Tips for home safety, avoiding potential risks, and preventing pollution by recycling and conserving water and energy.

• Saving Energy
• Reducing Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Conserving Water
• Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Materials
• Ensuring Safe Drinking Water
• Improving Indoor Air Quality
• Using Toxics and Pesticides Safely
• Reducing Your Exposure to Harmful Substances
• Pollution Prevention
• Buying and Maintaining an Environmentally Friendly House
• Lawn and Garden Care

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Saving Energy

Find Energy Star products for your home - Choosing energy-efficient products can save families about 30% ($400 a year) while reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases. Whether you are looking to replace old appliances, remodel, or buy a new house, you can help. ENERGY STAR is the government's backed symbol for energy efficiency. The ENERGY STAR label makes it easy to know which products to buy without sacrificing features, style or comfort that today's consumers expect.

More steps you can take:

• Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
• Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
• Purchase "green power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
• Have leaky air conditioning and refrigeration systems repaired.
• Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
• Insulate your home, water heater and pipes.

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Reducing Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Addressing air pollution in your home - The choices you make at home affect the amount of pollution outside your home as well as inside. Learn what you can do to pollute less and all the while save some money.

Climate change: what you can do at home and in the garden - Making a few small changes in your home and yard can lead to big reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and save money.

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Conserving Water

Choose water-efficient products and test your WaterSense - A family of four uses 400 gallons of water every day. EPA's WaterSense program helps conserve water for future generations by providing information on products and programs that save water without sacrificing performance.

More steps you can take:

• Don't let the water run while shaving or brushing teeth.
• Take short showers instead of tub baths.
• Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.
• Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
• Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine.
• Buy high-efficient plumbing fixtures & appliances.
• Repair all leaks (a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons a day).
• Water the lawn or garden during the coolest part of the day (early morning is best).
• Water plants differently according to what they need. Check with your local extension service or nurseries for advice.
• Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only – not the street or sidewalk.
• Use soaker hoses or trickle irrigation systems for trees and shrubs.
• Keep your yard healthy - dethatch, use mulch, etc.
• Sweep outside instead of using a hose.

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Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Materials

Practice the three R's: first reduce how much you use, then reuse what you can, and then recycle the rest. Then, dispose of what's left in the most environmentally friendly way. Read the tips below and explore the Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste.

• Reduce:
  • Buy permanent items instead of disposables.
  • Buy and use only what you need.
  • Buy products with less packaging.
  • Buy products that use less toxic chemicals.
• Reuse:
  • Repair items as much as possible.
  • Use durable coffee mugs.
  • Use cloth napkins or towels.
  • Clean out juice bottles and use them for water.
  • Use empty jars to hold leftover food.
  • Reuse boxes.
  • Purchase refillable pens and pencils.
  • Participate in a paint collection and reuse program.
  • Donate extras to people you know or to charity instead of throwing them away.
• Recycle:
  • Recycle paper (printer paper, newspapers, mail, etc.), plastic, glass bottles, cardboard, and aluminum cans. If your community doesn't collect at the curb, take them to a collection center.
  • Recycle electronics.
  • Recycle used motor oil.
  • Compost food scraps, grass and other yard clippings, and dead plants.
  • Close the loop - buy recycled products and products that use recycled packaging. That's what makes recycling economically possible.

Learn more:

Reducing and recycling wastes, including syringes and other medical wastes, and used oil.

Recycling and disposing of hazardous materials properly - Find out how to recycle compact fluorescent bulbs, pesticides, and other common household wastes that contain hazardous materials.

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Ensuring Safe Drinking Water

Actions You Can Take to Reduce Lead In Drinking Water - This publication offers information and solutions to many common questions surrounding lead in your drinking water.

Cleaner Water through Conservation - Explains the relationship between the quantity of water and its quality and discusses how developing water-use efficiency programs can help states and local communities achieve cleaner water through conserving water.

Drinking Water - The home page for the Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.

Drinking Water and Health: What you need to know - This EPA publication (EPA 816-K-99-001) answers many basic questions about drinking water systems.

Drinking Water Contaminants - EPA sets standards for approximately 90 contaminants in drinking water. This Web site contains more detailed information on specific contaminants.

Local Drinking Water Information - This page gives consumers an easy way to find information about their drinking water supplier, their sources of drinking water, and what their state drinking water program is doing.

Private Drinking Water Wells - Learn how to test and protect your private well water.

Water on Tap - How safe is my drinking water? Where does my drinking water come from, and how does it get to my home? What can I do to help protect my drinking water? This publication examines these questions and offers information on protecting your drinking water.

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Improving Indoor Air Quality

Asbestos in Your Home - This online pamphlet will help you understand asbestos: what it is, its health effects, where it is in your home, and what to do about it.

Indoor Air Quality in Homes - While pollutant levels from individual sources may not pose a significant health risk by themselves, most homes have more than one source that contributes to indoor air pollution. There can be a serious risk from the cumulative effects of these sources. Find out about how to protect you and your family.

Flood Cleanup: Avoiding Indoor Air Quality Problems (PDF) - (15 pp, 1.6MB, About PDF) This fact sheet discusses problems caused by microbial growth, as well as other potential effects of flooding, on long-term indoor air quality and the steps you can take to lessen these effects.

Reduce Risks of Radon : Test and Fix Your Home - You can't see radon. And you can't smell it or taste it. But it may be a problem in your home. Testing is the only way to know if you and your family are at risk from radon. Get information to reduce radon levels in your home.

Secondhand Smoke - This site discusses the health risks to children and adults from secondhand smoke with particular regard to immediate health effects with links to publications.

Protect Your Family and Yourself from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning - Knowing the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning and immediate first aid techniques provided in this document can save your life or the lives of your family.

