Four Everyday Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Reducing your carbon footprint may involve big choices and lifestyle changes, but it can also involve small choices that add up day after day. Here are five everyday ways you can be greener:

1. RECYCLE: Did you know that you can recycle more than just paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum? The Middletown dump accepts electronics, automotive waste, batteries, and other hazardous materials that you can't throw in your recycling bin.
How it helps: The disposal of items that could be recycled contributes to the growth of our landfills and the introduction of hazardous waste into our water supply. Recycling helps reduce the growth of landfills and keeps us healthy.

2. FREECYCLE: Take the swap shack idea, above, add modern technology and you get the freecycling movement, which encourages people to use the Internet ot give away the things they don't need. You can post notices of things you want to give away and search for things you might need. It's not just environmentally friendly, it's charitable and frugal. 
How it helps: Manufacturing carbon emissions (see above). Reusing doesn't. 
More information: groups.freecycle.org/freecyclemiddletownct

3. WASH IN COLD: Not you – your laundry. You can conserve electricity and reduce carbon emissions by washing your laundry in cold water with a cold-water detergent. Washing full loads also cuts overall energy use. And bypassing the dryer to hang the laundry out just adds to the greenness.
How it helps: About 90 percent of the energy that a typical top-loading washing machine uses to clean a load of laundry is consumed by heating the water, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
More information: Project Laundry List, www.laundrylist.org

4. AIR DRY THE DISHES: If your dishwasher has an air dry option, use it. If not, turn the machine off before the drying cycle, prop the door open and let your dishes air dry. The Department of Energy also recommends that you avoid using the “rinse hold” for small quantities of dirty dishes because it uses extra hot water. (Experts generally agree that washing dishes by hand consumes considerably more energy and water than machine washing, by the way.)
How it helps: The drying cycle uses about 15 percent of the energy it takes to clean a load of dishes, according to the Green House Project.
More information: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Savers,www.energysavers.gov/tips

To reduce, reuse or recycle, contact Middletown's Recycling Coordinator Kim O'Rourke at (860) 344-3526 or kim.orourke@cityofmiddletown.com.

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