If you type in a search with the words, “what does going green mean?” you will find a million answers to the question. I think it is a good the question and it is about time we really think, I mean spend some time thinking about the meaning of going green.

I lived in the south for good part of my life. The logging industry is big in south Mississippi and at times, the loggers would find spikes driven into the trees they were going to cut for paper to stop the green from being cut. This sabotage does not fit the description of going green. Actually, a person who risks another person’s life over a tree is a fool and a criminal. You can go green without being a fanatical treehugger.

What does going green mean and where do you start? Going green means returning to natural, healthy methods of living. It means breathing fresh air, eating healthy foods, conserving our forest and wild life and using alternative medicines when possible. I guess if you could sum up the meaning of going green, it would involve using common sense. No, don’t dump the oil from your car in the river. Use a water filter in your home. Take a clothe bag to the store and use all natural cleaners in the home or make your own cleaners out of natural ingredients. Come on, going green is not that difficult.

Most of us today are attempting to go green. You certainly don’t have to be fanatical about this project just be diligent. Start slowly, but start today going green. Let me give you a formula to follow to get started.

Formula for Going Green
1. Turn the water off when you not using it.
2. Learn how to wash your car water free or with 3 gallons of water.
3. Take clothe bags to the store. Try it you can do this.
4. Walk when you can or car pool, use less gas.
5. Buy all natural, organic food products for a change.
6. Buy a simple little water filter.
7. Use all natural cleaners in your home and on your car.

Why don’t you make a list of things you could do to start the journey into the green world with out going fanatical? In addition, it would be good to come up with your own definition of going green. Whatever you decide to do in regards to going green, make sure it is a good for you, your family and the world.

Author: Dr Bob Wilkerson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty tariff

It may surprise many of you to know that there are small changes we can make to our everyday lives, which will have a major impact on the environment. If you are really looking to help the environment, you may wish to consider the following simple ideas:

Switch Off Electrical Appliances when not in use

Switching off, rather than leaving on stand-by, such everyday appliances as your TV and Computer will save enormous amounts of energy. By saving the energy, we can all help to reduce carbon emission into the earth’s atmosphere, thereby reducing pollution and global warming.

Car Sharing

Rather than travel to work alone, why not arrange a car sharing Scheme with one or more of your friends or colleagues? To give you an example, if you drive one of the fashionable 4×4 cars, you will use more energy in a year than you would leaving your fridge door open for seven years, or your TV on for thirty two years! Imagine the savings if you car shared with 2,3 or even 4 people?

Insulation and Turing Down your Thermostat

These two energy saving ideas go hand in hand, and they will save YOU money. By turning your central heating thermostat down by one degree, this will both reduce both your household emissions, and save you £30 a year in energy costs.

If you also update your roof and wall cavity insulation, as well as eliminating annoying draughts around your doors and windows, you will retain more of the heat in your home, and again reduce emission. A win win situation, I think you will agree?

Recycling

Recycling is perhaps the easiest way to help in the fight to save the environment. You can recycle many every day materials including glass, paper, plastics, cans and much much more. Not only does recycling save on energy emissions, the recycling of paper will literally save millions of trees a year, which are the earth’s main source of absorbing some of the harmful emissions in the atmosphere. Not to mention, the chance of saving areas like the Amazon Rain Forests, which contain some of the rarest of animals, many of which are near extinction due to the actions of man.

Junk Mail

While we all complain about the increase in Junk Mail, we very rarely do anything about it and the mail continues to flow through our letter boxes, straight into the bin – with 99% not even opened.

What can you do about this? There are various websites around the world (UK residents check out http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/ for further details) where you can register to receive NO JUNK MAIL. As well as saving your time, your will also be doing a massive amount to help the environment, e.g. every person in the US receives junk mail which is equivalent to one and a half trees a year!! Throughout the US as a whole, this equates to more than 100 million trees a year.

There are many many other everyday changes which you can make to help the environment, they will cost you nothing and many will actually save you money! Why not give it a try? Turn your thermostat down by one degree and see if you notice the difference. We can all help, if we really want to.

© 2006 – J. Joyce www.theenvironmentroom.com

Author: James Joyce
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cool mobile gadgets

Recyclables Game

Collect small cans, plastic bottles, and newspaper. Label 3 bins or trash cans: cans, bottles, and newspaper. Draw a line and place the containers about 3 to 5 feet away from the line. Have children stand behind the line and try to toss the recyclables into the appropriate container.

Trash Hike

Provide each child with a bag and gloves. Have them pick up trash. Talk about the items that they picked up. Ask children if they think any of the items they found are recyclable. If so, have them place the items in a container to be recycled later.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

First, explain to children what the following words mean:

Reduce: This means you cut down or lessen the amount of materials you use. For example, if you use both sides of a piece of paper, you are reducing the number of pages you need. Reuse: This means you use the material over again, either for the same purpose, or for something else. For example, a coffee could be reused as a container for crayons or pencils. Recycle: This means to use the materials over again to make a new product. For example, old newspapers are recycled when they are made into new paper products.

