non-poisonous garden plants, grass clippings, leaves, spent tea leaves, and untreated sawdust from sawmills. Also you can usually get free manure from a horse stable or a friend who farms animals. Fish meal is also excellent, but costs money. Some people simply plant fish guts from a local shop into the soil itself and let it rot there. I'm not one of them, but I've seen firsthand how it boosts soil fertility. Soaking well-rotted manure in a bucket of water until it dissolves also makes an excellent plant food. Water things with it and see for yourself how they thrive. Here is a little more on it: https://www.thespruce.com/using-manure- ... en-2539481
Consider planting the following patches in your backyard: something for honeybees, something for native pollinators, something for wildlife, something to sequester carbon like a tree or whatever, and just letting one patch grow wild as long as there's no poison ivy or something like that
Talk to your neighbors, learn about your city's ordinances, and check with any homeowner's association, and then consider backyard beekeeping, and raising chickens in the backyard. A goat is probably too much lol
Add a birdbath and a bird feeder to your yard
Add a bat house and bee waterer to your yard
Consider raising some butterflies. I believe you can get mail-order cocoons of monarchs. If you do, be sure to also grow milkweed, but thankfully that's easy to grow. A patch of nettles is also good because that's the sole food source of one kind of butterfly. If nothing else, grow some nettles and milkweed and see if any butterflies show up.
Transform your front yard into a food-producing garden or something equally eco-friendly like a rain garden, xeriscape, bee garden, or wildlife haven, by first checking your town's laws, talking to your neighbors, and consulting any homeowner's association, planning it out so it looks pretty, and then keeping it well kept so it still looks pretty. If you can do all of the above - food, wildlife, pollinators - so much the better.
Propagate plants and save seeds to give as gifts
Consider selling excess produce at a farmer's market so that the people in your community can eat more local foods, and so that you can earn dosh
Talk to your neighbors. They might grow stuff too, and then you'll be able to swap produce
Check local ordinances and if possible collect rainwater with which to water the garden
Check local ordinances and if possible build a graywater system with which to water non-food-producing plants. This requires engineering expertise.
Plant large deciduous trees so that they shade the roof in summer, lowering AC bills. This requires basic knowledge of the sun's position at different times of the year
Plant a windbreak of evergreen trees so that they protect the house from cold winter winds. This requires knowledge of where prevailing cold winds come from in your location
Join a local gardening club if you can
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-
RegularJackass
- Site Admin
- Posts:95
- Joined:Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:54 am
- Contact:
Re: Resources for going green
If you are lucky enough to be able to construct stuff where you live:
Make an enclosed porch that functions somewhat like an airlock to prevent heat loss from the house during the winter, and heat gain during summer
Build shutters on the windows. Windows and roofs both tend to lose the most heat in winter, and let in the most heat during summer
Build retractable awnings over windows to shade them during summer and prevent excess heat gain
Legally make a solar hot water heater, if possible. If you live in a cold location this will take some doing and it probably won't work during winter
Add more and better insulation to your house's walls, ceiling, and under-the-floor joists in the basement
If you are lucky enough to be able to construct stuff somewhere:
Build a greenhouse. This takes engineering savvy. City roofs are perfect for this, if you build it to cope with hail, high winds, severe storms, etc. Also, greenhouses are great if you have extra space on your property because you can grow semitropical stuff in them you'd otherwise buy at the grocery store, plus greens in winter, and so on
Build raised beds. They can be on the ground, or built to be at hip height. Good for people who are otherwise disabled to be able to garden. Also good for areas where there is no ground to farm, just asphalt or cement
Make an enclosed porch that functions somewhat like an airlock to prevent heat loss from the house during the winter, and heat gain during summer
Build shutters on the windows. Windows and roofs both tend to lose the most heat in winter, and let in the most heat during summer
Build retractable awnings over windows to shade them during summer and prevent excess heat gain
Legally make a solar hot water heater, if possible. If you live in a cold location this will take some doing and it probably won't work during winter
Add more and better insulation to your house's walls, ceiling, and under-the-floor joists in the basement
If you are lucky enough to be able to construct stuff somewhere:
Build a greenhouse. This takes engineering savvy. City roofs are perfect for this, if you build it to cope with hail, high winds, severe storms, etc. Also, greenhouses are great if you have extra space on your property because you can grow semitropical stuff in them you'd otherwise buy at the grocery store, plus greens in winter, and so on
Build raised beds. They can be on the ground, or built to be at hip height. Good for people who are otherwise disabled to be able to garden. Also good for areas where there is no ground to farm, just asphalt or cement
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH
-
RegularJackass
- Site Admin
- Posts:95
- Joined:Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:54 am
- Contact:
Re: Resources for going green
NEXT-LEVEL STUFF
See: https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Future/
Start trees from seeds in styrofoam cups or whatever you got, using Instructables guides. They have a ton. Then, stick the started tree saplings on the curb with a sign saying "Free _ Tree Saplings." Or do that by the library, or inside any public building that gives you permission. If you have the time and desire to lovingly raise those little saplings into 2-foot-tall or hip- or chest-height trees, that's even better. Most people want larger trees because they are more likely to survive when transplanted. I am currently in the process of growing one tree in a pot on my patio and actually, it's really rewarding. Try it out.
