It's easy being green
Sustainability expert Danny Seo on how small shifts at home make a world of difference.
Conserve
Stop pre-rinsing your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Modern dishwashers are designed to be as energy and water efficient as possible, so they are a much greener option than washing by hand. Today’s dishwashing tablets, which activate when they interact with grease, grime, and food debris, are far more effective than detergents from the past. If your dishes are too clean, the excess detergent will actually attack the toprack glassware, leaving scratches and marks on them. Save your dishes and save water at the same time.
Re-use
Ever find those little silica gel packets when you buy something new, like a computer or even a bottle of vitamins? They absorb moisture and protect items from rust, but they are also nearly impossible to recycle.
The good thing is that they have a million uses around the house. Leave them in boxes of old photos, baseball cards, or any paper matter to prevent humidity from attacking your printed keepsakes. Leave some inside toolboxes and camera bags to prevent rust on expensive equipment. If you save seeds to plant in the spring, drop a few packets in with them to protect from mold in fall and winter.
Maintain
Though disposable razors may not be an environmentally friendly choice, if you do use them, you can help lengthen the lives of the blades. After each shave, simply rinse and dip the blades into a little isopropyl rubbing alcohol. This helps dry out the razor blades, which stops rust and keeps them sharp. And it helps sanitize the blades, which means you won’t be introducing acne-inducing bacteria onto your skin with each shave. You can also dip nail clippers and tweezers into alcohol to keep them clean.
Reprogram
If you use an inkjet printer, you know it can be expensive to replace cartridges when the ink runs low. Given that black is the most popular color used when printing, it’s the first to start to fade or streak when you’re printing out documents. When this is the case, change the color of the text on your document from black to dark blue. This will switch the cartridges to a different ink and increase their longevity; you’ll get dozens more pages with this simple hack.
Dispose
Up to 20% of the 45 million people who wear disposable contact lenses flush them down the toilet, which leads to significant ocean pollution. The lenses break down and become microplastics, which marine life mistakes for food. The waste can end up in our food supply as well. If you wear contacts, dispose of them in the trash.
Refuse
Another reason to ditch disposable plastic water bottles? They can make you look older. New reports show the pursing of the lips around the bottle repeatedly can actually form deep wrinkles around the pout, similar to a lifelong smoker. To avoid these lip lines, keep drinking water, but do it from a glass.
Reconcile
Have you heard of “wish-cycling”? It’s when someone is so passionate about recycling they toss items into the recycling bin “wishing” they were recyclable and hoping someone else can figure out at the recycling facility if they can be recycled. When questionable recyclables get thrown into the recycling bin, it costs time and money for them to be sorted and trashed. When in doubt, toss it out.
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“Let’s take small steps together to make a huge difference.” DANNY SEO