Green Your Weekend

If you are like most people, your weekend is full of household projects and chores. This weekend tackle those chores with an earth friendly approach.

1. When you wash your car, avoid letting your dirty, soapy water head for the storm drains. The water that enters the storm drain is deposited directly into our lakes, rivers and streams, untreated. If you must wash your car at home, park it on the lawn so that the water can be cleaned by the grass. If your car just needs a light cleaning, a better alternative would be using a spray-on “waterless” car wash - you just spray the eco-friendly formula onto the car, and wipe off with no wasted water. For a really dirty car your best bet is a commericial car wash. Although it seems like they use a lot of water, they actually use less than you will at home and most of the water they use is recycled. Any runoff is sent to the sewage system for treatment, keeping the suds out of our waterways.

2. Laundry time! Remember wash only full loads in cold water with an eco-friendly detergent and hang your clothes to dry on the clothesline.

3. When working in the yard, be sure to use earth friendly methods - natural pest control, hand weedin instead of toxic sprays, and composting. To really minimize your impact on the enviroment consider a push reel mower - no gas needed and zero emissions.

4. Consider cooking meals in bulk for the upcoming week which will save you money.
Head to the nearby farmer’s market for the freshest ingredients available, reducing the distance your food travels cuts the energy used for shipping. If possible, buy organic, you will reducing the pesticides you ingest and will reduce your foods impact on the Earth. Go vegetarian or at least eat less meat, especially corn-fed beef, which takes a lot of water to produce. At the store, buy in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging. Once you've cooked up all your delicious food, remember to bring your lunch to school or work in an earth friendly container.

5. After all this hard work, be sure to relax in the hammock with a good book from the library - a great green & free resource!