Green Your Routine

I was watching the Today show the other morning and they were talking about their "Green Your Routine" campaign. I always try to do my best to be as Green as possible in my routine. There were couple of tips they referred to that I actually had not thought of. They are simple changes we can make in our life that can make a huge impact on our environment.

The first deals with ATM receipts. There are billions of transactions each year. They said that 600 thousand tons of paper is used each year to produce the various receipts we receive for things including those we get from ATMs. That equals millions of trees, enough water to supply 100 homes, and 234 million gallons of oil. That said, please choose not to take your ATM receipt. If you need to check your balance do it online. Several ATMs will even let you check your balance there without generating a receipt. Think about what other receipts you can eliminate because they are unnecessary.

The second point they made was napkins. Most people will grab a lot more napkins than they realistically need or can use. Millions of clean napkins end up in our landfills each year. Taking just one less napkin will keep 150 million from going to a landfill each year. Do not just stop at taking one less napkin though. Start with taking just one or two and get more only if you need them.

These tips really struck home for me. They are small, simple and logical changes we can make to our every day life that can make a huge difference on our environment.

Image above provided by www.greenclipart.com.