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P2 Tips for You
Air
Leave your car at home two days a week (walk, bike, or take the bus or subway to work instead). You'll reduce carbon dioxide emissions. More clean air tips:
Dealing with Pests
Storing pesticides and other chemicals up high in a locked cabinet -- out of reach of small children -- is an effective way to ensure that kids do not mix with dangerous chemicals.
More information:
Before using insect repellants on your skin or in your yard, read the label first!
Outsmart and prevent pests by removing sources of food, water, and shelter before deciding to use a pesticide.
More information: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/controlling/index.htm
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/backyard/PestMgt.html
Preventing Harm to the Environment - Do not dispose of gasoline, oil, or weed killers and other lawn and garden pesticides down the drain, into surface water, onto the ground, or in the trash. Check with your local household hazardous waste collection agency for safe disposal for these types of products.
Crowd out weeds the natural way- Keep your grass long. Over-seed your lawn each Fall for a thicker lawn in the Spring. Slightly longer grass, around 2½ to 3½ inches, is healthier and drought-resistant with fewer pests and weeds, which have a hard time taking root.
Many plants and insects can serve as nontoxic, natural deterrents to weeds and garden pests. Introduce ladybugs to eat aphids, plant marigolds to ward off beetles, and look for quick-sprouting plants to block weed growth.
More information: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/regulating/disposal.htm
Eating
Eat fewer fatty fish, such as lake trout, or fish that feed on the bottoms of lakes and streams such as catfish and carp. These fish are more likely to contain higher levels of chemical pollutants.
Eat a locally produced diet. Grow your own food or support local farmers, natural food stores and food co-ops. You'll save money, eat quality foods, create jobs, increase farmlands, and strengthen your community. You also reduce pollution generated by transportation and energy costs from shipping food.
Buy domestically-produced, certified organic food. Organic farmers don't use toxic chemicals, or harmful pesticides or fertilizers. Buying locally produced food decreases on the environmental impacts of transporting food.
Electronics
Buy Energy Star electronic equipment from manufacturers with take-back programs.
Recycle your computer.
More tips and information :
http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=lib&a=electronics/elec_index.asp
Energy
Ask your power company to switch all or some of your electricity to green power.
Look for the Energy Star label on products and equipment, you can reduce your energy bill by 30 percent and your electric lighting charges by 40 percent while cutting pollution.
Get a programmable thermostat and set the temperature up in the summer and down in the winter while you are at work.
Turn your water heater down to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll cut your water-heating costs by 6-10 percent.
Keep your home appliances running at peak efficiency to save electricity, conserve resources and reduce global warming. Remove lint and dust from your refrigerator coil and freezer. Clean up lint around your dryer, furnace, and any vents leading to or from them. Change or clean the filter in your air purifier or furnace.
Paint your exterior and interior walls in a light color so more light is reflected. Paint the edges of the window in white so more light reflected inside. During the day, open blinds to bring in natural light instead of turning on lights.
More tips and information:
http://www.epa.gov/p2/pubs/energy.htm
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=heat_cool.pr_consumer_cool_change
Landscaping
Doing major landscape renovation, time the grading and excavating projects when rain is less likely to prevent erosion and contamination of run-off water. Cover excavated materials, dumpsters, and stockpiles of asphalt, sand, and yard clippings to prevent contaminants from getting into storm drains.
More tips and information:
http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden/index.htm
Paper
Using double-sided coping, reusing single-sided paper, using electronic mail, and circulating documents with routing slips, an organization can save a significant amount of energy and natural resources. One ton of waste paper saves enough energy to power an average home for 6 months not to mention the monetary savings from purchasing less paper.
One ton of recycled paper uses: 64% less energy, 50% less water, 74% less air pollution, saves 17 trees and creates 5 times more jobs than one ton of paper products from virgin wood pulp.
Purchase paper products containing post-consumer recycled paper.
Shopping/Products
Use a baking soda paste as a general stain remover. Rub chalk on grease stains prior to washing. Apply butter or margarine to chocolate stains, let set at least 15 minutes and wash.
