You all know about changing those old-style incandescent light bulbs for the compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)ones…so here are some other tips for you to try.  YOU DO MAKE AN IMPACT ON THIS WORLD.

When You’re at Home

Unplug that charger! 
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!  Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Turn off the tap 
The average faucet releases about three gallons of water a minute, so shut it off while you brush your teeth or shave.

Use a water-filter pitcher 
Bottled water isn’t necessarily cleaner or better for you than tap water. Get a Brita water-filter pitcher ($22, www.bedbathandbeyond.com) or an in-sink faucet filter. Take advantage of what you already pay for and save the environmental cost of transporting bottled water to the grocer’s shelf.

Skip red meat once a week 
Meat production — especially in mass-produced beef — is extremely resource-intensive. It can take seven or more pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef, and livestock consumes 70 percent of America’s grain. Eat less of it and choose pasture-fed, sustainably raised beef whenever you can. If you alone gave it up once every seven days, you would save the 840 gallons of fresh water it takes to produce a single serving.

Donate old cell phones 
About 130 million mobile phones are retired every year, resulting in more than 65,000 tons of waste — including potentially hazardous materials, such as lead and mercury. Recycle yours by giving it to the ASB room 257 at GHS.  They have a company that picks up old cell phones as well as printer and toner cartridges.  Each time you do, a donation is given to GHS, which benefits all of our programs.

Carry a water bottle with you 
Buy a reusable bottle that fits your lifestyle (and your purse) and skip buying a new one at every lunchtime stop. Need a reason? Americans use 3.3 million plastic bottles every hour but recycle only one in five.

Don’t wash it 
Standard washing machines use 40 gallons of water per load. If your clothes don’t stink, don’t wash them -- and save a load a week. If American households were more judicious about laundry, each year they would save enough water to fill more than 7 million swimming pools. When you do wash, put full loads (saving 3,400 gallons of water a year) in cold water.

Recycle wisely: 
The good news: Americans already recycle about a third of their trash (double what was recycled in 1990). The not-so-good news: We need to do more and save more energy (see Recycling 101). To learn which items you can leave out for curbside pickup, and how to dispose of those you can’t, log on to www.earth911.org for contact info for local recyclers of more than 250 materials — from cooking oil to hazardous waste (including batteries).

GLENDALE’S link is here: http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/public_works/guidelines_for_automated_collection.asp

Recycling Fact: Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. So, yes, it pays off. Here’s how to do it right wherever you live. 
Collect newspapers in a paper grocery bag or in tied bundles, depending on your community’s guidelines, and set them out on pickup day. (It takes up to 75,000 trees to produce one Sunday edition of the New York Times.) 
Don’t recycle wet cardboard. It can clog sorting machines. Throw it away to keep it from contaminating the rest of the load. 
Don’t recycle bottle tops; they’re not made from the same plastic as recyclable bottles. But if you forget, don’t sweat it. They’ll be sorted down the line. (The energy saved by recycling one plastic bottle can power a computer for 25 minutes.)

Rinse cans, but crushing isn’t necessary. The aluminum can is the most recycled item in the United States, as well as the most valuable. It can be recycled again and again, and so efficiently that a can is regenerated and back on the shelf in as little as 60 days.  
Don’t fret if you can’t get the lime out of the beer bottle or the last of the peanut butter from the jar. The recycler’s machinery will zap all contaminants. But do empty and rinse glass jars and containers.

AND AT GHS:  Please use the new GREY TRASH BINS for recycling your water and drink bottles.  The Class of 2008 has initiated the project to help clean up our campus, and save money for Senior Activities.  Do it, do it do it!

Plug in a laptop, not a desktop 
In the market for a new computer? A laptop uses about half the energy of its desktop counterpart. Choose a model with the federal government’s Energy Star rating and use 70 percent less energy than a non-certified model.

Reuse everything 
Change your mind-set and think twice before throwing anything out. Re-sealable plastic bags that held carrots today can hold crayons tomorrow. Coffee-cup cardboard sleeves from this morning’s brew can be tucked in a purse pocket to be used again at 4 p.m. Mom might just like that cashmere sweater you’re sick of wearing. And Fido doesn’t know the difference between a new chew toy and the one you make yourself out of old dish towels. (To learn how to make one and to find other new uses for old linens, visit www.realsimple.com/linens.)

Clean up your dishwasher 
Switch to a dishwashing powder that’s biodegradable and plant-based (try Ecover Ecological or Trader Joe’s powders). These cleansers cut through grime, but they do it without the bleach and phosphates that threaten river and marine life and leave chemical residue on your dishes.

Curtail junk mail 
The Federal Trade Commission website, www.ftc.gov, spells out how to remove yourself from lists. (Click on “For Consumers,” then “Telemarketing,” then “Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and E-mail: Where to Go to ‘Just Say No.’”) You’ll save trees, water, and emissions, too. If everyone in the United States reduced the junk mail he receives every week, 100 million trees would be spared each year.

