We try to act like every day is Earth Day at Equipaws Pet Services! We purchase recycled paper for our paper products, buy biodegradable doggy poop bags, carry reusable water bottles with us wherever we go when we remember, but we feel like we need a few reminders to get us back on track. How can we help conserve our resources for our children, grandchildren, pups, and grandpups and cats? We’ve compiled a list of easy ways to help save the planet for your quick reading pleasure!
1. Pick up your dog poop! You will be curbing pollution on a local level, avoiding transmission of disease, and keeping your neighborhood beautiful.
2. Turn off your computer at night. Turning it off instead of putting it into sleep mode saves 40 watt hours per day, which is to say, around $14 a year.
3. Only do laundry with a full load, and use the cold or warm setting instead of the hot setting. If we all did that, we’d save 100,000 barrels of oil a year.
4. Use native plants in your garden instead of thirsty exotics. Not only will you reduce your water consumption, but these plants will be support for our native species of insects and birds. Our favorite is the saw palmetto; its blooms are irresistible to bees! Check out PlantANT.com for an online nursery and wholesale registry.
5. Stop with the bottled water. Buy a reusable container and prevent one of the most ubiquitous forms of litter! 90% of water bottles are not recycled- imagine how helpful it would be to reduce that load on the environment!
6. Turn off the water while you brush your teeth. There’s no need to keep that faucet flowing while you brush those pearly whites.
7. Reduce your shower time! Cutting down shower time by two (2!) minutes can save ten gallons of water per shower.
8. Be meat-free once a week. Vegetarian cuisine is less arguably less taxing on the planet to produce in general. Throw a pasta and pizza party, go eat Indian food, or make Ā like a rabbit and eat your greens one night a week!
9. Switch to reusable bags. PlasticĀ bags are not biodegradable. Let’s hope we all switch over to reusable, sturdy bags. Wholefoods has them for sale at their counters.
10. Go electronic. Stop your paper bank and credit card, cancel your phone book and paper newspaper (there is so much more to read online, anyway!), and reduce your junkmail.
That’s it- quick, simple ways to improve everyone’s chances of survival on this beautiful, blue dot. One last one: recycle your glass and aluminum!