Start your own compost-making operation for your local area
If you have a backyard or land, let your friends bring their compost to it to create a big compost pile. Many people live in high-rises and apartments and cannot compost there but would love to if they could
It is entirely possible to make a living off of having people pay you to do one of the things on the "habits you can cultivate/one time investments" list for them
Ascend to a position of power and influence so that you can make eco-friendly changes on a broader scale. Whatever position you wish to occupy, study it in depth first and be certain you know everything you need to in order to do things in a professional and correct manner
Know that every business, household, industry, and part of government can start down the path of being eco-friendly if it so chooses. Gain influence and start leading whatever-it-is down that path
Organize a group in your area that plants trees once a month. Network to find places to plant the trees and to find free trees, or start your own from seed. Fundraise as needed
Legally build something that generates electricity in an eco-friendly way and use it to power your house or apartment
Buy land and live off of it, off the grid
Buy land just to preserve and maintain the wilderness on it
Buy land and use it to rent gardening allotments to families in the city
Organize and host your own America Recycles event on November 15 https://americarecyclesday.org/toolkit/
Start a local Food Not Lawns group http://www.foodnotlawns.com/localchapters.html
Start a community garden
Start a farmer's market
Get involved with some organizations that make a difference
Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org
Non-GMO Project https://livingnongmo.org/learn/about/
National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/getinvolved
Earthjustice https://earthjustice.org/about
In South Africa: Bread Tags for Wheelchairs http://www.breadtagsforwheelchairs.co.za/index.html
Trash Hero https://trashhero.org/ Link up with other people for cleaning up outdoor areas of trash
Earth Island http://earthisland.org/index.php/projec ... rt-program
Oceana https://usa.oceana.org/
Trees for the Future https://trees.org/
Natural Resources Defense Council https://www.nrdc.org/
4Ocean https://contact.4ocean.com/hc/en-us/art ... u-collect-
Jobs that help the environment
Lawyer working for Earthjustice https://earthjustice.org/about
Green architect - buildings with platinum LEED certification are awesome
Green construction worker, engineer, or manager - there are so many different types of green building. Earthbags, tiny off-grid houses, earthships, super green greenhouses, tiny mobile homes, and it goes on and on. There's a whole world of that stuff. Seriously, check out Instructables for a taste of it.
Convert bikes, motorcycles, and cars to run on electricity - Instructables has guides for all of these, and if you can comply with safety regulations, people will buy them
Selling stuff from dumpsters. No, seriously https://www.wired.com/2015/02/high-end- ... tt-malone/
Bicycle repair person
Organic farmer
Organic farmer's helper: check out WWOOFing https://wwoof.net/, kibbutz farming in Israel (okay, usually not organic but usually so cheaply done it's still eco-friendly) http://www.ivolunteer.org.il/Eng/Index. ... goryID=131, your local farmers at the farmer's market, and the Ozuchi village in Japan https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/j ... doned-rice
Drip irrigation technician
Recycling plant worker
Green home and commercial building remodeling - you can specialize in this. Rain barrel installation, greywater setup, passive solar retrofits, geothermal energy, the list goes on
Politician, depending on how you go about it
Small business owner, depending on how you go about it. For example:
-Selling upcycled arts or crafts
-Mosaic artist. Many things can be mosaic'd: tables, planters, kitchen backsplashes, concrete. Since mosaic is made of broken china and pottery, this is also upcycling.
Nonprofit owner, depending on how you go about it
Work for a small business or nonprofit that is already eco-friendly or a charity specifically dedicated to environmental causes
Thrift stores, pawn shops, secondhand stores and used bookstores are already eco-friendly; if their store location is an eco-friendly building then so much the better
Wave energy production
Environmental lawyer
Environmental engineer
Conservation scientist
Landscaper, with an emphasis on helping people build backyard gardens
Civil engineer, with a focus on environmental conservation
Work for an environmental remediation company
Home wind turbine installation - reason: giant wind turbines change airflow over land and migratory patterns of birds. We do not yet know their impact and it could be major
Doable ideas for inventions that could be patented
-A device that would take the heat outside and convert it into mechanical energy in a turbine, and then generate electricity with it
-A device that would function like a catalytic converter in vehicle exhaust systems, but would scrub CO2 as well as other emissions
-Carbon sink skyscrapers: basically making skyscrapers specifically filled with vegetation, or algae CO2 scrubbers, on each level. These could be implemented in cities - see here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Simple ... Culturing/ Note: microbial growth could be a problem with the algae CO2 scrubbers; vegetation is probably a better bet
-Any and all vertical gardening structures, especially those that can be implemented indoors or in cities
-Puny yet cheap wind turbines the size of desk fans that could be put in windows to say, charge cell phones or run laptops, or charge electric bikes
-Affordable grid-tied or off-grid wind turbines for houses in the country or suburbs, with safety mechanisms
-Affordable grid-tied or off-grid heliostats for houses in the country or suburbs, with safety mechanisms
-More eco-friendly versions of pesticides, cleaners, and herbicides
-Safe solar ovens/cookstoves
-Safe solar water distillers
-Solar fiberoptic indoor lighting, but affordable and easily installed
-Safe, affordable solar air heaters - see: https://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap- ... ir-Heater/
-Affordable, effective compact composters that do not emit odors but still permit aeration of the contents. Bonus points if these things can work indoors.
