What are 10 things you, your family, or your school can do to reduce the use of fuel and natural resources?

Question

What are 10 things you, your family, or your school can do to reduce the use of fuel and natural resources?

Answer 1

Well

1)reuse things instead of throwing them away

2)walk instead of drive

3)use less water,take less showers

4)clean up after their dog outside

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Answer 2

Stay home from school.

Shovel snow instead of using snow blower.

Wear your clothes 2 days in a row.

Don't shower.

No lawn mowing.

Go to bed when it's dark.

Wait till you are two months behind on bills before paying. This saves a lot.

Don't go out to eat.

Make enough to eat for two days then just reheat.

Take the bus.

Answer 3

Well, I think the only other answer so far to this question was kind of meant as a joke, and I'm afraid that mine might not sound any better, but mine are serious.  The thing is, it sounds ridiculous to do some of the things that I have incorporated into my life, but the fact is, once you make a habit of it, you can't imagine doing it any other way:

1) displace water in the toilet tank (i.e. put a bottle of wine filled with water or small rocks into the reservoir tank of your toilet).  This means that for every time you flush, you use like a liter less water.  (There's always the slogan of "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down!"  I follow that, but I realize that my commitment to the environment is perhaps a bit more extreme than it is for others.)

2) turn off the water while doing certain things, until of course, you actually NEED that running water.  This can be done while brushing your teeth, lathering up in the show, washing the dishes.  It might sound like a pain at first, especially in the shower, but I introduced the idea to a friend of mine, and he actually thinks it's MORE practical to do it that way now.  He loves it.

3) change your lightbulbs to CFLs--compact fluorescent bulbs

4) when you turn on the shower, most people have a little while to wait before it turns hot.  Collect that water.  It might only take 30 seconds, but considering many shower heads/bathtub spouts put out several gallons of water per minute, even half a minute of waiting could give you over a gallon of water.  Use that water to water plants, to put in your Brita water filter, etc.

5) don't accelerate like crazy when you drive.  It burns a TON of gas.  And another car thing--you don't need to "warm up" your car.  At least, not for the car's sake.  I know a couple things about cars, and know that this is just a total myth--it is NOT better for your car to sit and idle for 5 minutes before you drive in the morning.  Just drive it conservatively until it warms up, then you'll get a little bit of mileage out of that otherwise wasted time/energy.

6) turn off your lights when not in use

7) turn down the heat on your water heater.  Most people have their water heater up at some 140 degrees.  It's way too hot, and if you were to put your hand under that water, you'd actually get burned.  You can turn it down to the setting that says "warm", and it should be fine.

8) control your thermostat with a good conscience.  I mean, really, when it's winter, don't you think it's SOMEWHAT reasonable that you should be a litte colder than you are in the summer?  I know some people who have their thermostats up at like, 78.  That's just way too hot!  And then in the summer, the thermostat is turned down to 72!  Sheesh!

9) use certain clothes more than once (obviously, not the intimate ones).  But jeans, shirts, etc, don't necessarily need to be washed every time you wear them.

10) use warm, or even cold water in the washing machine.  You don't necessarily need hot water.  If you really feel you need hot water, use it once every few washes rather than every wash.

11) learn to load the dishwasher PROPERLY.  They claim that they save more water than hand washing, but with the way most people load their dishwasher (i.e. pots and pans everywhere, extensive pre-rinsing beforehand, etc), you don't really end up saving water, and certainly not energy--the heat function on those things pretty much never really dries anything anyway, so can turn that off or time the wash cycle so that you turn off the machine manually just after the drying cycle starts.

12) change to electronic statements for your credit card bills, bank statements, etc.

13) use good energy saving settings on your computer and monitor, and for goodness sake, turn off that computer when not in use!  So many people just leave them on because that's what people do at work.  First of all, people do that at work mainly because they just don't care, or sometimes, because the computer is running some extremely complex process that actually takes all night.  Second of all, it's not "better" for your computer to leave it on all the time.

I know I listed 13, but these are just the things that came to me off the top of my head.  Obviously, I've thought about these things a lot (otherwise, there's no way I would have been able to list off all 13 of those nonstop, because I suck at giving examples!).  But anyway, there are like 50 other things you can do, and if you're really interested in some of the other things I can think up, feel free to send me a message.

Answer 4

1)don't drive to school walk or if a school bus is to pick them up put them on the school bus in nice weather ride your bike

2)install energy saving light bulbs CFL's or fluorescent turn lights of during daytime have light switches on motion detectors no one in class lights go out automatically

3)walk or bike to local store for light grocery orders

4)do laundry using cold water detergents

5)have one meal time instead of everyone eating at different times so the oven is on only for a short time when needed

6)do dishes in sink instead of dishwasher or make sure the dishwasher is a full load

7)don't waste money for a gym pass go out and do things as a family walk the dog go for hikes on nature /historic trails

8)install low flow shower heads

9)enjoy family time stay in one room and watch a movie instead of everyone in a different room with the lights and TV's on

10)recycle anything and everything in the home or school when done with it

Answer 5

get 10 of your friends and live in the mountains!!

Answer 6

nothing