Simple Green Hacks That Easily Reduce Waste and Help the Climate

Home EnvironmentalSimple Green Hacks That Easily Reduce Waste and Help the Climate

Simple Green Hacks That Easily Reduce Waste and Help the Climate

By Joe Burgett - July 31, 2022

Invest In Computers With The “Energy Star” Label

Perhaps one of the best green hacks of this era in our technological world is paying attention to labels. They’ll alert you to the most energy-efficient products. Take laptops for instance. It’s true that one can charge a laptop battery, but these batteries were not very good initially. You might get 2 to 3 hours of use out of the best on the market at the time. This meant you needed to charge it repeatedly with some never bothering to take the charging cord out of their laptops at all.

Along came the “Energy Star” which was invented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA wanted products to use less energy, and any product with this “energy star” was known for this. To compete properly with competitors, computer companies had to do a better job. Today, those with energy star labels use 35 to 65% less energy than those without one. Batteries last 4 to 5 hours on average today.

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Wrap Your Greens In A Tea Towel To Keep Them From Going Bad As Quickly

Most of us are well aware by now that leafy greens can go bad pretty fast. You’ll often need to cook or use the greens within a day, which is not really convenient most of the time. You do not need us to tell you that, but you might want to keep reading for one of the best green hacks people often do not know about. Many people will bring greens home and set them out along with the other veggies until they plan to use them.

Others might do what they assume the smartest thing might be too, putting them in the fridge. The fridge is the best option, but you shouldn’t just put them in there alone. Rather, your best bet is to put them in a damp tea towel (many towels can work too) before putting them inside your fridge. This has been proven to keep them fresh twice as long, giving you more time to use them. The cool thing is that this trick works for all types of “greens” people might use.

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Washcloths Better Than Paper Towels For Messes

One of the biggest green hacks in our book is one that people likely realize but don’t seem to consider very often. Paper Towels are meant to be for one use only and then thrown away just as quickly as they were used. These disposable towels of paper aren’t efficient at all. Washcloths in this case work far better. That is especially true if you’re wanting to clean up messes.

All you’d do is find a clean washcloth and use it to clean up the mess easily. Not only are they more absorbent than most paper towels, but they can be used repeatedly for years to come. You’d merely wash the cloth itself and/or ring it out. There might be times when you would want to use a disposable paper towel for things, such as checking your oil or getting dog crap off your shoe. For everything else, pretty much, the washcloth can handle it.

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Think About The Dental Floss You Use

If you’re flossing on the regular, then you’re going to be making your dentist very happy. However, while dental floss is relatively cheap, most of us tend to use the regular plastic version. That might be due to the version given to us by our dentist or due to the ease of finding plastic versions. The problem is the plastic side of it all though. Many feel that is hard to avoid when it comes to flossing as there aren’t many options outside of plastic floss versions.

This is where we hit you with one of our favorite green hacks. You’d be surprised to learn that there are many options for floss. The two biggest are silk and bamboo floss, which you can usually find at a drug store. If you cannot find them there, you’ll easily find them on Amazon another web marketplace. Both silk and bamboo are biodegradable materials and are therefore better for the environment.

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Using Clothesline To Dry Clothes

If you have a dryer in your home, generally many will use it as it can be useful to have. However, the trade-off when you use these dryers is the use of unnecessary energy. It can even raise your power bill too. This means using something like a clothesline to hang out clothes can be great for the environment and your wallet. This is best during the spring and summer period, of course. Although, there are some important things to consider for this.

First, always use fabric softener when washing them. The second thing is to keep a check on darker clothes as they will absorb the sun a lot easier than whites will. This means they’ll dry quicker and something dry and a target for the sun could actually catch on fire or have a burn of some kind. Third is to consider your location, and do not hang something like underwear or formalwear out unless you’re in a secure area or one with very few homes, if any around.

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Home Insulation

People often complain about their heater or air conditioner is not working properly. Yet the reason it might not be working as well as you’d like to is due to insulation. There are usually two issues to consider. First, the lack of proper insulation can cause heat or cold to get into your home much easier. Thereby making it seem like the system is not doing its job. The second thing is that due to those things referenced, a system has to work much harder to cool or heat your home.

