What are the first steps in being more "green" or earth friendly when living in an apartment?

Question

My husband and I live in a small apartment, and want to know the basics for living green. Any tips?

Answer 1

Do use energy-saving light bulbs as tat really helps you to save electricity :)

When ur at home,you could recycle,reuse and reduce plastic bags,plastic bottles,cans and lots more...e.gcut the plastic bottle to half and u could use tat as a pencil holder :)

Going green is as easy as u thought :)

Answer 2

The key is reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reduce your purchases (of stuff and of energy).  We have been encouraged to be super consumers in recent years but much of what we buy is unnecessary stuff which quickly ends up in landfill.  Our parents were perfectly happy with far less stuff and keeping up with the neighbours is the cause of a great deal of stress.  It also requires us to work more hours to earn the money to buy the stuff, whereas greater happiness could be achieved by spending the time with family and friends.

Reuse stuff that still has life in it rather than replace it because it is a little shabby or out of date.  Learn to repair.  Again keeping up with the neighbours is stressful whereas there is great satisfaction in repairing.

Recycle stuff that can no longer be reused.

Living in an apartment you will not have a lot of spare space so I recommend you Google "freecycle" and your town (for example freecycle toronto).  It will probably lead you to a community of people that advertise spare stuff for collection by members of the community that can make use of it.  It is a great way of reducing what goes to landfill.

Finally I recommend fresh organic food cooked at home.

I am glad you are looking for ways to be more green.  Best wishes.

Answer 3

Try using eco-friendly cleaning products.  I used to live in a small apartment and the air just felt "polluted".  I've switched to all natural cleaning products.  They are always better for the environment than the regular stuff.  Check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/THINK-GREEN-All-Natu...

Answer 4

unplug items when not in use, recycle paper, plastic, glass, swap your light bulbs out to those curly ones and use lower wattage on them,

Answer 5

7th generation laundry and household products are very green.  Get a canvass bag for groceries.

Answer 6

yes, ignore all the bullshit you learned and live your life the way you want ! this is political nonsense that will blow over and you will be the fool that bought into it.

Answer 7

Ever heard of worm composting?  Check this website out just to get more info on it and look into it in your area.

www.waikikiworm.com

Answer 8

You can recyle your plastic water bottles, cans, cardboard boxes and newspaper.

Get some nice green plants for your apartment. Get rain water in an old paint bucket to water your planets.

Unplug your tv, computer and electronic appliances when you leave for work and you will notice the difference on your electric bill because you are saving energy.

Answer 9

Put some plants in pot n keep it in ur balcony....it's really refreshing.....

Answer 10

There's plenty of really easy stuff to do to get started beyond the good stuff mentioned here.

You can either switch to a green energy provider (Texas & Georgia residents) or offset your non-renewable energy usage. (GreenEnergyChoice.com).

Project Greenify (I think the site just launched in December) and Ideal Site give a pretty steady diet of green living tips. I would sign up for their rss feed or emails.