-Solar-spectrum LED grow lights that are affordable and that run "cold" like your everyday LEDs. SORAA has them, but they are both expensive and run hot. Other companies have them but in glaring magenta and blue colors that look like blacklight and don't exactly do good things for plants.
-Affordable, portable water filters that actually do the job. Check out the ones on the market. They suck.
-New generation composting outhouses that don't smell bad or pollute the environment, or the local water table
-Easily installed rooftop rainwater collection and purification systems that tie into city water (or don't)
-All-in-one supplement so that anyone who wants to go vegan just takes one pill per day and they can do it without health consequences
-Extra-durable asphalt or some other substance for road construction so that we don't have as much goddamn construction. For fuck's sake.
-Basically anything that makes buildings more durable and resistant to storms and temperature fluctuations
-Effective bug spray with no health risks to the people or pets wearing it
-Balanced soil additive for backyard and apartment gardeners, balanced in minerals and elements so the food grown is more nutritious
-Any energy-using or resource-using product or appliance that already exists, but way more efficient
-Affordable compostable packaging and bags. This has already been done, but it hasn't caught on because it needs to be cheaper
-Human-powered versions of electrical powered stuff. For instance, washing machines or blenders. A lot of this stuff exists already, but it tends to be more expensive than the conventional stuff for some reason
See: https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Future/
Start trees from seeds in styrofoam cups or whatever you got, using Instructables guides. They have a ton. Then, stick the started tree saplings on the curb with a sign saying "Free _ Tree Saplings." Or do that by the library, or inside any public building that gives you permission. If you have the time and desire to lovingly raise those little saplings into 2-foot-tall or hip- or chest-height trees, that's even better. Most people want larger trees because they are more likely to survive when transplanted. I am currently in the process of growing one tree in a pot on my patio and actually, it's really rewarding. Try it out.
Start your own compost-making operation for your local area
If you have a backyard or land, let your friends bring their compost to it to create a big compost pile. Many people live in high-rises and apartments and cannot compost there but would love to if they could
It is entirely possible to make a living off of having people pay you to do one of the things on the "habits you can cultivate/one time investments" list for them
Ascend to a position of power and influence so that you can make eco-friendly changes on a broader scale. Whatever position you wish to occupy, study it in depth first and be certain you know everything you need to in order to do things in a professional and correct manner
Know that every business, household, industry, and part of government can start down the path of being eco-friendly if it so chooses. Gain influence and start leading whatever-it-is down that path
Organize a group in your area that plants trees once a month. Network to find places to plant the trees and to find free trees, or start your own from seed. Fundraise as needed
Legally build something that generates electricity in an eco-friendly way and use it to power your house or apartment
Buy land and live off of it, off the grid
Buy land just to preserve and maintain the wilderness on it
Buy land and use it to rent gardening allotments to families in the city
Organize and host your own America Recycles event on November 15 https://americarecyclesday.org/toolkit/
Start a local Food Not Lawns group http://www.foodnotlawns.com/localchapters.html
Start a community garden
Start a farmer's market
Get involved with some organizations that make a difference
Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org
Non-GMO Project https://livingnongmo.org/learn/about/
National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/getinvolved
Earthjustice https://earthjustice.org/about
In South Africa: Bread Tags for Wheelchairs http://www.breadtagsforwheelchairs.co.za/index.html
Trash Hero https://trashhero.org/ Link up with other people for cleaning up outdoor areas of trash
Earth Island http://earthisland.org/index.php/projec ... rt-program
Oceana https://usa.oceana.org/
Trees for the Future https://trees.org/
Natural Resources Defense Council https://www.nrdc.org/
4Ocean https://contact.4ocean.com/hc/en-us/art ... u-collect-
Jobs that help the environment
Lawyer working for Earthjustice https://earthjustice.org/about
Green architect - buildings with platinum LEED certification are awesome
Green construction worker, engineer, or manager - there are so many different types of green building. Earthbags, tiny off-grid houses, earthships, super green greenhouses, tiny mobile homes, and it goes on and on. There's a whole world of that stuff. Seriously, check out Instructables for a taste of it.
