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© Richard G. Mills, ThinkMills.com, ThinkMills.info
All rights reserved.
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[Many
of these tips were first written for and published
on the Bourbonnais
Township Park District website
as part of its “BTPD is going green~” promotion”]
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Green
tips you can use at home, at work, on
vacation, just about everywhere!
(page 7)
Rethink,
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Recycling is probably the
"Go Green" topic we hear about the most. But that
doesn't necessarily mean just putting paper, glass, and
plastic in your recycle bins. For example—
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New
Spiral Bulbs Are Hazardous!
As one U.S. senator pointed
out, if someone dropped one of the new spiral energy-saving
light bulbs in the Senate and it broke, the entire room
would have to be evacuated according to hazardous-materials
laws. Check your local hardware stores to find one that
will recycle these CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) for
you.
...and see if they'll
take batteries, too! AA, AAA, C, D, 9-volt all
should be kept out of the landfills.
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Recycle
Plastic Grocery Bags
Check whether your local
grocery store recycles plastic shopping bags; if not, find
one that does. Then fill one of the bags with all the others
and bring them to the store to leave off the next time you
shop there. (Of course, you also have the option of purchasing
reusable shopping bags.)
The plastic rain covers
to protect home-delivered newspapers can also go in that
bag; your store may have a list of other acceptable plastic,
as well.
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Replant
Hanging Pots
Don't toss those hanging
pots of dead plants in the trash in the fall. The plants
should go in your compost or yard-recycle bags, the soil
can go in your garden or under the bushes, and the pots
can be reused in the spring. A bag of potting soil and four
plastic "six-packs" of annuals from your plant
store in three of last year's hanging baskets can give you
three hanging baskets of flowers for a little over the store
price of one! Use seeds instead of small plants, and you'll
save even more! |
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Stop
Wasting Grass Clippings
Collecting grass clippings
and setting them out in waste-management lawn bags may seem
like a good way of recycling, but it's probably costing
you money for the bags. Lawn experts say it's better for
your lawn to let the clippings "return to the soil,"
and the best way to do this is to invest in mulching blades
for your mower! You'll be recycling directly into the lawn
and conserving energy, as well — yours! (No more detaching,
lifting, emptying, reattaching, dragging the bags to the
curb!) |
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"Ground
Those Grounds And More....
Want
more Recycle tips? More to come later! Keep coming back!
For
now, go to the next Go Green!
section, Going
Green: Odds and Ends and Tidbits and... ► |
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