1. Use Energy Efficient Lightbulbs

Energy efficient lightbulbs are a simple way to reduce the amount of power you use. Not only will this help the planet, it will also save your bank balance too. By replacing just one lightbulb, the effect can be tremendous. If every house in the USA did this, it would reduce pollution by the same amount as removing one million cars from the road!

2. Turn Your Computer Off Overnight

If you turn your computer off every night, again you will reduce the power you use. You will save an average of $14 a year. It’s not a huge amount, but better in your pocket than your energy supplier’s right?

3. Don’t Pre-Rinse the Dishes

If you can’t live without your dishwasher, then at least cut the pre-rinse. With a decent detergent, your dishes will be just as clean and you can save an average of twenty gallons of water per load.

5. Always Recycle Glass

Did you know that un recycled glass can take up to a million years to decompose? Always make sure to recycle your glass. It can reduce related water pollution by up to fifty percent and related air pollution by up to twenty percent.

Related: 10 Household Items You Can Easily Recycle

6. Choose Your Diapers Wisely

Wherever possible, choose cloth diapers – this aids the environment and is kinder to baby’s skin. If you desperately need the convenience of the disposable diaper, use an environmentally friendly brand. The average child uses between five and eight thousand diapers – which equates to 3.5 million tons of landfill waste. And makes a huge dent in your pocket!

7. Use A Clothesline

Do your clothes a favour and switch off the dryer. Hang clothes outside to dry naturally. The material will last longer, it will smell and feel fresher and of course, you are saving on that power usage!

9. Launder Sensibly

For your own pocket, and the good of the environment, don’t wash half loads. Wait until there’s enough to do a load and cut your laundry in half. Also, think about the water temperature. If every household in the USA switched from a hot to a warm cycle, it could save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

10. Don’t Waste Napkins

We’ve all done it – gone somewhere and took a napkin or two more than we needed, only to throw them away unused. If everyone in the USA used one less napkin a day, current figures show that it could save a billion pounds of space in landfills.

11. Use All of the Paper

If you jot a note down on paper, save it and use the rest of the sheet for your notes. American business waste 21 million tonnes of paper per annum! Ideally, try to have your business as paperless as possible. When it is absolutely necessary, print on both sides of the page. And don’t forget to recycle it!

13. Personalize Gift Wrapping

Gift wrap is a major waste of paper and resource. Re-use gift wrap, bows and tags. Or why not be really creative and make your own gift wrap – use old newspapers, maps or magazines and create your own design!

14. Re-Think Your Water Consumption

Bottled water is handy when you’re on the go, but why not buy one bottle and then refill it from the tap or your work’s water cooler. Around 90% of water bottles end up decomposing in landfills rather than being recycled.

15. Opt for A Shower

Switching your bath for a shower can make a huge difference. Baths use approximately double the amount of water a shower uses. This not only saves water, but it saves you money on heating the excess water too.

17. Share A Shower

Feeling a bit amorous and want to clean off a bit for your partner? Chances are they feel exactly the same. Why not shower together – use half the amount of water, and maybe even start the fun in there!

18. Shorten Your Shower Time

Probably not one to go hand-in-hand with the above point, shortening your shower time buy just two minutes can save more than ten gallons of water. If everyone saved just one gallon, it would be two times more water saved than is currently drawn daily from the Great Lakes.

19. Plant Your Own Tree

There are multiple benefits to planting a tree in your garden. It is good for the environment both the land and the air, it can shade your home and cut back your air con usage and it can even increase the value of your property. You could make it an annual event where each family member plants a new tree.

21. Buy Second Hand

A lot of things can be sourced second hand. Things that have a short usage period due to growth, for example, a child’s bicycle, can be picked up second hand in fantastic condition and also at a fraction of the price. This saves you money and helps to reduce packaging materials.

22. Buy Local Products

Where possible, buy local produce. This saves all the pollution incurred by transporting goods long distance.

23. Adjust The Temperature

Adjusting the temperature in your home by just one degree can save you 10% on your energy use over the year. This is another great saving you and another great help for the planet. Where possible, set a timer so your heating/cooling doesn’t need to be on when you aren’t home.

25. Do Errand Batches

Instead of doing each errand as it occurs to you, why not do them in a batch. This will save you time and will also reduce your fuel costs. You could even errand share with a friend!

26. Turn Off Lights When You’re Not in The Room

You don’t need to light up a room no one is using. Save energy and money by getting into the habit of switching off the lights when you leave the room. For standard bulbs, do this each time you leave. For energy savers, do this if you are leaving the room for more than fifteen minutes. You will also save on your cooling costs, as lights can make your rooms hotter!

