Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Turning your organic waste into useful mulch is more of possibility then you may think. This quick start guide will have you up and composting before you know it.
Bigger is often better since heat builds up as you add more materials. Though bigger may be better, keep it smaller than three feet by three feet. Often times you can get old trash cans from your city for a small deposit fee. These are perfect and inexpensive compost containers. What other tools are needed?
This includes waste from your kitchen, yard and garden. To get everyone involved, put up a list of compostable material in your kitchen to inform others what’s in and what’s out.
Keep in mind that kitchen scraps such as fruits and veggies are typically high in nitrogen. This is needed to help heat up the compost pile and speed up the composting process.
Too much of any one material will slow down the composting process. Try to keep your green materials (vegetable peels and grass clippings) and brown materials (leaves and straw) evenly mixed.
This can be done in two ways. If you have a composting container with a turning handle, simply rotate your compost on a consistent basis. If your container is not equipped with a turning mechanism, take a pitch fork or a compost aeration tool and mix the compost from top to bottom. A good rule of thumb would be to aerate your compost each time you add something new.
A compost pile needs moisture to keep the composting process active but too much could make it soggy and smelly. Water it often with a garden hose, increasing the amount of water added in the summer months and decreasing in winter.
Earth 911 delivers actionable local information on recycling that empowers consumers to act locally, live responsibly and contribute to sustainability.
