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Eat organic |
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Go carbon zero |
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For each 1% increase in organic food consumption in the U.S. alone, pesticides and herbicide use is reduced by over ten million pounds per year. Organic food also tastes better and is far healthier than conventional food. And it is probably available at the same store you are shopping in today. |
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For about $99.00 per year through nonprofit carbonfund.org, you can offset your entire carbon footprint (the amount of this key greenhouse gas produced through your life activities) through that organization’s contributions to renewable power, efficiency, and reforestation. It won’t take you more than about ten minutes. |
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Recycle |
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Deny disposables |
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The average person in the U.S. produces 1,609 pounds of waste each year. Recycling can cut that waste stream by up to 75%. If each of us recycled just paper, glass and metal, we would save 162 million tons of material from entering American landfills each year. And recycling the enormous amounts of plastics we use each day can save even more. |
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“Disposable” is literally a dirty word. If we all just used a glass instead of a water bottle and a coffee mug instead of a Styrofoam cup, we would save 244 billion bottles and cups made from petrochemical-based plastics from entering the U.S. waste stream each year, and save money at the same time. |
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Use natural lawn care |
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Switch to natural personal care |
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The average suburban lawn uses six times the hazardous chemicals per acre than conventional farming. And your kids and pets play in that lawn. If just 10% of us switch to natural lawn care, over half a billion pounds of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides would be prevented from entering the environment. And our kid’s bodies. |
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Using natural personal care has a double benefit – keeping toxic chemicals off your body and then keeping them out of the environment after they wash off your body. Remember, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your body. |
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Clean green |
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Go carbon zero |
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Those household chemicals that you have to lock up from children are hazardous to your health. Collectively, we dump 32 million pounds of toxic chemistry down our drains each day, just from household cleaning chemicals. That doesn’t count what goes into our indoor air. Switching to green alternatives keeps these chemicals out of our bodies and out of our water supply. |
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Filtering your tap water to remove chlorine and fluoride provides pure, clean, and great-tasting drinking water at a fraction of the cost or environmental impact of expensive and wasteful bottled water that costs more per gallon than gasoline. The payback on a $60 water filter takes only a few weeks for most households. As an added benefit, there is no plastic bottle to leach harmful phthalates (which act like estrogens in the body) into your water. |
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Increase energy efficiency |
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Stay informed |
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Energy and fuel efficiency can dramatically reduce use of fossil fuels. Insulate your home and consider a hybrid next time you buy a car. The investment in efficiency pays off rapidly in lower fuel and energy costs. And if you are shopping for a car, get a used car that has already offgassed or a car from a manufacturer that uses minimal levels of phthalates and PBDEs. |
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