Good Green Habits for Cards and Gifts

Good Green Habits to Save Energy & Money in Winter

Fortunately, you can drastically reduce your exposure to pesticides [...]]]> Many fruits and vegetables are grown with pesticides to get rid of bugs.  Although nobody wants to find a creepy crawly thing in a peach or tomato, according to the Environmental Working Group, even small doses of pesticides can adversely affect your health and are worrisome, not well understood, and in some cases completely unstudied. 

Fortunately, you can drastically reduce your exposure to pesticides and bacteria found on produce with a thorough vinegar and water wash.   Experts found that a white vinegar and water wash kills 98% of bacteria and removes pesticides.

You can concoct your own vinegar/water mixture at home to save money.  You’ll probably spend less than 20 cents  to make a homemade vinegar and water rinse, compared to around $4 for a premade produce wash.  Plus,  you can use the same bottle many times when you make your own wash!

Good Green Habits for Washing Produce

• Mix 3 parts water to 1 part white vinegar (3:1 ) in a spray bottle.
• Spray on fruits and veggies to get rid of pesticide residue.
• Rinse with water after spraying.

-OR-

• Fill a bowl with water and add 1/8 to 1/2 cup of vinegar, depending on the size of your bowl. 
• Place your fruits and veggies in the bowl.
• Soak for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Rinse with water.

Note:  GGH loves the second version because we think it’s easy and quick!

so you can flex your consumer eco muscle. 

No matter what you buy─

Good Green Habits donates 5% of all proceeds

to environmental causes!

 Thank you for shopping at Good Green Habits!

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Eco-Friendly Products [...]]]> We’ve created a Green Shopping marketplace

so you can flex your consumer eco muscle. 

No matter what you buy─

Good Green Habits donates 5% of all proceeds

to environmental causes!

 Thank you for shopping at Good Green Habits!

Click on the Amazon Banner for

Eco-Friendly Products ONLY

Click on this Link for ALL Products

Good Green Habits for Napkins, Paper Towels and [...]]]> Have you ever wondered why you shouldn’t put your used (i.e. grungy) napkins, paper towels and tissues in your recycling cart along with other paper products? The answer is quite simple. They aren’t accepted in recycling carts because they’re contaminated. Only clean paper products should go in your recycling cart.

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.

Good Green Habits for Honoring the Earth

Good Green Habits for Christmas Lights

Good Green Habits for Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap

You can help generate less waste during the holiday season with these easy green steps: 

Good Green Habits for Gifts

Here are ideas to make your gift-giving greener:

There are days when you just don’t want to make the extra effort. You want [...]]]> A few of our friends and readers have reported that they find “going green” is a difficult idea to wrap their minds around on a daily basis. Even though we are bonafide green cheerleaders, Good Green Habits understands this feeling completely.

There are days when you just don’t want to make the extra effort. You want a plastic bottled water and you don’t want to feel guilty about buying it. Well, if somebody hasn’t already said this to you, allow us to be the first. It’s OK to have off eco days. When it comes to taking eco steps, big or small, the important thing is to do the best you can do─whatever that means to you. We’d rather help you stay on the green path sometimes than to have you give up completely.  That’s how much faith we have in you.

Good Green Habits for Eco Inspiration

Take one or all of these actions if you find you’re having a bad green day:

• Just do the best you can do today.
• Go greener tomorrow.
• Step outside and appreciate the Earth’s beauty─this will make you want to do more.
• Take baby-steps until you’re recharged─turn off the water when brushing your teeth, recycle newspapers─anything you do helps.

Good Green Habits for Shopping

Adopt these eco-friendly shopping and lifestyle habits:

Good Green Habits for Thanksgiving

You can create less waste, save energy and oftentimes save money with these eco-friendly steps:

Good Green Habits for Common Eco Words

Recyclable [...]]]> Many eco words can seem similar at first glance. To help you understand their meanings, we’ve defined a few of the most commonly used green words in this green glossary. We’ve also added eco-friendly actions you can take to help you transform these eco words into good green habits.

