FixingThePlanet.com FixIt List

User login

New Green Jobs!

Click Here to see Green Jobs or Post a Green Job for Free

Navigation

Green Jobs

Green Job of Your Dreams

More jobs

Post a new green job

Planet FixIt List No.1 from FixingThePlanet.com

1. Unplug Your Cell Phone Charger When Not In Use.

According to the EPA, “energy vampires” like cell phone chargers, adapters, electronics, and appliances all draw power even when not in use, costing Americans almost $10 billion a year, and accounting for almost 11 percent of all U.S. energy use.

2. Pay Your Bills Online, Cancel All Paper Statements.

If every U.S. home viewed and paid its bills online, the switch would cut solid waste by 1.6 billion tons a year and curb greenhouse-gas emissions by 2.1 million tons a year, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.

3. Use Your Own Coffee Cup At Starbucks (and other coffee shops).

Starbucks annually goes through 2.3 billion cups requiring almost 1 million trees to be cut down, wasting over 500 million gallons of water, and creating 36 million pounds of solid waste. (Source: papercalculator.org and Environmental Defense Organization).

4. Cancel Your Telephone Book Delivery…Look Up Numbers Online.

Over 500 million yellow and white page directories are produced annually requiring 19 million trees to be harvested, wasting 1.6 billion pounds of paper, misusing 7.2 million barrels of oil during processing, taking up 268,000 cubic yards of landfill, and squandering 3.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. (Source: www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.com ) Visit their site to stop delivery of your directories.

5. Use 100% Recycled Toilet Paper.

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 1,000 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save: 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water. (Source: Seventh Generation Company).

6. Eat Vegetarian Once Per Week.

The international meat industry generates roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions—even more than transportation—according to a report from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. And according Stanford University professor Paul Erlich, the amount of water used to produce one pound of meat ranges from 2,500 to as much as 6,000 gallons.

7. Recycle…No, Really Do It This Time.

Recycling is one of the most familiar and successful “green” terms to date; yet according to the EPA, the national recycling rate is just 30%. Increasing materials recycling in the US to 60% could save the equivalent of 315 million barrels of oil per year.

8. Walk To School…Or Work…Or Anywhere.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, half of U.S. schoolchildren are dropped off at school in the family car. If 20% of those living within two miles of school were to bike or walk instead, it would save 4.3 million miles of driving per day. Over a year, that saved driving would prevent 356,000 tons of CO2 and 21,500 tons of other pollutants from being emitted.

9. Use Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs.

According to the EPA, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

10. Drink Tap Water Instead Of Bottled Water.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States become garbage or litter and are NOT recycled. According to the Earth Policy Institute, making the bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year.

SHARE. Send This FixIt List to a Friend