Convert bikes, motorcycles, and cars to run on electricity - Instructables has guides for all of these, and if you can comply with safety regulations, people will buy them
Selling stuff from dumpsters. No, seriously https://www.wired.com/2015/02/high-end- ... tt-malone/
Bicycle repair person
Organic farmer
Organic farmer's helper: check out WWOOFing https://wwoof.net/, kibbutz farming in Israel (okay, usually not organic but usually so cheaply done it's still eco-friendly) http://www.ivolunteer.org.il/Eng/Index. ... goryID=131, your local farmers at the farmer's market, and the Ozuchi village in Japan https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/j ... doned-rice
Drip irrigation technician
Recycling plant worker
Green home and commercial building remodeling - you can specialize in this. Rain barrel installation, greywater setup, passive solar retrofits, geothermal energy, the list goes on
Politician, depending on how you go about it
Small business owner, depending on how you go about it. For example:
-Selling upcycled arts or crafts
-Mosaic artist. Many things can be mosaic'd: tables, planters, kitchen backsplashes, concrete. Since mosaic is made of broken china and pottery, this is also upcycling.
Nonprofit owner, depending on how you go about it
Work for a small business or nonprofit that is already eco-friendly or a charity specifically dedicated to environmental causes
Thrift stores, pawn shops, secondhand stores and used bookstores are already eco-friendly; if their store location is an eco-friendly building then so much the better
Wave energy production
Environmental lawyer
Environmental engineer
Conservation scientist
Landscaper, with an emphasis on helping people build backyard gardens
Civil engineer, with a focus on environmental conservation
Work for an environmental remediation company
Home wind turbine installation - reason: giant wind turbines change airflow over land and migratory patterns of birds. We do not yet know their impact and it could be major
Doable ideas for inventions that could be patented
-A device that would take the heat outside and convert it into mechanical energy in a turbine, and then generate electricity with it
-A device that would function like a catalytic converter in vehicle exhaust systems, but would scrub CO2 as well as other emissions
-Carbon sink skyscrapers: basically making skyscrapers specifically filled with vegetation, or algae CO2 scrubbers, on each level. These could be implemented in cities - see here: https://www.instructables.com/id/Simple ... Culturing/ Note: microbial growth could be a problem with the algae CO2 scrubbers; vegetation is probably a better bet
-Any and all vertical gardening structures, especially those that can be implemented indoors or in cities
-Puny yet cheap wind turbines the size of desk fans that could be put in windows to say, charge cell phones or run laptops, or charge electric bikes
-Affordable grid-tied or off-grid wind turbines for houses in the country or suburbs, with safety mechanisms
-Affordable grid-tied or off-grid heliostats for houses in the country or suburbs, with safety mechanisms
-More eco-friendly versions of pesticides, cleaners, and herbicides
-Safe solar ovens/cookstoves
-Safe solar water distillers
-Solar fiberoptic indoor lighting, but affordable and easily installed
-Safe, affordable solar air heaters - see: https://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap- ... ir-Heater/
-Affordable, effective compact composters that do not emit odors but still permit aeration of the contents. Bonus points if these things can work indoors.
-Solar-spectrum LED grow lights that are affordable and that run "cold" like your everyday LEDs. SORAA has them, but they are both expensive and run hot. Other companies have them but in glaring magenta and blue colors that look like blacklight and don't exactly do good things for plants.
-Affordable, portable water filters that actually do the job. Check out the ones on the market. They suck.
-New generation composting outhouses that don't smell bad or pollute the environment, or the local water table
-Easily installed rooftop rainwater collection and purification systems that tie into city water (or don't)
-All-in-one supplement so that anyone who wants to go vegan just takes one pill per day and they can do it without health consequences
-Extra-durable asphalt or some other substance for road construction so that we don't have as much goddamn construction. For fuck's sake.
-Basically anything that makes buildings more durable and resistant to storms and temperature fluctuations
-Effective bug spray with no health risks to the people or pets wearing it
-Balanced soil additive for backyard and apartment gardeners, balanced in minerals and elements so the food grown is more nutritious
-Any energy-using or resource-using product or appliance that already exists, but way more efficient
-Affordable compostable packaging and bags. This has already been done, but it hasn't caught on because it needs to be cheaper
-Human-powered versions of electrical powered stuff. For instance, washing machines or blenders. A lot of this stuff exists already, but it tends to be more expensive than the conventional stuff for some reason
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH
-
RegularJackass
- Site Admin
- Posts:95
- Joined:Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:54 am
- Contact:
Re: Resources for going green
ECO FRIENDLY COMPANIES
WEB HOSTING
https://krystal.co.uk/
SKINCARE AND HYGIENE
Shea Moisture
https://www.sheamoisture.com/ I've spent my life reading ingredient labels, and it's difficult to find something cleaner than these products. They make shampoo, hair care, soaps, and facial care products.
Kokua Sun Care
https://www.kokuasuncare.com/ The best sunscreen money can buy. It is reef safe and free of harmful chemicals. It also stays on when you're swimming in the ocean so you don't have to reapply every freaking half hour. 100% recommended. I love this stuff.
