Go Green Orange County

Next time  you are drinking a Diet Coke in a plastic bottle, take a minute to look at the bottom of the bottle. There should be an arrowed triangle with a series of numbers with it. These numbers tell the recycling plants what they can be used for from plastic lumber to stuffing for sleeping bags.

Another easy tip to quickly jump on the Green band wagon is to simply wash your clothes in a green manner. When we purchase our house, we immediately purchased an energy saving Washer and Dryer. By doing this, we will save up to $100 on electricity a year as well as cut back on the amount of water used for each load.

Why stop there when you can also try purchasing some eco friendly detergent as well as fabric softener. We prefer Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent as it not only smells great, but also gets rid of stains as well.

Click Here to Purchase Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent

It gets hot here in The OC in the summertime. I noticed that while walking my dog at night, it seems as though the majority of people in our complex run their air conditioning at night. Even though it is summer, it is actually quite nice once the sun goes down but most find it nice to just flip on a switch and let the air run all night which is not only expensive, but also and energy waster as well as running the ac can put out as much as 363 pounds of CO2.

Last weekend, after being tired of the heat, I went down to Lowes and picked up a ceiling fan. Even though I am pretty handy with home improvements, I found it to be very easy to install. After about an hour or so, I was up and running and saving energy in the meantime.

I know how lazy we all can be and using those gas powered lawn mowers seems like an easy solution to keep up the yard but it is far from easy on our environment. Gas lawn mowers pollute up to 10-30 times more than a car. It is estimated that lawn mowers contribute up to 10 percent of our air pollution.

A great way to “go green” and help the environment is to get a push lawn mower. For a person with an average size yard, this alternative is not only a great way to reduce emissions into the atmosphere, but is will also help burn more calories as well. So go get in shape and help save the planet.

My wife and I have been doing this for a while as a way to cut back on having so many excess plastic bags in our cupboards. A plastic bag can take 1000 years to biodegrade while also emitting harmful greenhouse gasses.

Some grocery stores even offer incentives for using your own grocery bags. Our local Trader Joes gives out raffle tickets everytime we use our own tote bags and gives out drawings for $50 gift certificates each month. Henry’s market gives back 5 cents for each bag a customer brings in that is their own as well.

Seriously, this is one of those things that anyone can do to help the environment as we all show for groceries. Plus, when using your own tote bag, they tend to be stronger than any paper or plastic bag so the chances of having the bag break or bottom fall out are pretty slim.

View Recycled Cotton Canvas Tote Bag in Our Shop