Shower Together--It's for the Earth!

by WiredBerries Editors — December 11, 2007

Sometimes it's difficult to make a lifestyle change all alone. If you and your SO work together to make small changes that make your lifestyle greener, you have a much better chance of sticking with it and making a difference. MSN offers 11 ways to work together to be better to the Earth; here are some highlights:

• Change your light bulbs--If Americans replaced just one bulb in their home, it would save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes in one year and prevent an amount of greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of 800,000 cars.
• Bring your own mug to Starbucks--You'll get a 10-cent discount, and it's one less paper cup to end up in a landfill. While you're there, pick up some free bags of spent coffee grounds to use as "green" fertilizer in your garden.
• Save water--Run the dishwasher only when it's full, and don't pre-rinse dishes (a waste of time, water, and energy). But the real water drain is the shower -- take shorter ones (and take them together!). By skipping pre-rinse, you'll save 200 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released and $40 a year. And by taking shorter showers, you'll conserve 350 pounds of CO2 and keep about $100 in your pocket each year.
• Reuse plastic bags--Instead of chucking 100 billion plastic sacks a year (wow!), try and get a second, third, or tenth use out of them. Tote your lunch to work or your groceries home, or at least use them as garbage bags. Better yet, next time you shop, try a reusable bag. You're reducing pollution. The amount of oil it would take to make just 14 plastic bags would run your car for one mile.
• Use recycled paper...in the bathroom--Most of the TP we use is made from virgin trees found in forests previously untouched by humans. Seeing as trees absorb carbon dioxide, we'd get better use from them living than we would as a roll in the powder room. If every household in America replaced one roll of toilet paper with a recycled postconsumer waste roll, 424,000 trees would still be standing. Look for eco paper towels and napkins too. If every household used recycled napkins, we would spare one million trees.