Doctor Bronner's
https://www.drbronner.com/about/ourselv ... ers-story/
Get Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for washing clothes, http://www.lisabronner.com/sal-suds-in-the-laundry/ or make your own laundry detergent https://www.diynatural.com/homemade-lau ... gent-soap/ and your own dishwashing detergent, https://www.diynatural.com/homemade-dis ... gent-soap/ and use Dr. Bronner's to wash just about everything. Dr. Bronner's regular liquid soap can be used to hand-wash clothing, especially delicates. Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds is also used for cleaning cars and floors. It's heavier duty than their normal soap. They also sell coconut oil. Don't try to use Dr. Bronner's to wash dishes. Doesn't work.
FOOD
Equal Exchange
https://www.equalexchange.com A fair trade company. This is also the best bang for your buck when you're looking for coffee, chocolate, or tea. You never have to worry about quality when you buy this brand.
Clif Bar
https://www.clifbar.com/ They've been doing the eco-friendly thing since they began. Also, I used to practically live off these things XD
Bobo's Oat Bars
https://eatbobos.com/ Sugary little death bombs that are GMO free and delicious.
Organic Valley
https://www.organicvalley.coop/ The best quality eggs, milk, and dairy money can buy.
Copypasted from the vegan foods list:
Decent brands of vegan stuff/places to get food
Amy's Kitchen https://www.amys.com/
Alternative Baking Company https://www.alternativebaking.com/
Lightlife products www.lightlife.com
Dave's Killer Bread www.daveskillerbread.com
Blue Diamond products www.bluediamond.com
Nuts.com www.nuts.com
Lotus Foods https://shop.lotusfoods.com
Vegan Essentials http://www.veganessentials.com/
Bragg's https://www.bragg.com/
GoMaxGo candy bars https://gomaxgofoods.com/
Vegenaise https://followyourheart.com/products/original/
Heart Thrive cakes https://www.thehealthybakingcompany.com/ Like those Bobo's Oat Bar things but with protein and therefore less bad for you
Ezekiel bread https://www.foodforlife.com/
CLOTHING
Maggie's Clothing
https://maggiesorganics.com Simple clothing made in an outstanding way. And thankfully it looks good too, unlike some of these eco-friendly brands that make you look like you came out of a goddamn commune...
COMPANIES THAT ARE NOT ECO-FRIENDLY
These are the greenwashed brands that put up a facade.
Seventh Generation
American Apparel
Annie's (owned by General Mills)
Larabar (owned by General Mills)
Muir Glen (also owned by General Mills)
White Wave Foods (owned by Danone) - this includes all subsidiary companies such as Silk, Earthbound, Vega, Alpro, So Delicious, Wallaby Organic, Horizon Organic, and International Delight
Anything owned by the Koch brothers, including Georgia Pacific https://www.investopedia.com/insights/c ... -brothers/
Anything owned by Monsanto: https://vocal.media/feast/food-brands-owned-by-monsanto <-note: ignore the stupid image of "evil bad viruses" and just scroll down to the list. Reasoning: Monsanto created Roundup. It still sells it. And now that Roundup has been getting sued for causing blood cancers they are advertising it on Facebook, saying that victims may get financial restitution. They also make Roundup-Ready crops, and create genetically modified foods in order to make them tolerate certain pesticides while the weeds can't. They also patented the genetically modified crops and sue farmers who have those seeds land on their fields. Look into it. Monsanto is evil.
Also check https://www.peri.umass.edu/top-100-polluter-indexes to see which companies to avoid. These are the worst polluters according to studies done by the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Also check https://betterworldshopper.org/ to see what companies to avoid. It is not good at determining good aka sustainable and responsible companies because it doesn't discriminate between subsidiary "good" companies owned by "the worst" companies and independent "good" companies.
JURY IS STILL OUT
Tesla https://shop.tesla.com/ - on the one hand, expensive eco friendly cars, battery banks, and solar panels. On the other hand, the amount of resources required to make them. Hmmm.
ECO FRIENDLY RECIPES
Air freshener: Try a ratio of 20 or so drops essential oil to 1/2 cup of vodka. Put that in a spray bottle. You know, the atomizer kind. Lemongrass works well.
Shower cleaner: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/ho ... er-cleaner I tried this using unscented dish soap of a different brand name. Worked perfect.
Miscellaneous cleaners: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/my ... e-cleaners
Citrus vinegar: Just steep a bunch of fresh citrus peels in some jars full of vinegar for two weeks, then strain that into a spray bottle. This can be added to mop water or used straight to clean kitchen counters and so on. You can also add pine needle sprigs, rosemary sprigs, cloves, or whatever.
Homemade soap: Follow basically any soap recipe on the web such as this cold process recipe https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Soap/ and plug in the values to the soap calculator here http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp to make sure it works out. To understand said soap calculator see here: http://soapcalc.net/info/helptext.asp Once you have made soap once, you'll be able to make it using any oils or fats provided you use the soap calculator. Note: cold process soap takes a whole month to cure, at least. Hot process soap can be used immediately after you make it if it registers at the proper pH.
