6 Easy Green Habits

By Philip Schmidt, Networx

So you’d like to live a little greener but don’t know where to start. And you’re probably feeling overwhelmed (and maybe annoyed) by the amount of information out there. Well, to begin with, you can forget about solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars. Don’t feel bad if your kitchen countertops aren’t made with recycled glass or your hand towels aren’t organic cotton. In reality, most of us can make the biggest improvements with small changes in our daily household routines.  Here are 6 easy green habits that will make a difference to the Earth and to your wallet.

1. Green your meals with a simple dish washing routine.

The old, familiar slogan Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is still the best motto for green living today. When you think about it, reduce and reuse essentially define how our grandparents ran their households simply by being thrifty and not wanting to waste. As for recycling, that should be a given; it’s just what you do with garbage that still has some value. And even though recycling a paper plate is better for the environment than throwing it in the trash, it’s still not as good as using and washing a regular plate (and it’s a lot more expensive).

If you’re a fan of paper plates and plastic bowls for everyday meals, switch to durable and inexpensive dinnerware (such as Corelle). Clean up by scraping off the scraps (composting it, if applicable) then soaking plates in the sink with a little cold water. In a few minutes, dishes can go right into the dishwasher with no additional rinsing. Run a full load at the end of the day and let it air-dry overnight (turn off the “heat dry” option on the dishwasher). Washing full loads in the dishwasher typically uses less hot water than hand-washing dishes.

2. Store food smarter.

Instead of nickel-and-diming yourself with “reusable” plastic storage containers (the kind that are like lightweight Tupperware but are trashed after about a half-dozen uses), invest in a good set of oven- and microwave-safe glass containers with quality plastic lids. They’ll pay for themselves many times over and will keep scores of cheap plastic out of the waste stream.

3. Make a couple small changes to your laundry routine.

Big, full loads save water, electricity and natural gas (or more electricity, depending on the type of water heater you have). An easy way to ensure full loads is to have a laundry basket for each color (whites, darks and mixed colors) and wash only when a basket is full. For most loads, hot-water wash is overkill (use warm or cold water instead), and always use cold water for the rinse, which rinses just as well as heated water.