Next, create a 3-column chart. Label the columns Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Cut out pictures from a magazine of items like a tire, a Styrofoam cup, a plastic bottle, a glass jar, soda can, etc. and have children categorize them. Variation: Have bins in which children can sort the items.

Field Trip

Have children collect plastic grocery bags and return them to their neighborhood grocery store.

Trash CollageUse throw away paper, labels, scraps cut from junk mail, aluminum foil, pull tabs from soda cans-anything you can find that is typically thrown away-to make a collage.

Wind Sock

Cut the bottom of a cup or margarine tub. Cut streamers from crepe paper, ribbons and plastic bags. Attach other recycled items on a string. Arrange and glue them around the cup so that they hang down over the edge. Make two holes and attach a pipe cleaner or ribbon to make a hanger.

Dirt Cups

Have children make this fun snack by putting chocolate pudding in a paper cup. Have them top the pudding with crushed chocolate cookies and a gummy worm.

Author: Jolanda Garcia
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty tariff

Who is Earth 911?

Earth 911 is known as the “nation’s premier environment resource.” It is a division of the cause media company, Global Alerts, and is based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Global Alerts is one the leading cause media companies in the country and is best known for its world-class Mass Notification System, which includes Earth911.com, Pets911.com, and AmberAlert.com. Because of its dedication to alerting the country of the emergencies of our society, we are able to stay abreast of what is most important.

The mission for Earth 911 is to deliver local information on the environment in a way that empowers people and causes them to act upon their community in a positive way, live responsibly, and contribute to sustainability. One of the major ways they accomplish this is by encouraging communities to recycle their goods instead of sending them to a dump as waste. Some of the other ways they help the community is by promoting green shopping, learning how to live green, energy conservation, beach water quality alerting, understanding the dangers of household waste, educating children on how to recycle responsibly and care for the community, composting, and environment education – and all of these services are free to the public.

Why Recycle?

According to Earth 911, recycling is the one of the three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle). When you recycle you take a product or material when you are finished using it and turn it into a useable raw material, which enables it to be made into another product. The greatest benefit of recycling is that it stops materials from ending up in landfills and incinerators.

Earth 911 explains that recycling has grown considerably in the past years, and now 50 percent of all paper, 34 percent of all plastic bottles, 25 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging, and 67 percent of all major appliances are recycled. This allows us to stop having to cut down trees and creating new products with newly found resources, while other resources are burning in incinerators, creating a great deal of our world’s population. In other words, recycling creates a win-win situation for the world.

Since 2005, almost 9,000 curbside recycling programs have been existence; there was only one in the mid-80s, so the world is definitely embracing recycling more and more. And now, it is common to not only have a recycling bin found in a central location within an office setting, but many companies also provide smaller recycling bins that sit next to each employee’s trash can in the cubicle and office. The world is finally catching on, and I bet you want to know how you can too!

How Can I Get Involved?

Earth 911 provides a resource right on their website that allows you to enter your city and state or zip code along with the item you wish to recycle, in order to find out information on recycling in your area. Since I have several cell phones that I no longer use, and are no longer able to have refurbished, I decided to enter information for my zip code to find out where I can take them to avoid throwing them away. When I entered the keywords “cell phones” and entered my zip code, I was quickly provided with a comprehensive list of locations in my area, sorted by distance that will accept my cell phones.

While some of the places on my list did not surprise me (i.e. Goodwill), I was surprised by a few. On my list were RadioShack’s Commercial Drop-Off location, AutoZone, Batteries Plus, and Best Buy to name a few. I realized that every company has become involved in recycling and now it is time that all others follow their leads.

If you don’t want to begin your own recycling campaign, it is understandable. People have busy lives with children and work, and often times are busy with their own chosen cause, so developing a program of this nature does not always fit into that criteria. However, you can always contribute where you see it makes sense. Instead of throwing your old, non-functioning computer into the trash can, take the time to call around to see who will dispose of it responsibly. And if you have a family that constantly drinks soft drinks, whether in aluminum cans or plastic bottles, find ways to make your contribution by building those items up in your home then taking them to a recycling center on a Saturday afternoon while you’re already out shopping.

In your lifetime you may have heard that standing by and doing nothing is almost as bad as being a contribution to the problem. You may feel that you have no obligation to make this world a better place because you don’t feel as though you’ve contributed in making it a bad place. However, if you have the opportunity to recycle your goods and you don’t, you are contributing to the problem just as equally as the person who throws his or her can out of the car window. Earth 911 is proactively making a difference in this world by teaching us why we need to recycle. All we have to do is follow their lead by moving forward down the road they’ve already paved. So what road will you choose? Will you contribute to the problem? Or contribute to the solution?

Author: Jeffrey Meier
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rate