Liquid castile soap: TaraLee on Youtube has an excellent tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0yBiTjsYdk be sure to run the values of oils, potassium hydroxide, and water through the Soap Calculator first and fix those; it may be slightly off. She has an Etsy here btw, if you want to support her by buying her products https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaraLeeNaturals
Melt-and-pour glycerin soap base: I never thought I'd find this recipe online. https://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make- ... se-recipe/ This is groundbreaking because with melt-and-pour soap, all you need is a double boiler, molds, and a plan, and you can add basically whatever you want. Also, if you wash your hands a lot, using this makes it less likely you'll get chapped hands.
Wood polish: Stale extra-virgin olive oil. You can use fresh extra-virgin olive oil if you really want to, but that's kind of a waste. Just rub it on there with a square cut from an old T-shirt, or with a paper towel. Wait overnight. Repeat this three times a year for best results.
What can I mix with castile soap? http://www.lisabronner.com/what-can-you ... tile-soap/
All-purpose cleaner: 1 part citrus vinegar, 1 part water, in a spray bottle
Glass and window cleaner: 2 parts vodka, 1 part water, 60 drops lemon essential oil, peel of two lemons torn into bits, in a spray bottle
Various uses of Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap (can also be done with any brand of castile soap)
Add 1/4 cup to a mop bucket of hot water to clean floors
Add a splash of it to a bucket to wash the car
Put a bit on a wet washcloth and use to scrub clean in the shower
Use the unscented version to wash dogs
Add some of the unscented version to bathwater for washing babies
Lather it up and use it as shaving cream
Dilute 1:1 with water in a spray bottle and use as toilet cleaner
Add just enough to baking soda in an old shampoo bottle to make a paste and use as soft scrub on sinks, grimy dishes, tubs etc.
Add a splash to a gallon of hot water and use the liquid to clean counters and surfaces
Use one drop, well diluted each time, as face cleanser
Use it to hand-wash delicate clothing and cloth stuff by adding a capful to a sink of warm water. You can also use it to hand-wash washcloths and cleaning rags, but to sterilize them you'll need to boil them afterwards.
If you're going to let dishes soak overnight, splash some in there and it will help lift the grease
Travel buddy - can be used as all-purpose soap on the road. Also can be used while camping since it is biodegradable. Note: Dr. Bronner's bar soap is also biodegradable.
Soak makeup brushes and hairbrushes in a bowl of water and a splash of this stuff, then rinse and dry
Add a splash to baths to get extra clean
WEB HOSTING
https://krystal.co.uk/
SKINCARE AND HYGIENE
Shea Moisture
https://www.sheamoisture.com/ I've spent my life reading ingredient labels, and it's difficult to find something cleaner than these products. They make shampoo, hair care, soaps, and facial care products.
Kokua Sun Care
https://www.kokuasuncare.com/ The best sunscreen money can buy. It is reef safe and free of harmful chemicals. It also stays on when you're swimming in the ocean so you don't have to reapply every freaking half hour. 100% recommended. I love this stuff.
Doctor Bronner's
https://www.drbronner.com/about/ourselv ... ers-story/
Get Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for washing clothes, http://www.lisabronner.com/sal-suds-in-the-laundry/ or make your own laundry detergent https://www.diynatural.com/homemade-lau ... gent-soap/ and your own dishwashing detergent, https://www.diynatural.com/homemade-dis ... gent-soap/ and use Dr. Bronner's to wash just about everything. Dr. Bronner's regular liquid soap can be used to hand-wash clothing, especially delicates. Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds is also used for cleaning cars and floors. It's heavier duty than their normal soap. They also sell coconut oil. Don't try to use Dr. Bronner's to wash dishes. Doesn't work.
FOOD
Equal Exchange
https://www.equalexchange.com A fair trade company. This is also the best bang for your buck when you're looking for coffee, chocolate, or tea. You never have to worry about quality when you buy this brand.
Clif Bar
https://www.clifbar.com/ They've been doing the eco-friendly thing since they began. Also, I used to practically live off these things XD
Bobo's Oat Bars
https://eatbobos.com/ Sugary little death bombs that are GMO free and delicious.
Organic Valley
https://www.organicvalley.coop/ The best quality eggs, milk, and dairy money can buy.
Copypasted from the vegan foods list:
Decent brands of vegan stuff/places to get food
Amy's Kitchen https://www.amys.com/
Alternative Baking Company https://www.alternativebaking.com/
Lightlife products www.lightlife.com
Dave's Killer Bread www.daveskillerbread.com
Blue Diamond products www.bluediamond.com
Nuts.com www.nuts.com
Lotus Foods https://shop.lotusfoods.com
Vegan Essentials http://www.veganessentials.com/
Bragg's https://www.bragg.com/
GoMaxGo candy bars https://gomaxgofoods.com/
Vegenaise https://followyourheart.com/products/original/
Heart Thrive cakes https://www.thehealthybakingcompany.com/ Like those Bobo's Oat Bar things but with protein and therefore less bad for you
Ezekiel bread https://www.foodforlife.com/
CLOTHING
Maggie's Clothing
https://maggiesorganics.com Simple clothing made in an outstanding way. And thankfully it looks good too, unlike some of these eco-friendly brands that make you look like you came out of a goddamn commune...
