Sunday, Jul. 12, 2009

5 ways to help save the world, a little at the time

So you want to save the planet, but you can’t afford to buy a Prius or build a solar-powered house off the grid.

Environmentalists and eco-friendly entrepreneurs say one way to start living a greener life is to make just a few simple changes in your habits.

Among more than 200 exhibitors at a “Go Green Expo” June 26-28 in Atlanta were businesses hawking wares designed to help people use less energy, produce less waste and have less of an impact on the environment.

From their products and advice were drawn this list of five things those of more modest means can do to live a greener life:

Bag it

Bring your own bags. The Georgia nonprofit GreenPlate Inc., which tries to persuade people to quit using petroleum-based plastic products, says consumers in the United States daily use more than a million plastic bags. Though many bags can be recycled, a lot of them still wind up in the trash, or on the roadside, or in the ocean.

According to GreenPlate’s Web site, “In the Pacific Ocean there’s an area twice the size of Texas where the plastic to plankton ratio is more than 6:1. We now know 90 percent of marine trash is made of plastic — and 80 percent comes from land and local watersheds. Plastic is being mistaken for krill, eaten by fish, and is now entering our food chain.”

Try to break the plastic-bag habit. Get cloth bags and keep them in your car to use when you buy groceries or other goods.

Bottle it

Bottle your own water. Polly Sattler of GreenPlate said a consumer can save from $375 to $1,500 by filtering water into a reusable bottle instead of buying bottled water. For $39, GreenPlate sells a stainless steel bottle with a filter inside. The filter can clean 100 gallons of water before it needs replacing, she said. A replacement filter costs $22. The steel bottle takes the place of 750 plastic water bottles, she said.

According to researcher Marcus Eriksen: “Our ‘throw away’ society produces 120 billion pounds of plastic in the U.S. alone, and recovers less than 5 percent.” When it comes to plastic water bottles, only 20 percent are recycled, said Wayne Griffin of Aqua Filter King, another producer of stainless steel, filter water bottles. The company’s campaigning to get college students to stop buying water in plastic bottles, noting that if 20,000 students each buy one bottle of water a week for 40 weeks, it adds up to 800,000 bottles, or 12 tons of plastic waste. Aqua Filter King is sending its product overseas to countries where water-borne diseases are a deadly threat.

Lighten up

Change your light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs use 70 percent less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional incandescent bulbs. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, taking out one 60-watt incandescent bulb and replacing it with a 13-watt compact fluorescent bulb can save you $30 before the bulb burns out. Incandescent bulbs burn hot, heating rooms and jacking up air-conditioning costs.