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Using Toxics and Pesticides Safely

What is a Pesticide? - This document explains what is and what is not a pesticide.

What are Biopesticides? - Different from conventional pesticides, biopesticides are a group of pesticides that are sometimes controversial and make their way into the media. This web page helps to educate the public on this class of pesticides.

National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) - This site provides a wide variety of pesticide-related information as well as a toll-free number for further information.

Ten Tips to Protect Children from Pesticide and Lead Poisonings around the Home - These simple steps can help you save children from environmental hazards around the home.
* Spanish Version

Protecting Pets - Learn how to protect your pets from pests and potential pesticide risks by following product label directions and understanding the precautions.

Controlling Pests - Learn how to reduce the need for pesticides and how to use pesticides safely

Disposing of toxics and pesticides - Common household items such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides contain hazardous components. Although we cannot completely stop using hazardous products, we can make sure that leftovers are managed properly. The best way to handle household hazardous waste is to give leftovers to someone else to use.

Many communities have set up collection programs to keep hazardous products out of landfills and combustors. More than 3,000 household hazardous waste (HHW) collection programs exist in the United States. Find out more about HHW.

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Reducing Your Exposure to Harmful Substances

Air quality - Explore EPA's AirCompare site. Discover how the air quality in your city compares with other cities, what time of year has the best air quality, and whether air quality in your area is improving or getting worse.

Asbestos - Wondering whether your home might contain asbestos? or what to do if you know materials in your home contain asbestos?

Lead and Indoor Air Quality - Humans are exposed to lead in many ways; through air, drinking water, food, contaminated soil, deteriorating paint, and dust. This publication explains the dangers from lead, suggesting ways to reduce your exposure. Learn more about lead

Mercury - Mercury is contained in some of the fish we eat, whether caught in local lakes and streams or bought in a grocery store. Mercury is also contained in some of the products we use, which may be found in your home, at the dentist, and at schools.

Mold - Learn how to control moisture and mold in your home, and how to cleanup moldy areas.

Pesticides - Find out how to use pesticides safely in your home.

Radon - Radon is a cancer-causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste. Its presence in your home can pose a danger to your family's health. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, and is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America.

Sun Safety: Learn about the UV Index - Do you know that a few simple precautions can help protect you and your children from skin cancer and serious eye injury?

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Pollution Prevention

Household Waste Management - This program can be used online to find reliable information about reducing the waste consumers generate and dealing with hazardous wastes in the home.

Recycling - This document provides an overview of recycling including what is in our trash and steps you can take to recycle at home.

Recycling Hotline: Earth 911  - By simply typing in your zip code, this hotline helps you locate recycling centers in your community "for all types of recyclables."

The Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste - This booklet describes how people can help solve a growing problem...garbage! Individual consumers can help alleviate America's mounting trash problem by making environmentally aware decisions about everyday things like shopping and caring for the lawn.

Where Can I Take My Computer? - EPA's Product Stewardship website has information on opportunities for donating and recycling computers and other electronics.

Used Oil Management Program - Provides information about changing motor oil, recycling used oil, and changing and recycling used oil filters.

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Buying and Maintaining an Environmentally Friendly House

Energy Efficient Homes and Heating and Cooling Systems - This resource discusses home products such as air conditioners, furnaces, and thermostats, and illustrates the savings for homeowners who buy Energy Star products.

Home Buyer's and Seller's Guide to Radon - This Guide answers important questions about radon and lung cancer risk.  It also answers questions about testing and fixing radon hazards for anyone buying or selling a home.

How to Buy an Energy Efficient Home - This document describes the Energy Star Homes Program and how you can reduce pollution by saving energy.

Residential Energy Efficiency - This program shows effective ways to reduce home energy consumption and allows users to calculate how much they will save by making their homes more energy efficient.

EPA's Clean Energy Site - Clean energy is energy derived from highly efficient, clean technologies, including renewable, "green" power, and combined heat and power. The EPA’s Clean Energy Programs are designed to improve the national foundation of information on Clean Energy by creating networks between the public and private sector, providing technical assistance, and offering recognition of environmental leaders that adopt Clean Energy practices.

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Lawn and Garden Care

Lawn and Garden and Tips for a Waste-Free Lawn and Garden - Learn about many things you can do to reduce waste and conserve resources from caring for you lawn and garden equipment, to greenscaping.

Your Yard and Clean Air - This document provides tips on how you can prevent pollution in your own backyard by adopting practices that will help protect the environment now and in the future.

Green Landscaping with Native Plants - This site provides a wizard that answers commonly asked questions about landscaping with native wild flowers and grasses in the Great Lakes region.

The Hidden Hazards of Backyard Burning (PDF) (2 pp, 272K, About PDF) - This EPA publication (EPA 530-F-03-012) informs citizens of the health hazards of burning household waste in burn barrels and open piles and providing alternatives to burning.

Lawn Equipment - Discusses the benefits of winterizing your lawn equipment.

Natural Landscaping - Online publication explaining natural landscaping ideas.

Greenscaping - EPA's GreenScapes Program can show you how to reduce the environmental impacts of landscaping your lawn and property by grasscycling, mulching, and composting.

Composting - Discusses what composting is, what compost can be used for, and other related topics.

Compost Yard Trimmings and Some Food Scraps - Food scraps and yard trimmings can be turned into natural additives for lawns and gardens, and can significantly reduce the amount of waste that goes in a landfill.

The Natural Landscaping Alternative: An Annotated Slide Collection - Native plants provide a beautiful, hardy, drought resistant, low maintenance landscape while benefiting the environment. This Annotated Slide Collection contains fifty slides selected for their ability to define natural landscaping and explain its benefits, to illustrate applications of natural landscaping, and to demonstrate installation and management techniques.

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