27. Garden Manually

Try to avoid using a hose pipe – use a watering can instead to concentrate on the areas you need watering. Try to water first thing before the sun is up to reduce water wasted to evaporation. Rake old clippings by hand, or leave them to fertilise your soil. Use vinegar on weeds instead of harsh weed killers.

29. Recycle Your Cell Phone

With the average consumer replacing their cell phones every eighteen months, 130 million cell phones are being disposed of each year. If these go into landfill sites, the toxins from the cell battery leak into the soil and pollute the ground. Use a recycling programme. An added bonus to this is many of these programs contribute to charities.

30. Regularly Maintain Your Vehicle

If your vehicle’s engine is running correctly, the filters are clean and the tires correctly inflated, the vehicle will be more efficient on fuel. This reduces pollution and saves you money. It’s worth cleaning out the trunk now and again too – extra weight uses extra fuel!

31. Recycle Unwanted Wire Hangers

Although wire hangers are generally made of steel, therefore not recyclable in the typical sense, many dry cleaners will gladly take these off your hands to reuse.

33. Work from Home

If possible, get an arrangement in place with your employer where you can work from home some or all of the time. This saves gasoline, which will reduce air pollution and save you money. And it also means you can work in your pajamas with no make-up and your hair shrugged back if you want to! Bonus.

34. Keep Your Fireplace Damper Closed

If you’re not using your fireplace at any given time, keep the damper closed. Having the damper open is like having a forty-eight inch window open all the time! Image the hundreds of dollars you are wasting on heating air that then gets sucked up your chimney.

35. Reduce Your Junk Mail

The average American citizen receives forty pounds of junk mail per year – forty pounds! That’s a lot of paper being wasted. You can register for services that reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. Not only is this beneficial to the environment, but let’s face it, none of us want that junk mail anyway – the clue is in the name!

37. Use Online Directories

How many people still use paper telephone directories? Virtually none, but the telecoms companies will still send them out unless you opt out. Opt out and use an online service instead. These directories can account for up to 10% of trash in landfill sites. If you do still use a paper directory, don’t forget to recycle the old one.

38. Don’t Throw It Away

You know the old saying, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure? Well it is often true. Don’t throw away perfectly good things just because you’re sick of them, or no longer have use for them. Instead, donate them to a local charity shop, or list them on a free collection site online.

39. Use A Professional Car Wash Service

Car wash services are trying to reduce costs and maximize profits, therefore, they have the optimal amount of water for a thorough clean down to a fine art. Using these services ensures minimal water wastage. If everyone in the USA who washes their own cars used a car wash even once, it would save 8.7 billion gallons of water per year!

41. Use e-Tickets

Not only do you save $9 per flight by using an e-ticket as opposed to a paper one, it also saves wasting all of that paper.

42. Download Software

Again, it is often cheaper to download software than it is to buy the discs. It also reduces wasted packaging materials, and it can be beneficial when the software is upgraded, and the downloaded version is automatically included in the updates.

43. Don’t Use an Answering Machine

For the majority of people, answering machines are obsolete, as both cell and land line phones come with integrated voice mail. Make sure you are using the voice mail feature rather than having an external answering machine, which just uses up unnecessary power.

45. Use Non-Chemical De-Icers

Most people use ice melters to clear the sidewalks after a big storm. These contain harmful chemicals and should be avoided. Similarly, salt based products can be harmful to pets and could end up contaminating drinking water. Always look for a pet-safe, non-chemical de-icer.

46. Use paper based cotton buds

You can buy cotton buds with a paper spindle or a plastic one. If 10% of US households used paper based ones, it would save over 150,000 gallons of gasoline.

47. Pay Household Bills Online

Paying online is not only quick and convenient, but receiving your statements online can make a huge difference to the environment. If every US household received electronic statements, then we could save 18.5 million trees, 2.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases 1.7 billion pounds of solid waste per year.

49. Use Rechargeable Batteries

It’s no secret that the corrosive acid in throw away batteries is extremely damaging to soil when they end up in landfills. Although the recharging unit is initially an unexpected expense, long term, this will save you money. And you’ll never find yourself short of a battery when you need one!

50. Share The Knowledge !

Often, when people are damaging the environment, it is because they don’t have the facts, or haven’t considered a particular course of action. Share this list with your friends – if each of them takes on board just one point, the effect could be immense. And if they share it on too, think of the mass chain reaction. Let’s work together to make the world a better place.