Install a better showerhead 
If you have a wrench, you can preserve the diminishing fresh-water supply and reduce expensive water-heating costs. Install faucet aerators and high-efficiency showerheads and in a year’s time you’ll save between 1,000 and 8,000 gallons of water. Bonus: The added air makes the pressure feel greater, too.

Set a programmable thermostat 
It will automatically adjust the heat or the air-conditioning to match your daily patterns. You won’t waste energy while your home is empty, and you won’t have to remember to turn the thermostat up or down. Want to do better? Turn it down two degrees in the winter and up two degrees in the summer and you’ll keep nearly 880 pounds of carbon dioxide from warming the earth.

Free lint bunnies 
The average U.S. household spends up to $135 a year in energy costs drying clothes. A dirty lint filter can use 30 percent more energy to get the job done.

Use biodegradable cat litter 
Most cat litter is made from bentonite clay, which is mined and never breaks down. Americans dump 2 million tons of this into landfills every year, so it’s worth rethinking what you buy. Try the biodegradable, flushable brand Scientific (sold at www.petecology.com), which can be delivered to your door.

Buy green power from your utility 
In many states, you can opt to purchase renewable energy from your local power company for a few extra dollars a month. Visit the Green Power Network’s U.S. map at www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower to get started. Then rest easy knowing the light you read by comes from your wind- or methane-powered lamp.

Choose the right appliance for the job 
Electric kettles use less energy than stovetop ones. A toaster oven uses up to half the energy of a conventional electric oven. An electric slow cooker makes soups and stews using less wattage than a stove. It truly pays to pick the right appliance.

Don’t idle 
Pausing somewhere? Shut down your engine: Idling for any length of time burns more gas than it takes to restart the car.

Offset your emissions 
Visit www.drivinggreen.com and the site’s simple calculator will figure how much globe-warming greenhouse gases your car emits and calculate the equivalent cost of its impact on the environment. (For example, a 2006 Toyota Camry driven 12,000 miles a year equals $32 in carbon dioxide emissions.) You can then pay that amount at the site’s checkout to offset your pollution. The money helps farmers install equipment called digesters, which convert animal waste into renewable energy.

Give your car — and driving habits — a tune-up 
Speeding, fast accelerations, and hard braking waste gas. Maintaining your car saves it. Tune up your car according to your owner’s-manual schedule (usually every 30,000 miles) and raise your car’s fuel efficiency anywhere from 4 to 40 percent.

When You’re Shopping

Buy a package of recycled napkins 
If every American household purchased one package of 100 percent recycled napkins, we would save 1 million trees. While you’re at it, buy recycled paper towels and tissues, too. Seventh Generation and Whole Foods’ 365 label use nearly all post-consumer recycled paper.

Purchase organic-cotton tees 
Cotton is the second-most chemically sprayed crop in America (corn is first). Each traditional tee requires a third of a pound of synthetic fertilizers. Pull on an organic T-shirt ($38, www.underthecanopy.com) and feel as if the earth is giving you a little hug.

Think local food 
Your last meal may have traveled 1,500 miles to get to your table. Find food near you. Green markets, farm stands, and conscientious supermarkets all offer locally grown produce. Buy it and you’ll conserve fuel, reduce pollution, and enjoy fresher food.

Bring your own bags to the market 
Sounds obvious, right? Well, in an average year, U.S. households use about 100 billion plastic bags, 99 percent of which are never recycled. Stash some canvas bags in your car or buy a pair of Acme Workhorse 1500 bags (www.reusablebags.com).

Choose the right fish 
Craving salmon? Go wild. And to prevent over fishing, heed the advice in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s regional Seafood Watch pocket guides. Download one at www.mbayaq.org.

And finally…slash the packaging 
Shop wisely: Choose concentrates, skip the tampons with plastic applicators, let your vegetables roll around the cart (no more plastic bags for every cucumber), and download your music.

Milk Jug 411:
Wondering about the little numbers on your milk container? They identify what the container is made of — and what it will be in its next life. 
1 PET (polyethylene terephthalate): Soda bottles; recycled into pillow fill.  
2 HDPE (high-density polyethylene): Plastic milk bottles, detergent bottles; recycled into new detergent bottles.  
3 PVC (polyvinyl chloride): Take-out boxes, shampoo; recycled into drainage and irrigation pipes.  
4 LDPE (low-density polyethylene): Grocery bags, shrink wrap; recycled into new bags.  
5 PP (polypropylene): Yogurt containers, bottle caps; recycled into plastic lumber.  
6 PS (polystyrene): Packing peanuts; recycled into plastic lumber, cassette-tape boxes.  
7 Other: Includes squeezable ketchup bottles and microwavable dishes; these items can’t be recycled.

For more tips, visit this site! If you have suggestions for other good sites, let Ms. Hazlett in the ASB room know. 
http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/