10 Things You Can Do
1. Carpool, walk, ride a bike, use mass transit. If every commuter did this 1 day at home, we’d save 5.85 billion gallons of gas and 143 billion tons of CO2
2. Get better gas mileage. Every 3 miles per gallon improvement can save 3,000 lbs of CO2 per year; a hybrid car can reduce CO2 by 16,000 lbs and save you $3,750 per year; rapid acceleration can decrease mileage by 5 to 33%
3. Replace your bulbs with CFLs. If every house used only 1 CFL, it would be equivalent to removing of 1 million cars from the roads; lighting accounts for 20% of all electricity consumed in the US
4. Set your thermostat at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter. Heating/cooling your home accounts for about 45% of a home’s total energy use
5. Seal your doors and windows, insulate. The average home causes more pollution than a car because of the fossil fuels burned to supply the power we need
6. Unplug everything you are not using. Standby power can account for 9-10% of household energy. A television uses 25% of its energy when it is turned off. Plugging electronic devices into a power strip makes it easy to turn off everything at once
7. Take shorter showers- aim for 5 minutes: 1883 low flow shower heads will save 472,630 lbs. of CO2
8. Stop junk mail. The production of junk mail consumes as much energy as 2.8 million cars. There are 200 million trees cut for junk mail every year – that’s like cutting down the Rocky Mt. National Park 3 times per year
9. Use refillable and reusable containers, and recycle. 1.5 million barrels of oil are used for America’s bottled water. This equals fueling 100,000 cars for a year. Eight out of 10 bottles end up in landfills. Worldwide, 500 billion plastic bags are manufactured each year- that's nearly 1 million per minute. Use cloth bags instead
10. Use the power of your voice and your votes. Write your local, state and federal officials to let them know you think that saving energy is a critical issue that needs to be addressed with appropriate measures.
Source: The Little Book of Convenient Things You Can Do to Stop Global Warming, by Roberta Fernandez.
2. Get better gas mileage. Every 3 miles per gallon improvement can save 3,000 lbs of CO2 per year; a hybrid car can reduce CO2 by 16,000 lbs and save you $3,750 per year; rapid acceleration can decrease mileage by 5 to 33%
3. Replace your bulbs with CFLs. If every house used only 1 CFL, it would be equivalent to removing of 1 million cars from the roads; lighting accounts for 20% of all electricity consumed in the US
4. Set your thermostat at 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter. Heating/cooling your home accounts for about 45% of a home’s total energy use
5. Seal your doors and windows, insulate. The average home causes more pollution than a car because of the fossil fuels burned to supply the power we need
6. Unplug everything you are not using. Standby power can account for 9-10% of household energy. A television uses 25% of its energy when it is turned off. Plugging electronic devices into a power strip makes it easy to turn off everything at once
7. Take shorter showers- aim for 5 minutes: 1883 low flow shower heads will save 472,630 lbs. of CO2
8. Stop junk mail. The production of junk mail consumes as much energy as 2.8 million cars. There are 200 million trees cut for junk mail every year – that’s like cutting down the Rocky Mt. National Park 3 times per year
9. Use refillable and reusable containers, and recycle. 1.5 million barrels of oil are used for America’s bottled water. This equals fueling 100,000 cars for a year. Eight out of 10 bottles end up in landfills. Worldwide, 500 billion plastic bags are manufactured each year- that's nearly 1 million per minute. Use cloth bags instead
10. Use the power of your voice and your votes. Write your local, state and federal officials to let them know you think that saving energy is a critical issue that needs to be addressed with appropriate measures.
Source: The Little Book of Convenient Things You Can Do to Stop Global Warming, by Roberta Fernandez.
6 Reasons to Switch to CFLs
Save money. You can save $30 or more during the life of each light bulb. Start by replacing the bulbs in the rooms you use the most. Reduce your electricity costs right away by replacing incandescent bulbs before they expire. The price of CFLs has dropped dramatically during the last few years, increasing the affordability of switching. Don't forget, they last longer, too. The ENERGY STAR standard for CFL life is 8,000 hours while a standard 75 watt bulb may only last for 750 hours.