This, in turn, can cause a system to start failing far sooner than it normally should. In both contexts, your home is often needing to use more energy to cool or heat itself. Therefore, one of the most logical green hacks to consider is to look into improving your home insulation. This does not mean just inside the walls, insulation also has to do with the cracks in your door or around your windows too. If you fix this issue, you’ll be surprised to see how much energy you no longer use as a result.

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Ride Bike Rather Than Drive When You Can

We know that if everyone could bike everywhere they need to go, we’d save a lot of energy as well as cut down on a lot of carbon emissions. Yet we know the ability to ride your bike to places can be strictly based on your location as well as where you’re biking. Some would also rightly point out that if there is nowhere to park and secure your bike, it would be bad to ride your relatively expensive bike there. We understand all of those potential issues, so we want to be sure you’re aware of this.

However, that does not mean riding your bike is not a better option when possible. Obviously, people who live in cities likely could do this much easier and to more locations. Yet many people in the southern United States have started to do this more often and it has gone well. Not only are they saving the environment a little bit, but they are also getting in their exercise for the day too. Two birds with one stone, if you will.

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Driving Efficiently

One of the best green hacks we can discuss for car use is to simply drive one efficiently. When you drive, your car is going to use up more fuel with some actions versus others. For example, the faster you go and the more acceleration you maintain in the process, the more energy you’ll use. When one drives like this, they are often going to need to stop at a fast rate. Then they’ll go right back to speeding again.

This actually uses up more fuel, around 33% more on the highway alone in fact. Thus, by driving gently you’ll use less energy and you won’t need to buy gas as often. On top of that, you won’t expel as many emissions into the air either. Don’t idle your car either, especially with the heat or air conditioner going. Both of these will efficiently begin to work when you’re driving. Finally, try to fix any problems you might have with your car when possible as this will use less energy as well.

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Use Of Bamboo Toothbrushes

When you buy a regular toothbrush or get one from your local dentist, you’ll get a normal plastic toothbrush. While the bristles on this toothbrush will be perfectly fine when it’s new, they will quickly begin to become pretty bad. This means your toothbrush will not work as properly, thus the need for a new one. However, many of us will use one toothbrush for a year or longer. The CDC actually recommends changing your toothbrush out every three to four months though.

While this is good for your teeth, it’s not so great for the environment obviously. You’re throwing out an average of 3 to 4 toothbrushes per year, only putting more plastic into the environment. Therefore, using a bamboo toothbrush would be best. Not only are they just as good as regular toothbrushes, but they also will biodegrade after a few months upon throwing them out. This is one of the green hacks that meets every need, honestly.

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Use Your Microwave More

As kids, TV dinners were awesome. These microwavable bad boys were the hallmark of homes with two working parents. Funny enough, microwaves have always been easy to use and they also use less energy than a regular oven. On average, you use 1200 watts of electricity per hour of microwave use. Most things will be microwaved for about 1 to 5 minutes on average, with some occasionally surpassing that. Yet for every hour of regular oven use, you’re using 3000 watts of electricity.

On average, most things one cooks in the oven per use will take 20 to 40 minutes on average. If you used an oven even for evening meals only, you’ll use up more power than a microwave uses for three meals per day when used at an average rate. This is one of those green hacks that seem to tell you the obvious thing to do, right? You could use a microwave more in a given month and use less power, saving you a bit on your energy bill. Everyone wins here!

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Compost Food You Do Not Eat

One of the biggest issues in our environment is food waste. This is a huge problem when it comes to things one cannot throw out for animals to eat or give their pet. The best thing you can do is compost various food products. This means stuff you will not eat like the shells from nuts and eggs, along with coffee grounds and filters. However, you can also compost any fruits and vegetables along with shredding newspaper, cardboard, and paper.

Some do not realize that you can also compost things like grass or yard trimmings/clippings on top of wood chips and sawdust. Even hair and fur can be composted. Green hacks we recommended so far are going to be practical, but composting isn’t easy for many. Sure, it is great for the environment. However, it is tough to do for some, so check out the EPA’s guide on home composting.

