Here are Eleven Tips to Help your house be or School Greener:
Switch to Non-Toxic Cleaning Products
Cleaning your house can be harmful for your health. Many common household cleaners contain toxic solvents, fragrances, disinfectants, along with other things that can pollute the environment and cause respiratory, skin, and other reactions. You can use cleaning products that are non-toxic like Seventh Generation, Method, or even Clorox has a new green line on the market, to maintain your school or home. You may also build your own cleaning utility caddy with simple ingredients for example baking soda, soap, and vinegar, they’re cheap and easy, plus they really work.
Organic paint
Indoor air is three times more polluted than outdoor air, and based on the EPA, is considered to be among the top 5 hazards to human health. Paints and finishes are probably the leading causes of death.
Paints and finishes release low level toxic emissions in to the air for years after application. The source of those toxins is really a number of VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) which, until recently, were necessary to the performance from the paint. Benjamin Moore has a new assortment of eco-friendly paint called “Aura” which has very low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds). A wide variety of colors can be found.
Light Bulbs
Save energy by replacing your standard incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, which lasts about 10 times longer and employ about someone to two-thirds less energy.
Air Conditioning
You can install the comfortmaker HV/AC system R410A with a non-ozone depleting gas.
Buy Furniture Made from Recyclable Material
Purchase furniture and classroom materials from a manufacturer that creates furniture with recycled materials. If chairs and tables are made from wood that is harvested from healthy forests and done in an eco-friendly and sustainable matter, your classroom will reflect a “green environment.” There is a wonderful number of items on-line. The web is a wonderful tool for research!
A bath room
Use low-flow faucets, showerheads, and toilets. Are you aware that each time a toilet is flushed, it uses 5 to 7 gallons of water? If you can’t manage to purchase a low flush toilet, try putting a plastic bottle inside your toilet tank. You can save a couple of gallons per flush. Make use of a plastic juice bottle, or laundry soap bottle, and soak off the label. Fill the bottle with water, put on the cap, and put it within the tank. Be cautious that the bottle doesn’t interfere with the flushing mechanism.
New Flooring
Floors can be made with bamboo or cork which is a softer material. There is no question that bamboo is a renewable resource- it is a grass and grows quickly. Where oak takes 120 years to grow to maturity, bamboo can be harvested in three years.
Change to Recycled Toilet tissue and Sponges
Children are always spilling juice, but are you aware that if all households in the U.S. replaced only one roll of 180 sheet virgin fiber sponges with 100-percent recycled paper towels, we’re able to save: 1.4 million tees, 3,7 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 526 million gallons of water, and stop 89,400 pounds of pollution. Several companies make sponges from 100 % recycled paper.
Diaper Duty
Think about using cloth diapers. To enroll in a diaper plan to perform the dirty work, browse the National Association of Diaper Services for more information.
School Lunches Make-Over
Reuse containers and lower waste. Did you know that one kid’s average school lunch generates 67 pounds of garbage over a year: There are lots of methods for you to reduce lunch waste (and save money). When you go to the supermarket, buy food in bulk instead of a cup packages. Avoid using plastic sandwich bags, instead use reusable containers.
Buy Organic Foods
For lunch or snacks buy foods which are organic, locally grown, as well as in season. Food that travels great distances takes a much more packaging and refrigeration than food bought near where it grows. Virtually no time to cook?
We can start teaching children both at home and at schools around the country how to help our world survive. Several cultures teach children to respect the earth from birth, but in our busy society we’ve become far removed from where our food comes from, and the importance of recycling. You can include recycling bins within the classrooms and children get involved with the recycling process. Teachers ask questions like: “What do you think may happen to those objects you’ve put in the trash?” Parents at home will go also go through recycling process using their children. Kids are remarkable sponges for information. They’ve curious minds, and limitless amounts of energy. Children can in fact have a proactive part in saving the environment.
8 Fun Eco-Friendly Activities for children:
Cooking with Children
Involve your children with meal preparation. Help them learn about genuine organic food.
Start a Compost
Show kids that when they have finished their fruit and vegetables, you will find parts than could be composted. Involve your kids in composting food scraps, coffee grounds, etc. Get them used to seeing that food waste isn’t garbage, but instead something that can be converted into soil to develop more food.
Paper Reduction
Use old paper, newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, and paper bags for arts and crafts projects. Be thrifty with paper. Are you aware every year; Americans discard enough writing paper to construct a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City? Whenever possible, make two-sided copies.
Going Outside
Taking a walk through the park and woods, or rowing a ship are all time-tested ways for kids to build up an appreciation for their place within nature.
Become familiar with Your Neighbors
Learn names of bugs, critters, birds and trees. Use books to get to know the names of plant and animal life in your town then go out and explore with your children what you read about.
Adopt an Endangered Species
Perhaps you have taken a visit to the local zoo lately? Not simply will your son or daughter find out about animals, but several zoos now display details about endangered species. Children and their families can in fact help save some of these beautiful creatures from extinction by adopting them. Zoos such as the renowned North park Zoo have programs like CRES (the North park Zoo’s conservation research arm). They work to protect endangered species such as the Congo Gorilla, and Koala’s. They have programs like “Adopt an Australian Iguana,” where kids can learn about the species while helping to save them from extinction!
Visit Your Library
Borrowing from libraries, rather than buying personal books and movies, saves money and printing resources.
Pick Up Litter
Choose a park or a neighborhood in your community that needs cleaning; get together together with your children to get the garbage.
You are able to teach children about various subjects such as the extinction of polar bears within the Arctic region, because glaciers are melting as a consequence of warmer temperatures. Two wonderful DVD’s that teach everyone about our planet would be the films “Planet Earth,” and “Inconvenient Truth.” Both films can help bring awareness to how beautiful and fragile our planet is, and how we can take the time to preserve it. Yes global warming is real, but parents incorporating an eco-friendly lifestyle at home is definitely an example to their children, and in some cases it’s the children that wind up teaching their parents about the environment.