Good Green Habits for Common Eco Words

Recyclable means the material in a product can be reused or remanufactured into other products because it may still have useful physical or chemical properties after serving its original purpose.

• Place recyclable items in your recycling cart, including cans, plastic bottles, and other items accepted by your garbage company.
• Visit earth911 to find nearby recycling center locations.

Recycled means the material in a product has already been separated from the waste stream, remanufactured into a new product, and is available for consumer purchase.

• Read labels to find out if a product is made from recycled materials.
• Then, purchase items made from recycled materials whenever possible, especially items such as toilet paper (which can only be used once) and office paper (which can be recycled many times).

Reduce means steps are taken to use fewer natural resources, materials and products to produce less waste.

• Buy products without extra packaging.
• Purchase only what you need in the near future.
• Use less than the directed amount of products, such as powder and liquid detergents.

Reuse means that you use items more than once or find new ways to use old items. Here are many easy ways to reuse:

• Choose reusable bags instead of plastic bags or reuse plastic bags.
• Compost unwanted food at home or use your garbage company’s compost program.
• Donate unwanted items to people you know or to charity.
• Purchase refillable pens and pencils.
• Repair and/or clean items instead of buying new.
• Reuse or share cardboard boxes and packing materials.
• Save empty food containers for storing for craft supplies and leftover food.
• Set your table with cloth napkins.
• Take your own coffee mug to Starbucks.
• Use dryer sheets more than once.

For example, CVS/pharmacy company officials recently recognized that fewer than one-third of single-use plastic shopping bags used by customers get  recycled. [...]]]> Many businesses have learned that they can earn community respect and help their customers save money when they take steps to keep the planet healthy. All it takes is a little eco ingenuity and shopper participation.

For example, CVS/pharmacy company officials recently recognized that fewer than one-third of single-use plastic shopping bags used by customers get  recycled. As a result, CVS announced a new program called Green Bag Tag to encourage customers to reduce their use of single-use plastic bags. 

Good Green Habits for Transporting Treasures

You can help keep plastic bags from littering streets, waterways and out of landfills by using reusable bags at all stores.  And, whenever you use your reusable bags at CVS, you can also earn money (store credits) with these steps:  

• Sign up for a free CVS Extra Care Card program.
• Purchase a Green Bag Tag for 99 cents. (You’ll get your 99 cents back by using the tag four times.)
• Scan the Green Bag Tag each time you bring reusable bags or when you decline plastic bags at checkout.
• Earn $1 Extra Buck credit (to be used at CVS) on every fourth scan.

Good Green Habits for Junk Mail

Individuals and business can take these FREE eco-friendly steps [...]]]> If you find your mailbox jammed with catalogs, flyers and advertisements, you’re not alone. Over 114 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered each year by the US Post Office. Plus, Americans collectively pay about $370,000,000 to get rid of the portion that doesn’t get recycled.

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 Heater Filters

Clean heater filters [...]]]> Many of us have noticed it’s starting to get a little chilly in the morning and at night. If you’ve slipped on your sweater and slippers and still think it’s cold, it might be time to turn on your heater. But before you take that step―remember to check the heater’s filter to make sure it’s clean.

Good Green Habits for Heater Filters

Clean heater filters can reduce your energy bill by as much as 15% and increase your furnace’s efficiency and lifespan, so these eco-friendly habits are worth the effort:

• Check your heater filter for grime buildup before you turn on your heater (or soon after).
• If filters look dark, dusty or clogged, clean or replace them. 
• Old-style furnace filters (1-inch thick fiberglass panels) typically must be cleaned or replaced monthly.
• Newer pleated, electrostatically-charged filters can last up to three months.

Disposal Suggestions: Contact manufacturers to ask about recycling old filters. As a last resort, place unusable filters in your garbage cart or bin.

