Make: Online : Post your Earth Day hacks

In celebration of my favorite planet, I'd like to open the comments up to any and all Earth Day hacks, links and activities. Think of it as an opportunity to quickly catalog a list of ideas and tools that can be used for the other 364 days of the year.

Here are a few simple things that you can do tomorrow. I figure it's as good a day as any to start forming a few practical habits, so for my list, I just chose a number of things that you can easily make a regular part of your day.

Bike to work. If you need to find a route, citybikemap.com is a good user contributed resource
Compost the garbage. If you don't have a composter, here are some construction ideas from Instructables: Sinmple Pentagon Composter; Mini Wooden Portable Compost Bin; Trench Composter
Avoid the purchase of anything with excess packaging
Turn lights off when not in use. Convert remaining incandescent bulbs to CFL
Check faucets and toilets for leaky valves. For your toilets, shut off the water while you are at work and see if the water level goes down in the tank. It's a common problem that's easy to fix.
Print no emails.
Bring a mug to work and use it instead of styrofoam or paper cups.
Reconnect with nature: start a garden; go for a hike; take the kids out and identify some plants and birds.
Reclaim some of the yard for native plants and grasses.
Encourage others to do the same, and share your own Earth-friendly tips and hacks.

You may be more or less ambitious, but I think this represents something that's feasible for much of the year. It'd be cool to get a read on what the hacker community is doing to make a positive impact on the globe, so make sure to post your own Earth Day hacks and resolutions in the comments.

Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: anna_of_solar_chargers on April 24, 2008 at 10:27 AM

Here are some from me:

Get a hybrid car if you can afford it
Install solar panels
Learn something new about alternative energy sources
Post something online about alternative energy - on a forum, blog, or anywhere.

Those are my ideas.

Anna

http://www.findportablesolarpower.com

Reply to this comment

Posted by: anna_of_solar_chargers on April 24, 2008 at 10:29 AM

Posted by: Peter on April 26, 2008 at 3:27 PM

A big thing you can do is e-mail your local power company, or anyone in your local government. Politely ask for a few things: the cancellation of any currently planned coal powered power plants, ask your city to switch to LED traffic lights if they haven't switched already, and ask your power company to switch to green power.

You can also buy green power house. Basically you pay a certain amount a month (in NC it's $4), and a local organization makes it more affordable for local people and companies to buy and maintain green power sources. A 2 kwh solar system costs a good $20,000. It goes a long way toward powering a house, and it should pay for itself in about 15 years, but if you can't afford it, buying green power is a good alternative. You sign up on your power bill, and when you do this your not only helping local environmentally friendly organizations, your also telling your power company that you're concerned about what they're doing for the environment.

When you're at the store, buy locally grown produce over food that has been shipped from elsewhere in the country. For the average item it takes about 10 times more calories to transport it to the store than you get from eating it. Also, support local restaurants that buy local food.

Buy insulation for your light switches and outlets. You loose a lot of hot or cold air in your house simply because it leaks out of small holes in your walls. All you have to do is buy this insulation (available at home improvement stores), pull off the cover, place the insulation, and screw the cover back on. Besides that, try to open windows instead of turning on the AC.

You can buy carbon offsets from carbonfund.org. You pay a certain amount of money based on how much carbon you use on average, and the money goes to supporting carbon reducing projects. This is how companies like Whole Foods Market, WalMart and Volkswagen reduce their emissions. Speaking of Whole Foods, if you have one in your area, shop there. They buy local produce when they can, they don't use plastic bags at the checkout, and they support local environmentally friendly projects.

Bring your own grocery bag to the store. Whole Foods will give you a 5cent per bag discount, and sells some nice canvas grocery bags that you can use there and elsewhere. However, you can bring your own grocery bag anywhere else too.

We all do things that are a little wasteful. Keep that in mind, and whenever you catch yourself doing something wasteful (throwing vegetable peels in the garbage, sitting in a parked car with the engine on, etc), make an honest effort to stop. Everything you do helps, no matter how small. The most important thing you can do to help the environment is to be aware, and act on that awareness whenever possible.