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[Announcer] This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC – safer, healthier people.

Reduce, reuse, and recycle, are all apart of “going” and “living” green.

What does all of this mean? It means making healthy choices that are not only good for the environment, but good for your health, and it’s easier than you think.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose mission is to promote public health, makes the following recommendations:

Reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the environment is as easy as changing a bulb. By replacing the conventional light bulb with one that has the Energy Star, you will help the environment while saving money on energy bills.

Another way to prevent waste, even improve our communities, is through re-using items. The idea is to take useful products discarded by those who no longer want or need them and provide them to those who do.

In every community there is a need for re-useable products. For example: using durable coffee mugs, using cloth napkins or towels, refilling water bottles, donating old magazines, re-using boxes, and participating in a paint collection and re-use program.

Reusing an item simply means it continues to be of value, it’s useful, and productive; more importantly, it replaces new items that would utilize more resources. But those items that are considered waste have value also…it’s called recycling.

Recycling is not only beneficial to the environment, but also financially and socially. Materials such as glass, metal, plastics, and paper are collected, separated, sent to facilities and re-processed into new materials.

According to the EPA, 82 million tons of material was diverted away from landfills and incinerators in 2006, this number is up from 34 million tons in 1990.

Remember, small changes add up to big differences; and going green leads to a healthier environment and a healthier environment leads to a healthier you.

[Announcer] For the most accurate health information, visit www.cdc.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO, 24/7.