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Upcycling

Recycling is great, but did you know you can essentially get creative yourself and “upcycle” various products people do not use? This pretty much means you will make something new out of something old. You’ll see this more often with clothing items, but it’s regularly done with numerous things. The goal of upcycling is to create not just something new out of discarded objects or materials. Rather, they want to make something of higher quality or higher value than the original.

While impossible, imagine if something threw out their PS4 and a person was able to upcycle it into a PS5. Again, not really possible to do with ease. Yet something like this is the real ideology here. Sure, it is not always possible to buy and then repurpose an item into something worth more than the original item itself. However, you have still given an old item new life and kept it from polluting the planet. Which makes this one of our favorite green hacks.

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LED Lightbulbs

You’d be surprised how much energy the normal incandescent bulb uses in your home. Not only do they use up more energy but they also die off quickly too. Of course, companies want to make money, so selling off lightbulbs that are made to die after a specific period of time is a good way to do just that. However, LED lightbulbs eventually hit the market and changed the game. These lightbulbs are much brighter than regular lightbulbs of the same size.

Around 6 times more luminosity is present with these bulbs, in fact. They also use much less energy to a shocking degree. The average 250-lumen incandescent bulb uses 25 to 30 watts of electricity while the LED lightbulb of the same size uses just 3 to 5 watts. If you go all the way up to 2600 lumens, an incandescent bulb will use 150 watts of electricity while the LED bulb producing the same lumen rate will only use up to 30 watts. This isn’t just one of our green hacks, we’re literally saving you tons of money by informing you of a much better product.

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Avoid Air Travel When Possible

You’d assume that if you’re going somewhere faster, you’d use less fuel. Yet Air Travel is one of the biggest contributors to climate change issues. A trip from New York to San Franciso can expel between 2 to 3 tons of carbon dioxide per passenger. This is compared to the 19 total tons per person on average in America per year, as of this current writing. While it makes sense to assume a trip from one coast to another in the U.S. will use up a lot of fuel.

However, simply traveling between 1 to 4 states away can use up far more than driving there. On average, an airplane expels up to 53 pounds of carbon dioxide per air mile. Compare that to your average car, which emits an average of 404 grams per mile. You can see how one of the obvious green hacks pops up in the world of travel knowing this. Drive rather than take a plane, whenever possible. The environment will thank you for it.

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Grow Your Own Fruits and Vegetables

While many farmers will grow and sell what they have, they’ll often need to sell their fruits or vegetables at a higher cost simply due to the work and money it took to grow them. Yet farmers are often growing a large supply of crops meant to sell. However, you can buy some seeds or plant trees that will produce your own fruits and vegetables at 10% of the cost it takes to continue buying them from a store or farmer.

You might rightly point out that some of the fruits and veggies you love cannot be planted outside the entire year. This is very true and well worth consideration when it comes to growing your own food. In cases like this, you’ll need to purchase a greenhouse. Yet you do not need to break the bank, there are many ways to make one or buy materials that won’t cost nearly as much to form a greenhouse. Once you have this, you can temperature control things to grow what you need.

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Collect Rainwater

We should make sure to point out that collecting rainwater can be very helpful. However, this will truly depend on your location. Places near China or Russia will often have acidic rain that will actually make rain and even snow turn orange from pollutants in the environment. If you are not near a plant of some kind or in a badly polluted environment, you can collect rainwater to use for a variety of things.

The obvious thing to use it for is to hydrate yourself, plants, and even animals. The water can be used for showering, laundry, and much more too. We’d still recommend boiling the water, and not letting it sit out in an open place. Those who collect rainwater will usually have it in a large barrel or can that will be completely closed. This helps in two ways. First, it keeps animals from contaminating it and it’ll keep the water from evaporating in hotter environments.

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Invest In A Hybrid Or Electric Vehicle

When electric vehicles were first brought out a little over a decade ago, they weren’t fairly priced and the mileage was terrible. Hybrids seemed to sell better, as they allowed the driver to switch between using gas and electricity. The electric and hybrid vehicles of today are far different. Not only are they priced around the same as any other gas-powered vehicle, but the mileage is tremendous. The average for an electric car today is roughly 200 miles per charge.