Good Green Habits for Magazines

You can extend the life of your old magazines with these [...]]]> The Earth’s natural resources (like trees and water) are conserved whenever products and materials are used more than once. So, after you read your magazines, give them a longer life by allowing others to read them before they’re recycled into new paper products.

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!

Good Green Websites 

Single-use bottled water manufacturers often use #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) to package their water. Although these bottles are considered the safest single-use plastic bottle choice, are [...]]]> Whenever you drink water from a plastic bottle, you could be swallowing more than water. Along with thirst-quenching gulps of water (ahh!) you may be consuming harmful chemicals (ugh!) leached from the plastic bottle.

Single-use bottled water manufacturers often use #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) to package their water. Although these bottles are considered the safest single-use plastic bottle choice, are they good for your health?

A definitive…not really. The term “safe for single use” just means that the plastic containers shouldn’t melt, crack or fall apart after one use. This safety term is not related to health or to the amount of harmful chemicals that can migrate from the plastic bottles into your water.

Single-use plastic water bottles can leach these chemicals into your drinking water: 

• benzyl butyl phthalate, a potential hormone disrupter
• antimony, an elemental metal that can irritate eyes, skin and lungs

Also, because PET plastic is porous and the shapes of the these bottles make them difficult to clean, harmful bacteria can be consumed with repeated use.

Good Green Habits for Water Bottles

Why needlessly risk your good health for the convenience of a plastic bottle? The following eco-friendly options can help protect your health and keep water bottles from piling up in landfills:

• Fill a stainless steel bottle with tap water* for out-and-about use.
• Rely on glass or ceramic containers when at home.
• Recycle plastic bottles if you occasionally use them so the plastic can be made into new products.

 *TAP WATER ECO FACT: Most local drinking water supplies are rigorously tested to meet federal and state drinking water regulations. To learn about your area’s water quality, you can visit Environmental Working Group’s National Tap Water Database. When your tap water is safe but you don’t like the taste, you can purchase easy-to-install water filters, such as those made by Brita, or find other types of water purification systems that suit your needs.

Foods placed in plastic wrap or plastic containers―and then heated in a microwave oven―can end up containing harmful chemicals leached from plastics. Many of the chemicals in plastic have been classified as toxic and unsafe for consumption.

And, plastic containers labeled “microwave safe” or [...]]]> Care for a little plastic with your leftover pasta? Probably not, but you may be getting it. 

Foods placed in plastic wrap or plastic containers―and then heated in a microwave oven―can end up containing harmful chemicals leached from plastics. Many of the chemicals in plastic have been classified as toxic and unsafe for consumption.

And, plastic containers labeled “microwave safe” or “microwavable” are no better since they can also potentially leach harmful chemicals when heated. The safety labels just mean that the plastic container shouldn’t melt, crack or fall apart when used in microwave ovens―the labels are not related to your health. They simply let you know that the containers can withstand heat. Chemicals from microwave-safe containers can migrate into your food. 

Plastic-laced food is probably not what you had in mind when you sat down for a nice, hot meal, eh?

Good Green Habits for Microwaving

Since all plastics potentially leach chemicals into food, water and soil under certain conditions, follow these eco-friendly steps: 

• Microwave food in ovenproof glass or ceramic. 
• Never allow plastic or plastic wrap to touch heated food. 

ECO FACT:  Staff at Good Green Habits like to store all food in glass or ceramics, whether it’s hot or cold.  We definitely prefer our pasta without plastic.

Good Green Habits in Bathrooms

Toilet Bowl—Sprinkle wet toilet bowl sides with baking soda, then spray on some undiluted white vinegar. Scrub clean. 

Tile—Soak a sponge in vinegar, sprinkle with salt. Scrub and rinse. 

Glass and mirrors—Fill [...]]]> Your bathroom doesn’t need to smell like chemicals for it to be clean and fresh. You can enjoy a toxin-free bathroom that smells lovely by using eco-friendly cleaning alternatives found in your kitchen cupboards.