Brighter light. While early CFLs didn't match the brightness of old fashioned light bulbs, newer models are brighter and available in different shades. Pick the right light for the job. Today's ENERGY STAR labels show accurate equivalent replacement wattage. Choose a higher lumen, cool colored bulb for task lighting and use the warmer tones for general lighting. A home lighting guide is available by calling 800-657-3710 or visiting the Department of Commerce website and searching for "home lighting."
More choices. The variety of CFLs available has greatly expanded. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and fit more fixtures than ever. Outdoor lights and dimmer models are now available. For more information on ENERGY STAR lighting visit www.energystar.gov.
Save energy. According to the EPA and U.S. Department of Energy, "If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year."
Improve the environment. The EPA and DOE also note that if we all change one bulb Americans would "prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars."
Recycle. Don't toss old CFLs in the trash - it's against the law. Take spent CFLs to Lowe's or Menards. Or go to the Battle Creek DPW, 150 S. Kendall St., to pick up a free, postage-paid mailer to send your old CFL off for disposal. Contact your county household hazardous or solid waste management office at 1-800-781-5512, or www.garbee.com for other disposal options in your area. You can also call 800-CLEANUP or visit www.earth911.org for recycling locations.
Because fluorescent lights contain a very small amount of mercury, they need proper disposal and recycling. No mercury is released with proper use. The environmental benefits of using CFLs far outweighs the use of mercury in their production. A coal-fired power plant emits more than four times the mercury to power an incandescent light than is used in a CFL.
Brighter light. While early CFLs didn't match the brightness of old fashioned light bulbs, newer models are brighter and available in different shades. Pick the right light for the job. Today's ENERGY STAR labels show accurate equivalent replacement wattage. Choose a higher lumen, cool colored bulb for task lighting and use the warmer tones for general lighting. A home lighting guide is available by calling 800-657-3710 or visiting the Department of Commerce website and searching for "home lighting."
More choices. The variety of CFLs available has greatly expanded. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and fit more fixtures than ever. Outdoor lights and dimmer models are now available. For more information on ENERGY STAR lighting visit www.energystar.gov.
Save energy. According to the EPA and U.S. Department of Energy, "If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year."
Improve the environment. The EPA and DOE also note that if we all change one bulb Americans would "prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars."
Recycle. Don't toss old CFLs in the trash - it's against the law. Take spent CFLs to Lowe's or Menards. Or go to the Battle Creek DPW, 150 S. Kendall St., to pick up a free, postage-paid mailer to send your old CFL off for disposal. Contact your county household hazardous or solid waste management office at 1-800-781-5512, or www.garbee.com for other disposal options in your area. You can also call 800-CLEANUP or visit www.earth911.org for recycling locations.
Because fluorescent lights contain a very small amount of mercury, they need proper disposal and recycling. No mercury is released with proper use. The environmental benefits of using CFLs far outweighs the use of mercury in their production. A coal-fired power plant emits more than four times the mercury to power an incandescent light than is used in a CFL.
Recycle by Mail Program
from www.battlecreek.org
Instead of stockpiling old cell phones in the closet or your desk drawer and tossing inkjet printer cartridges in the trash, residents can now recycle these items from home using postage-paid mail-back bags through the "Recycle by Mail" program.
The City of Battle Creek, the City of Springfield and Waste Management have teamed up to provide this program. Place old phones and/or inkjet cartridges in the mail, seal it and drop it in any U.S. Postal Service mailbox. Bags will be available at Battle Creek and Springfield City offices.
Recycle by Mail was implemented to help recycle the estimated 100 million retired cell phones and 300 million used ink jet cartridges industry experts predict go into the waste stream each year. Please do your part to keep used cell phones and printer cartridges out of the trash.
Instead of stockpiling old cell phones in the closet or your desk drawer and tossing inkjet printer cartridges in the trash, residents can now recycle these items from home using postage-paid mail-back bags through the "Recycle by Mail" program.
The City of Battle Creek, the City of Springfield and Waste Management have teamed up to provide this program. Place old phones and/or inkjet cartridges in the mail, seal it and drop it in any U.S. Postal Service mailbox. Bags will be available at Battle Creek and Springfield City offices.
Recycle by Mail was implemented to help recycle the estimated 100 million retired cell phones and 300 million used ink jet cartridges industry experts predict go into the waste stream each year. Please do your part to keep used cell phones and printer cartridges out of the trash.
