How Recycling Is Good for Your Wallet

Recycling is important to help conserve the environment, making it a habitable place for generations to come. When recycling, a sense of achievement is often felt, motivating you to do a bit more.

However, with the money involved, getting into recycling is easier than ever. Here are some ways recycling is good for your wallet.

Recycle Scrap Metal

Metal is one of the most popular recyclable materials as it does not degrade with every subsequent recycling. When using metal materials, taking them to a scrap metal yard will make for some extra money. 

Note that different kinds of metal such as steel, iron, brass, copper, and aluminum are different, so the payout will vary. But selling off scrap metal is a great way to make money and help the environment at the same time.

Old Books

In many homes, there is a stockpile of books lying around with no use. The books can be from school or a hobby. A simple way to recycle is to trade your books you don’t need for credit at a used book store. This way you can get new books while extending the lifecycle of your old books.

Collect Cans

Be it soda, beer, or any other beverage, many people consume can after can. While normally these cans would go in the garbage, many people collect them. Once you have a fair bit of cans, you can sell them to a recycling center. Then you can feel better about having so much soda!

Electronics

New technology comes out every day. Old technologies become cheaper and new tech becomes more powerful. Your old computer may be too slow for you, but it could be just right for someone else. 

Consider selling it to someone else. If you can’t find a buyer, you could consider using old hardware for simple tasks, like a back-up box.

Another option is tech recycling companies. Some companies will buy broken-down electronics and then break them down into base elements such as gold, copper, and silicon. 

While there’s not enough gold for you to make a reasonable profit, a dedicated company can make a profit. So consider selling your old equipment to recycling centers.

Recycling is a simple change of mindset. Turning off unused lights will help in decreasing the electricity bills. Recycling cans and tins from food, and trading them in will help get cashback instead of getting the items in landfills. Remember, recycling can be good for more than just the environment.

Understanding What It Means To Be Eco-Friendly: What To Look For In The Products You Buy

One of the biggest buzzwords of the twenty-first century is “eco-friendly”. Companies of all kinds are trying to tap into the market of those people who care about the environment, but consumers can be taken advantage of if they do not know what they are looking for in an eco-friendly product. If you want to start shopping green and reducing your carbon footprint, then there are several things you should be looking for in any product that claims to be “eco-friendly”. Consumers are learning what concepts like eco-friendly, renewable, sustainable, and eco-conscious really mean in today's world, TD Friends of the Environment donations go a long way to educating people committed to protecting the environment.

Materials

The most important thing to consider is what the item is being made from. There are basically two types of materials that you should look for when you are making an eco-friendly consumer purchase. The first of these is renewable materials, or materials that will come back when they are used. When companies make plastic for a phone case, the oil that is the raw material for the plastic is non-renewable, as it does not come back when it is used. On the other hand, a wooden or bamboo phone case is considered renewable since those items will grow back on their own. Related to the idea of renewable resources is sustainability, the other thing that you should be looking for. Sustainability means that companies can continue to use the materials and processes at a reasonable level for a long period of time without causing damage to the local environment. Clear cutting forests for wooden furniture meets the criteria for renewable resources, but it fails the sustainability check because the companies are cutting down the trees faster than they can regrow.

Durability

The next thing that you will want to look at in the products that you buy is the durability of the item itself. As an eco-conscious consumer you want to protect the environment, but you also want to make sure that the items you purchase will last you a long time, and they will be able to stand up to the wear and tear that you will put them through. Too many times eco-friendly products are made with renewable and sustainable materials, but those materials fall apart with heavy use and you wind up buying that product over and over.

Manufacturing

Finally, you should consider the way that the items are manufactured, if you want to be a true eco-friendly shopper. Most of the chemicals that are causing global warming can be attributed to power production and manufacturing, so you want a manufacturer who works hard to offset this issue. In eco-friendly terms these companies are called “carbon neutral” because they use renewable forms of energy for production, or they take actions, like planting trees, to balance the amount of carbon dioxide they are putting into the atmosphere. While there are many companies that are striving for carbon neutrality, most of the companies that you will have ready access to are not totally carbon neutral. With all other things being equal, if you want to be an eco-friendly consumer, go with the company that claims carbon neutrality or claims to have a lower carbon footprint.
Shopping in an eco-friendly way requires more time and more work than shopping without thinking about the environment; however, once you find those manufacturers that you like, shopping is a breeze. The important thing about eco-friendly shopping is to remember to look at the label and read carefully so you know exactly where the product is coming from.

I am Lindsay Barlow, and I am an eco-conscious shopper and an environmentalist. Sites like Bambooki are great for finding eco-friendly products that are perfect for all of your home needs.

How to Save on Water to Save on your Finances

Water conservation is one of the most important environmental issues that we face today. Every year, thousands of people die due to a scarcity of clean drinking water, when the amount of water wasted in urban areas grows every day. Most of us don’t think about the fact that the water that flows out of the tap in our homes is treated at a plant, and should be used wisely.

Even those of us who intend well may not understand how to conserve this precious resource. Basic steps like fixing leaky taps or turning off the faucet while brushing our teeth may be all that comes to mind. Surprisingly few people actually bother to do either of those basics, but there are a few more things that each of us can do to prevent water wastage.

How to Conserve Water and Prevent Wastage

Within our homes, in our daily lives, there are a few steps we can all incorporate to prevent the loss of water. Even a small quantity of water, saved by each household, adds up every day. Over a period of a year, your house alone may prevent the wastage of thousands of litres of clean water!

Let’s take a look at how this can be accomplished:

1. Fix the Leaks – This is the simplest way to ensure that clean water is not running into the drains, without even being used! Plug all the leaks in water pipes, replace or repair dripping taps and turn off the garden hose from the tap when it is not in use. 
2. Collect ‘Clean’ Water – When you rinse vegetables or fruit in water, don’t throw it down the drain. You could either use a separate sink that drains into your garden or wash these items in a bowl and use the water collected for house plants or garden. Do not use the water from your dishwasher or anything else that uses soap or chemicals for this. 
3. Collect the Rain – Install rainwater tanks to catch the clouds’ bounty and use it in the house. Since piped water is chemically treated and processed, you will be doing the environment a great favour by reducing your consumption of treated water. Rainwater Tanks Direct offers tanks that are quite affordable and suited to your needs. 
4. Install Two-Flush Systems – These nifty devices are not as complicated as they sound, as they can be fitted into your existing toilet. They offer two flushing modes instead of one, the first is a ‘light’ flush and the second a longer ‘heavy’ flush. Traditional toilet flushes use much more water than is generally required, resulting in huge amounts of wastage! 

Other things you could do at home include running large loads of laundry instead of multiple smaller ones, washing your car with a bucket and sponge rather than hosing it down and turning off garden sprinklers when it rains. With simple changes like these, you can conserve water on a daily basis and reduce the load on the environment too!