Use herbs, set out a small dish of vanilla or leave an open box of baking soda in the room as an air freshener.
Use cat litter or sand instead of salt on icy walks.
Buy products that contain recycled materials.
Buy food and other products with reusable or recyclable packaging instead of those in nonrecyclable packaging. It can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a green house gas that is potentially harmful to the envirnment.
Buy in bulk when you can and avoid excess packaging. Even recyclable packaging requires energy and resources to create. Also look for refillable containers. Seek out concentrated products which use far less packaging.
Choose low or no-VOC paints, water-based floor sealers, and wood products from certified sustainable forests.
When asked whether you want paper or plastic bags, select the type you are more likely to reuse for other purposes, such as trash can liners, newspaper recycling or future shopping.
Some retailers like Home Depot offer suggestions for buying "green" products: ask them about it.
More tips and information:
Learn about Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP)
http://www.newmoa.org/Newmoa/htdocs/prevention/p2week/2001/index.cfm#tips
http://www.earth911.org/master.asp?s=lib&a=shopsmart/shop.inc
Travel
Next time you travel, look for lodging that practices conservation.
Use e-ticketing to reduce paper usage.
More tips and information:
Vehicles
If you change your own motor oil, recycle it at a "quick lube" shop, gas station, or auto store that accepts used motor oil for recycling.
Check out EPA's Green Vehicle Guide. You may be surprised to know that you have cleaner more fuel-efficient choices in any vehicle size you need, even an SUV.
Keep tires properly inflated and wheels aligned to reduce tire drag on the road. Gas mileage drops 1% for every pound below the recommended level.
Don't top off the gas tank. This allows harmful chemicals to escape into the air.
Water
Think before you pour. Many hazardous products flow from household drains through sewage treatment plants and into coastal water bodies.
Install a water-efficient shower head (2.5 gallons or less per minute), it reduces water consumption and energy used to heat the water. They pay for themselves in only four months.
Only run full loads in the washing machine or dishwasher.
Turn off water while brushing teeth and shaving.
More water saving tips: http://www.epa.gov/p2/pubs/water.htm
virtual house http://www.h2ouse.net/
Waste Minimization/Recycling
In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. This means that each adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 lbs. of trash for his or her children.
Recycling all of your home's waste newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a green house gas, by 850 pounds a year.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV set for three hours or to light one 100 watt bulb for 20 hours.
The energy required to replace the aluminum cans wasted in 2001 was equivalent to 16 million
barrels of crude oil: enough to meet the electricity needs of all the homes in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Between 1970 and 2003, one trillion aluminum cans were sent to landfills worth well over $15 billion.
Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
Five recycled plastic bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.
Improving or remodeling your home, try to buy recycled products. It reduces the amount of material going to landfills. Flooring, insulation, plastic lumber, woodwork, shingles, and many garden/lawn products are made from recycled materials.
Buy carpet made from recycled drink bottles (polyethylene terephthalate fiber). This recycled-content carpet is durable, resists moisture and staining, and requires no additional chemicals for its manufacture.
More tips and information:
EPA's Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste
General tips, facts, and information for consumers:
The average American needs twenty-five acres of ecologically productive land to support thier lifestyle. That's three times the world average. Want to know your ecological footprint (amount of land needed to provide all the resources and space you use, directly or indirectly, including the amount for storing and absorbing your waste and pollution)?
More information on your ecological footprint:
More tips and information:
EPA's Earth day Community Guide
The
Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association's (NEWMOA) Pollution
Prevention Tips
Union
of Concerned Scientists' Green Tips
Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center's P2
For You Web-Guide
Disclaimer: [The tips above are intended as general pollution prevention tips. They are not intended to be an all-inclusive list of resources. EPA cannot attest to the accuracy of information provided by non-EPA links. Providing links to a non-EPA Web site does not constitute an endorsement by EPA nor any of its employees of the sponsors of the site or the information or products presented in the site.]