What are things I should know and consider when attempting to go GREEN??

Question

I am considering going green, what are some things I should know and check out? Are there any websites that you reccomend? Please give all helpfull information. I also would like info on landfill's, like the life space of "______" is "______" in a landfill. Like something that tells me how long things last.

Answer 1

THINGS TO KNOW:

There isn't many "warnings" or anything you should know before going GREEn, Just, you need to know if you're really up for it. Make sure you understand that is actually pretty easy, and only some things might be difficult for you. And you should check around to make sure you know what your area offers in recycling, and make sure you recycle things that can be recycled in your area.

websites::

-http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_act...  --there's some basics

-http://www.greenhome.com/  --products you can buy to help your going green

-http://www.treehugger.com/gogreen.php  --this one is also really good, and it tells you how to go green in different situations. Like in a wedding.

LANDFILLS:

Landfills are places where all our garbage ends up, and where the things you don't reuse, or recycle, will go. When I googled how long it takes for things to decompose, I got a bunch of different answers, So here's a couple websites and answers:

Got this

Banana Peel: 3-4 weeks

Paper Bag: 1 month

Cotton Rag: 5 months

Wool Sock : 1 year

Lumber : 10-15 years

Tinned Steel Can: 80-100 years

Aluminum Can : 200-500 years (But if recycled, it can be reused within 6 weeks!)

Disposable Diapers: 500-600 years

Plastic Bags : 1 million years

Glass : Unknown

Styrofoam: Eternity

from:http://behealthyandrelax.com/2007/11/how...

or I also got this:

Banana peel, 2 – 10 days

Cotton rags, 1 – 5 months

Sugarcane Pulp Products, 30 - 60 days

Paper, 2 – 5 months

Rope, 3 – 14 months

Orange peels, 6 months

Wool socks, 1 – 5 years

Cigarette filters, 1 – 12 years

Tetrapaks (plastic composite milk cartons), 5 years

Plastic bags, 10 – 20 years

Leather shoes, 25 – 40 years

Nylon fabric, 30 – 40 years

Plastic six-pack holder rings, 450 years

Diapers and sanitary napkins 500 – 800 years

Tin cans 50 - 100 years

Aluminum cans 80 - 100 years

Plastic Bottles non-biodegradeable

Styrofoam cup, non-biodegradeable

KAYSONS Biodegradable plastic bags, 75 days

from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodegradab...

but atleast there is a basic understanding!!

Good luck going green! It's a great idea!

Answer 2

you should check out

treehugger.com

green.alltop.com

awesome sites to help go green

Answer 3

Switch a couple of light bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. They are 75 per cent more energy efficient and last 10 times as long as regular bulbs. Each energy efficient light bulb keeps half a tonne of CO2 out of the air over its lifetime.

Let the sun shine in all winter. Keep your blinds, drapes and shutters open to allow daylight in. Even in the winter, sunlight creates passive solar heating. This can provide a couple of degrees of extra heat to a room for free.

Wash your clothes in cold water. Unless you’re a rugby player, it’s probably all you need. It can save you $85 a year and cut emissions by a third of a tonne.

Look for the Energy Star label on appliances. Products with this internationally recognized symbol use 20-40 per cent less energy than standard products. A new fridge could save enough energy to light an average house for three months.

Choose a laptop over a desktop. A desktop computer uses as much as five times more energy. Make sure you have your computer’s power management function turned on; screen-savers don’t save energy.

This fall, properly seal your house with weather stripping and caulking. In the average Canadian house the combined ‘heat leaks’ would equal a hole the size of a basketball. Keeping ‘leaks’ to a minimum can reduce your heating bill by 25 per cent.

Switch to a water-saving showerhead. They use half the water as a standard head, meaning half as much water to treat and pump.

Switch to a renewable energy provider, such as Bullfrog Power.

Eat local food. Yes, those organic raspberries you bought are nice, but if they had to spend three days crossing the continent by truck, they come with a big pollution price tag. Check the label and choose the locally-grown food and drink. It creates less carbon and supports Ontario farmers.

Choose an energy efficient car with good gas mileage. The better a car’s gas mileage, the lower the emissions. Remember, a litre of gasoline produces almost 2.5 kg of greenhouse gases. If you’re choosing between a car that uses 10 litres/100 km and one that uses 9 litres/100 km, that doesn’t sound like a big difference. But over one year of driving (say, 20,000 km), the car with lower gas efficiency uses another $200 in gas and creates an extra 500 kg of greenhouse gases!

Get your car tuned up and your tires properly inflated. Proper maintenance can increase your car’s efficiency (and cut your gas bill) by 10 per cent. Properly inflated tires reduce your vehicle’s emissions by 125 kilograms a year.

Stop idling your car. An average car idling for five minutes every day produces almost a hundred kilograms of CO2 emissions a year (and wastes a lot of gas).

Reduce paper use. Pulp and papermaking is the fifth largest industrial consumer of energy in the world, and printers and photocopiers consume a lot of energy. Use both sides of the paper. A high speed copier set to run double-sided can save your business upwards of $60 per month. Not to mention, reducing paper use means more trees left to remove excess CO2 from the air.

Turn off lights, printers, computers and photocopiers when leaving your workplace to reduce energy wastage.

Choose energy efficient office equipment. Look for the Energy Star label.

Try carpooling. Just one more passenger per car would mean over 25 million litres of gas saved each day.

Use video-conferencing instead of business trips to minimize your environmental impact through driving or air travel.

Encourage your co-workers and staff to find alternative methods of transportation to the office, and to support workers who use public transit. One busload of people equals 40 vehicles off the road during rush hour and saves 70,000 litres of gas.

Theres alot you can do and there are many websites that can help you become more energ efficient.  Congratulations on going green!!