Green Your Lifestyle

If you’re looking for green solutions to help you live an eco friendly lifestyle, you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find a list of simple green solutions that can become good green habits in no time. And, if you need even more solutions, you can go ahead and use this website’s “search” key.

1. Green solutions for toilet paper tubes in the bathroom. Practice paper conservation by recycling toilet paper tubes in the bathroom. Plus, since there always seems to be unwanted paper and wrappers in the bathroom, place a basket just for recyclable paper next to the trash can in your bathroom.
2. Green solutions for dingy sinks and toxic cleaners in the kitchen. Keep toxic products from poisoning our water ways, your lungs and off of your skin by making your own green cleaning solutions. For a gentle scrub, combine 1/4 cup of baking soda along with 1 tablespoon liquid soap. Then, add just enough white distilled vinegar to create a creamy texture. For particularly tough spots, allow the solution to sit for awhile and then scrub grime off the surface. (Test a small area beforehand.)
3. Green solutions for toys that run on batteries in the kid’s room. The optimum solution is to avoid buying toys or household items that use batteries in the first place. Since that’s not always an option, purchase rechargeable batteries so that you can at least use them many times. Never put any type of battery in the trash.  Instead, follow your local garbage company’s household hazardous waste guidelines or take them to a designated recycling facility.  Many stores now offer battery recycling services, including Best Buy, CVS Pharmacy, Black & Decker, DeWalt, The Home Depot, Kragen Augo Parts, Interstate All Battery Centers, Lowe’s, Milwaukee Electrical Tool, Office Depot, Orchard Supply, Porter Cable Service Centers, RadioShack, Remington Product Company, Sears, Staples, Target, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, and Walmart.

Incoming search terms:

• eco friendly solutions for toilet paper disposal
• home green solutions toy

Good Green Habits for Napkins, Paper Towels and Tissues

• Put used facial tissue, napkins and paper towels in your garbage cart―not in toilets or recycling and green waste carts.
• Place toilet tissue in toilets or garbage carts―toilet tissue cannot be recycled at this time.

IMPORTANT:  You can place “food-soiled paper”―including napkins, paper towels and tissues―in your home compost bin since it is biodegradable. Or, if your city or garbage company offers a food recycling program, you may be able to place them in your green waste cart to be transferred to a composting facility.

Incoming search terms:

• cheap way to get rid of paper towels
• putting napkins and paper towelsin the disposal

Good Green Habits for Junk Mail

Individuals and business can take these FREE eco-friendly steps to prevent junk mail from clogging their mailboxes:

• Call advertisers directly to ask for removal from their marketing list.
• Check the “opt out” box when completing registration forms, filling out warranty cards, ordering products, donating money and when signing up for services (including health care and car insurance), contests, group memberships, and anything else that might put you on a promotional list.
• Write “do not sell this name” at the bottom of bank checks when paying for donations, class and conference registrations, magazines and other types of payments that could generate junk mail.
• Request these companies remove your name from their lists:

Catalogs—Catalogchoice.org 

Credit Card & Insurance Offers—Optoutprescreen.com

Direct Mail—DMAchoice.org

Emloyee Mailing Lists: Ecological Mail Coalition

Sweepstakes—Publishers Clearing House (800) 645-9242

Shopping Flyers—Valpak

ShopWise* and Missing Children Ads—ADVO

Eco Fact:  Good Green Habit staff took the above steps and now do NOT receive any junk mail. These steps are free, easy and the payoff is huge.  

Good Green Habits for Magazines

You can extend the life of your old magazines with these eco-friendly options:

• Donate magazines to hospitals, nursing homes and senior centers. 
• Leave them in your work lunch room for co-workers.
• Share with extended family and friends.
• Sell or give away at yard sales or flea markets.
• Take to dentist or doctor’s offices, gyms, homeless shelters, or stores with waiting rooms. 
• Use as art material for school projects.
• Wad up or shred to use as filler for shipping boxes. 

 Eco Tip: Read your magazines online to save trees and money!

Incoming search terms:

• reuse magazines
• how to reuse magazines

• Ask friends, neighbors and businesses (such as grocery stores) for unwanted boxes. 

• Check Craigslist.com or Freecycle.com for used boxes in your area. 

• Ask local moving companies if they offer used boxes (rather than new). 

• Purchase used boxes at UsedCardboardBoxes.com. 

Eco Idea: After you’ve moved, post your unwanted cardboard boxes on Craigslist.org or Freecycle.com for donation so they can be used again or place them in your recycling cart or bin.