COMPANIES THAT ARE NOT ECO-FRIENDLY
These are the greenwashed brands that put up a facade.
Seventh Generation
American Apparel
Annie's (owned by General Mills)
Larabar (owned by General Mills)
Muir Glen (also owned by General Mills)
White Wave Foods (owned by Danone) - this includes all subsidiary companies such as Silk, Earthbound, Vega, Alpro, So Delicious, Wallaby Organic, Horizon Organic, and International Delight
Anything owned by the Koch brothers, including Georgia Pacific https://www.investopedia.com/insights/c ... -brothers/
Anything owned by Monsanto: https://vocal.media/feast/food-brands-owned-by-monsanto <-note: ignore the stupid image of "evil bad viruses" and just scroll down to the list. Reasoning: Monsanto created Roundup. It still sells it. And now that Roundup has been getting sued for causing blood cancers they are advertising it on Facebook, saying that victims may get financial restitution. They also make Roundup-Ready crops, and create genetically modified foods in order to make them tolerate certain pesticides while the weeds can't. They also patented the genetically modified crops and sue farmers who have those seeds land on their fields. Look into it. Monsanto is evil.
Also check https://www.peri.umass.edu/top-100-polluter-indexes to see which companies to avoid. These are the worst polluters according to studies done by the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Also check https://betterworldshopper.org/ to see what companies to avoid. It is not good at determining good aka sustainable and responsible companies because it doesn't discriminate between subsidiary "good" companies owned by "the worst" companies and independent "good" companies.
JURY IS STILL OUT
Tesla https://shop.tesla.com/ - on the one hand, expensive eco friendly cars, battery banks, and solar panels. On the other hand, the amount of resources required to make them. Hmmm.
ECO FRIENDLY RECIPES
Air freshener: Try a ratio of 20 or so drops essential oil to 1/2 cup of vodka. Put that in a spray bottle. You know, the atomizer kind. Lemongrass works well.
Shower cleaner: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/ho ... er-cleaner I tried this using unscented dish soap of a different brand name. Worked perfect.
Miscellaneous cleaners: https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/my ... e-cleaners
Citrus vinegar: Just steep a bunch of fresh citrus peels in some jars full of vinegar for two weeks, then strain that into a spray bottle. This can be added to mop water or used straight to clean kitchen counters and so on. You can also add pine needle sprigs, rosemary sprigs, cloves, or whatever.
Homemade soap: Follow basically any soap recipe on the web such as this cold process recipe https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Soap/ and plug in the values to the soap calculator here http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp to make sure it works out. To understand said soap calculator see here: http://soapcalc.net/info/helptext.asp Once you have made soap once, you'll be able to make it using any oils or fats provided you use the soap calculator. Note: cold process soap takes a whole month to cure, at least. Hot process soap can be used immediately after you make it if it registers at the proper pH.
Liquid castile soap: TaraLee on Youtube has an excellent tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0yBiTjsYdk be sure to run the values of oils, potassium hydroxide, and water through the Soap Calculator first and fix those; it may be slightly off. She has an Etsy here btw, if you want to support her by buying her products https://www.etsy.com/shop/TaraLeeNaturals
Melt-and-pour glycerin soap base: I never thought I'd find this recipe online. https://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make- ... se-recipe/ This is groundbreaking because with melt-and-pour soap, all you need is a double boiler, molds, and a plan, and you can add basically whatever you want. Also, if you wash your hands a lot, using this makes it less likely you'll get chapped hands.
Wood polish: Stale extra-virgin olive oil. You can use fresh extra-virgin olive oil if you really want to, but that's kind of a waste. Just rub it on there with a square cut from an old T-shirt, or with a paper towel. Wait overnight. Repeat this three times a year for best results.
What can I mix with castile soap? http://www.lisabronner.com/what-can-you ... tile-soap/
All-purpose cleaner: 1 part citrus vinegar, 1 part water, in a spray bottle
Glass and window cleaner: 2 parts vodka, 1 part water, 60 drops lemon essential oil, peel of two lemons torn into bits, in a spray bottle
Various uses of Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap (can also be done with any brand of castile soap)
Add 1/4 cup to a mop bucket of hot water to clean floors
Add a splash of it to a bucket to wash the car
Put a bit on a wet washcloth and use to scrub clean in the shower
Use the unscented version to wash dogs
Add some of the unscented version to bathwater for washing babies
Lather it up and use it as shaving cream
Dilute 1:1 with water in a spray bottle and use as toilet cleaner
Add just enough to baking soda in an old shampoo bottle to make a paste and use as soft scrub on sinks, grimy dishes, tubs etc.
Add a splash to a gallon of hot water and use the liquid to clean counters and surfaces
Use one drop, well diluted each time, as face cleanser
Use it to hand-wash delicate clothing and cloth stuff by adding a capful to a sink of warm water. You can also use it to hand-wash washcloths and cleaning rags, but to sterilize them you'll need to boil them afterwards.