However, the best can reach around 400 miles per charge. On top of that, many major brands like Ford decided to make some of their major car lines into hybrid or full electric options. The Ford F-150, for example, also utilizes gas far better. Enough for a person to go around 600 to 800 miles on both its electric and gas usage. It is also priced at the exact same as the normal gas version. Clearly, we know CO2 emissions aren’t good so using hybrid and electric options is the best thing one can do.

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Use Rechargeable Batteries

Speaking of electric vehicles, every single one of them will have a rechargeable battery. However, you should also know that you can buy several rechargeable batteries for numerous other products. That includes smaller battery versions like AAA and AA batteries. You’d think that, since batteries sell so easy for companies, they’d never want to make a battery that can be recharged numerous times.

However, many of the top battery companies have done just that. This includes the likes of Energizer, likely the king of the battery world along with the likes of Duracell. Companies like Rayovac and even Westinghouse along with Amazon sell rechargeable battery models that can be used in your everyday products. Of course, this is good because it means you pollute less when you do not throw out as many batteries. It’s much more efficient these days.

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Use Electric Lawn Equipment

Continuing the trend of green hacks surrounding electric products, this type of thing is perfect for lawn equipment. Did you know that the average push mower or riding lawnmower emits more carbon dioxide than your average vehicle? The U.S. EPA looked into it and found that hour-for-hour, lawnmowers emit up to 11 times more CO2 than cars do. That means that this is one of the most important areas to improve. Like electric cars, electric lawn equipment has improved dramatically.

Weedeaters, lawnmowers, and much more can be all-electric today. Some people in the world of lawn maintenance will tell you the batteries do not last long. However, most companies even allow you to buy batteries separately so you can charge one while you’re using another. Then switch them out with ease. On top of that, they last as long or longer than a tank of gas, making many puzzled about what the gripe is. It just really depends on how much you use them and what they are used for.

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Stop Buying Items You Don’t Use Regularly

One of the biggest problems people have, seemingly, is impulse control. We’re going to be honest in this part of the green hacks list to tell you, quite simply, to stop buying crap you do not need. We know, it looks cool or could be useful. However, unless you plan to use this item a lot, do you really need to buy it? We bring this up because so many people buy things they don’t use much, only to throw them out and further pollute the environment.

It makes sense to some, at the time, to buy something they want. We get it, and we’re all guilty of this fact clearly. In fact, this writer as well as everyone on staff here is guilty of buying things they wanted at the time, only to throw them out soon after the buy. That said, try to always think about the “purpose of the purchase.” Does this item offer something useful long-term? Is it something you “could” use again and again? If not, perhaps you shouldn’t be buying it.

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Buy Local Products

While we referenced you should try to grow your own food at home, if possible, we know this is not always possible. That said, if you’re going to buy something like fruits and vegetables, always buy them from someone local. This goes for any food product, as there are plenty of local farms that sell eggs and even entire chickens to stores to sell to you. Yet you can go directly to the local places too, or go to the sellers that you know utilize local produce and meat.

You can also buy other items locally too, but we know this is not always possible to do for things like clothing. You might also not be a fan of buying stuff from places like Etsy. However, the more localized something is, the better. This means it took fewer emissions to get that product to the stores, therefore to you. The more local a product is, the better in this case.

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Rather Than Buying New Eco-Products, Use What You Have Until You Cannot

An interesting issue has come to pass in this area. People want to use eco-friendly products, which is awesome. Take something like a nice electric car, for example. It is good that a person would want to use this over a gas-powered car. However, it takes a lot of power and energy to make it. This power was provided by things like coal through the local power company. This is okay if you’re buying to go from gas to electric, but not when you’re going from electric to electric.

Buying a new electric car when your current electric car is fine is dumb because it uses extra emissions to do so. It is best to wait until the current electric car is no longer useful to you or isn’t working as it should. The same you’d do when switching from a gas-powered car to another gas-powered car. The same goes for lawn equipment and everything else. Never buy new eco-friendly products when there isn’t a true need to do so. This is one of the most important green hacks we have.