Good Green Habits in Bathrooms

Toilet Bowl—Sprinkle wet toilet bowl sides with baking soda, then spray on some undiluted white vinegar. Scrub clean. 

Tile—Soak a sponge in vinegar, sprinkle with salt. Scrub and rinse. 

Glass and mirrors—Fill spray bottle with a half-and-half mixture of vinegar and water. Spray and buff. 

Floors—Mix 1 cup white vinegar with 1 gallon of water. Mop and dry. 

Air freshener—Pour ¼ cup baking soda into a bowl and set on countertop to absorb most odors.  To add a sweeter smell to your room, try a wick diffuser with essential oils or dried flowers.

Reasons to Recycle

Here are several smooth reasons to recycle [...]]]> You can help protect the Earth for future generations by remembering to recycle used motor oil from your car, truck, motorcycle, boat, RV or lawnmower. Recycling motor oil keeps it out of rivers, streams, lakes and landfills―and from ending up in ground water supplies and your drinking water. 

Reasons to Recycle

Here are several smooth reasons to recycle your unwanted motor oil:

• Motor oil contains toxic substances such as benzene, lead, zinc and cadmium that can harm people, animals and the planet.
• One pint of oil can produce a one-acre oil slick.
• One gallon of oil can ruin the taste of one million gallons of drinking water.

Fortunately, used motor oil can be reprocessed into fuel that can be used in furnaces for heat and in power plants to generate electricity for homes, schools and businesses. It can also be used in industrial and utility boilers, blended for marine fuels, and other uses. And, it can be re-refined into lubricating oils that meet the same API specifications as virgin motor oil.

Good Green Habits for Motor Oil

You can take these eco-friendly steps to ensure oil is legally and safely recycled or discarded in your area:

• Contact your garbage company. Many haulers now pro­vide oil jugs and collect used motor oil for their curbside customers. To get started, call your local garbage ser­vice and ask if used oil is picked up on service day. Some haulers will provide jugs for just this purpose.
• Ask service stations and repair shops. Many types of automotive business will accept used oil and used oil filters.
• Check with county or state government offices. They can provide locations for recycling centers in your area.
• Visit earth911. Visit earth911.com to find oil collection centers by zip code.

ECO FACT Recycling two gallons of used motor oil can generate enough energy to run an average household for 24 hours. For more information, visit recycleoil.org.

Well, if you’ve got the feeling that you shouldn’t flush these prescription and over-the-counter drugs down the toilet or throw them in your garbage cart—your eco vibe is right on target. These items are considered household hazardous waste.

Improper medication disposal—pills, capsules, liquids—can [...]]]> Wondering what to do with your collection of expired and unwanted pills after you clean out your medicine cabinet? 

Well, if you’ve got the feeling that you shouldn’t flush these prescription and over-the-counter drugs down the toilet or throw them in your garbage cart—your eco vibe is right on target. These items are considered household hazardous waste.

Improper medication disposal—pills, capsules, liquids—can definitely mess with the well-being of people, animals, and the environment. Drugs of all types can pollute soil and groundwater. 

And, since most wastewater treatment plants don’t remove man-made chemicals from medications, the chemicals in them can contaminate water supplies, including drinking water! Fortunately for the future of our planet, you’ve got green options. 

Good Green Habits for Medications

Take these steps to dispose of unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medications to keep environment healthy:

• Visit NoDrugsDownTheDrain.org for disposal locations.
• Watch for advertised medication take-back events.
• As a last resort, place them in your garbage cart* using these eco measures: 
  • Keep pills, capsules and liquid medications in original, non-breakable containers with tightly secured lids. 
  • Mark out personal information on medication containers. 
  • Pills and capsules in blister packs should be wrapped in several layers of durable tape.
  • Hide containers inside paper bags, boxes or plastic tubs. 
  • Place wrapped, concealed containers in garbage cart.

• 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 [...]]]> You can green up your moving day by packing belongings in used cardboard boxes. Here are several easy ways to find used boxes: 

• 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.