If you're going to let dishes soak overnight, splash some in there and it will help lift the grease
Travel buddy - can be used as all-purpose soap on the road. Also can be used while camping since it is biodegradable. Note: Dr. Bronner's bar soap is also biodegradable.
Soak makeup brushes and hairbrushes in a bowl of water and a splash of this stuff, then rinse and dry
Add a splash to baths to get extra clean
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH
-
RegularJackass
- Site Admin
- Posts:95
- Joined:Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:54 am
- Contact:
Re: Resources for going green
INTERESTING INDIVIDUAL BUSINESS VENTURES
Roadside chicken vendor in Thailand cooks the chicken using sunlight
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/sola ... n-thailand
COOL STUFF
Living microalgae lamps that glow and absorb co2 https://inhabitat.com/living-microalgae ... iEzH3p0qfU
Vodka made using CO2, sunlight and water https://www.fastcompany.com/90422270/th ... ptured-co2
FUN STUFF IF YOU'RE REALLY HARDCORE ABOUT BEING A NATURE FANATIC
No, this isn't about making much of a difference, just about getting in touch with nature.
Go out on nature walks and come home with natural treasures. Decorate with them. Decorative nature crafts abound. Try your library for books or check out Instructables for some!
Decorate a ton every time the seasons turn in accordance with the seasons. Need ideas? Just about every religion has great traditions, and traditional decorations, for every time of year. Look into yours and I'm sure you'll find something.
Invest in a book called Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills and go on outdoor expeditions with friends or family
Learn how to use basic herbal medicine. If you're already really good at it, consider getting certified as a naturopath so you can legally dispense medicines. It's expensive, though.
Invest some time in learning about nature in general or your local habitat. Flora and fauna guides from the local library are good, also older survival texts and textbooks on ecology, soil composition, botany, geology, and whatever other earth sciences you can get your hands on. Stay away from the latest batch of trendy survivalist books. They're useful... as kindling.
If you happen to be into rock climbing outdoors, check this out https://www.mountainproject.com/
Build a treehouse
Build something out of adobe or earthbags
Take frequent nature hikes in whatever local area you can get to. Maybe schedule these weekly or even daily, and invite all your friends. Please be sure to suit up with all necessary gear though so you don't "epic." Here is a resource for that: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice ... tials.html Here is another resource for general outdoor advice: https://www.rei.com/learn/c/outdoor-basics
Schedule monthly camping trips with your family and/or friends
Become a rock and mineral collector
Get really into organic essential oils; learn aromatherapy and possibly get certification
Draw plans for, then gradually build a garden for yourself, a friend, or your family
Get into making crafts made of natural materials. There are a whole bunch of them - floral arranging is probably the most familiar, followed by wreath making. There is also flower pressing, potpourri, flower drying, making swags and garlands, hammering the pigment out of plants onto cloth, and natural dyeing, to name a few.
Roadside chicken vendor in Thailand cooks the chicken using sunlight
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/sola ... n-thailand
COOL STUFF
Living microalgae lamps that glow and absorb co2 https://inhabitat.com/living-microalgae ... iEzH3p0qfU
Vodka made using CO2, sunlight and water https://www.fastcompany.com/90422270/th ... ptured-co2
FUN STUFF IF YOU'RE REALLY HARDCORE ABOUT BEING A NATURE FANATIC
No, this isn't about making much of a difference, just about getting in touch with nature.
Go out on nature walks and come home with natural treasures. Decorate with them. Decorative nature crafts abound. Try your library for books or check out Instructables for some!
Decorate a ton every time the seasons turn in accordance with the seasons. Need ideas? Just about every religion has great traditions, and traditional decorations, for every time of year. Look into yours and I'm sure you'll find something.
Invest in a book called Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills and go on outdoor expeditions with friends or family
Learn how to use basic herbal medicine. If you're already really good at it, consider getting certified as a naturopath so you can legally dispense medicines. It's expensive, though.
Invest some time in learning about nature in general or your local habitat. Flora and fauna guides from the local library are good, also older survival texts and textbooks on ecology, soil composition, botany, geology, and whatever other earth sciences you can get your hands on. Stay away from the latest batch of trendy survivalist books. They're useful... as kindling.
If you happen to be into rock climbing outdoors, check this out https://www.mountainproject.com/
Build a treehouse
Build something out of adobe or earthbags
Take frequent nature hikes in whatever local area you can get to. Maybe schedule these weekly or even daily, and invite all your friends. Please be sure to suit up with all necessary gear though so you don't "epic." Here is a resource for that: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice ... tials.html Here is another resource for general outdoor advice: https://www.rei.com/learn/c/outdoor-basics
Schedule monthly camping trips with your family and/or friends
Become a rock and mineral collector
Get really into organic essential oils; learn aromatherapy and possibly get certification
Draw plans for, then gradually build a garden for yourself, a friend, or your family
Get into making crafts made of natural materials. There are a whole bunch of them - floral arranging is probably the most familiar, followed by wreath making. There is also flower pressing, potpourri, flower drying, making swags and garlands, hammering the pigment out of plants onto cloth, and natural dyeing, to name a few.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH