I picked three things that you can do today to make an impact on the environment. They are super easy and readily repeatable every day. I hope that you’ll consider incorporating them into your daily routine.
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Run your dishwasher only when it’s full
First of all, this is an excellent excuse not to do dishes – as a frequent avoider of household chores I can appreciate the urge to put things off until later.
You can also save about 100 lbs of carbon dioxide a year by doing this every time you run your dishwasher, thereby reducing your household’s carbon footprint.
Furthermore, while it’s hard for many of us in North America to truly appreciate the water issues our planet is facing, what with the simple turn of a faucet giving us hot and cold water whenever we want, reducing our use of water isn’t just good for the water bill. Despite what many people believe, Canada does not have a water surplus. We hold only 6.5% of the world’s renewable water, more than one quarter of Canadian municipalities have faced water shortages in recent years and only 1% of the water in the Great Lakes is renewable.
Many Canadians are unaware that our water is in danger of being exported in bulk, going to whomever can pay the most for this non-renewable resource (once it has been removed from a water system, it doesn’t magically reappear).
When it goes through our municipal systems, water is exposed to chemicals that make it dangerous to the environment and human beings. The long-term effects of exposure to many of the chemicals that contaminate water in our eco-systems aren’t known, but we could say that it doesn’t look good.
So, hold off on running the dishwasher until it’s full, and if you decide to wash by hand, don’t let the water run, fill the sink up instead.
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Wash clothes only in cold or warm water.
Avoid using hot water cycles as much as possible. There are a lot of eco-friendly detergents that are made for cold water now. Even if you just use your regular detergent, avoiding the hot water can save about 350 lbs of carbon dioxide in a year.
It will also save money on both your water and hydro bill: according to Natural Resources Canada, about 15% of a typical energy bill goes to heating water. They also name the water heater as the second biggest energy user in a typical Canadian home – it is second only to a furnace. Stop using hot water cycles to stop wasting money on water and energy: there are few cases when a warm water cycle won’t do the same job a hot water cycle would (there are some, of course, but the idea is to do this sparingly)
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Don’t flush “flushable” applicators
There are items that are considered “flushable” because they don’t clog the toilet. This doesn’t mean they actually should be flushed. For one, these items cause problems at the sewage treatment plant.
Furthermore, they wash up on beaches and join the vortex of plastic floating around the world’s oceans. Oceanographer Charles Moore estimates that there are about 100 million tons of plastic floating around the Pacific Ocean. One-fifth of it is thrown off of ships – the rest comes from land.
These pieces of plastic absorb chemicals like DDT (fyi: it hasn’t actually gone away) carrying them into the water system and thereby spreading them all over the world.
It’s kind of like voting. Your individual vote doesn’t really matter, but as a whole, everyone’s vote matters. One action makes a difference because it is one of many actions. One action makes a difference because your action has the power to inspire others to act, who may inspire others to act and so on, with this domino-like movement of action.
Justifying your inaction by the inaction of others is ridiculous. You can’t be held personally responsible for the acts of others – but you are accountable for your actions. So act.
http://www.canadians.org/WorldWaterDay/
http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html
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