*Buy less stuff. Especially stuff with a lot of packaging.
*Live close to work.
*Limit discretionary travel. Especially on airplanes.
*Don’t buy bottled water.
*Be willing to pay more for green products.
*Support businesses that have green buildings & green practices.
*Demand green buildings from your government (esp. your school district).
Not really recommended for bags that have contained meat products. No matter how well you wash them, you run the risk of contaminating the next item you put in the bag. If you must, the final rinse should contain bleach (one tablespoon per gallon of water and air dry thoroughly. I had to get a food handler’s permit a few months ago and this was brought up during the class.
There are more complex tools available. Here is one ortwo I just googled.
By using a tool like this is allows you to prioritise steps to minimise your ecological footprint.
Looks like **Ender **is doing all the right things now - if you want to go further then **reduce ** household consumables to start with.
Why especially on airplanes? An airliner that’s nearly full of passengers (which IME most are these days) gets substantially more passenger-miles per gallon than is typical for travel by automobiles.
Live as small as possible.
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Fewer, colder showers. When it’s yellow; let it mellow–when it’s brown, flush it down. Keep your high-density non-single-family dwelling close to the outside ambient temperature. Motel 6; not Ritz. Cold raw local veggies; not imported prosciutto. Bike not bus. Bus not shared car. No planes. The list goes on.
Let us hope such things are not widely adopted enough to have any effect on AGW; a reduction that drastic would crash the global economy, although the developing world will help pick up the slack if we do lower consumption. I suggest picking and choosing the ones that give you the most feel-good bang for the buck and indulge yourself in the rest. That will be the average response til the Big Fixes show up.
I myself have elected to buy carbon credits with some green window-dressings here and there for an improved public image. Good enough for the Nobel winner; good enough for me.
[ul][li]Landscape with native plants – they require little to no additional watering.[/li][li]Don’t forget to turn the sprinklers off when it’s raining![/li][li]Grow your own herbs, fruits and vegetables.[/li][li]Ask your friends and family to stop buying you gifts for special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas, and instead to make charitable contributions in your honor. [/li][li]In that same vein, make charitable contributions to honor your friends and family instead of buying them gifts. [/li][li]Bend down and pick up trash when you see it![/li][li]Re-use containers, such as margarine tubs, cottage cheese and yogurt containers, etc., for leftovers instead of buying Glad[sup]®[/sup] or Ziplock[sup]®[/sup].[/li][li]Turn off your computer(s) when not in use, like at night while you’re sleeping, or during the day when you’re at work.[/li][li]Look around the house for other “vampire electronics” and get in the habit of unplugging them when not in use.[/li][/ul]
Point of clarification:
Are you using the term “greener” to mean:
Don't eat endangered species?
Don't contribute to global warming?
Don't make any change in what would be the natural order of things if humans did not exist?
The first two overlap with the third but not necessarily with each other.
Oh yeah, I can’t believe I forgot this one. . . Junk Mail! [ul][li]Stop getting unwanted catalogs in the mail! You can either try contacting every merchant yourself (and hope they bother to pay attention to your request – I have had spotty success with this method, myself), or register for the free service at catalogchoice.org*. Tell your friends and neighbors about this service, too![/li][li]Register with the Direct Marketer’s Association’s Mail Preference Service to reduce the amount of unwanted junk mail you receive.[/li][li]Opt Out of “pre-approved” credit offers through the free service run by the major Credit Reporting Companies at https://www.optoutprescreen.com/. [/ul][/li]
If you want the biggest impact, you can set a good example that others can see and copy.
One is to bring canvas totes (or better yet, recycled cartons) to do your weekly shopping.
Just plop a box or two into your cart and watch as all the customers around nod their heads in recognition and approval.
The latter two, really. I’m very anthro-centric, apparently.
IMO, the single most important thing you can do is vote and campaign for environmentally-friendly candidates. Sure, compost and recycle and either don’t drive or get a car with very good gas mileage (I do!). But the impact of those things --even added across all the conscientious families doing the same in the city/country – is very small compared to the effects of a good government program to increase recycling or require better gas mileage for all cars, including both the conscientious and those less willing to go beyond what’s required. Using throw-away, non-recycled paper to write a letter to your political representative urging government action on climate change is absolutely a net win for the environment, every time. Heck, flying to the Capital to meet with your representative is probably a net win for the environment.
I’m not quite so cynical that I think every ‘10 things you can do to save the Earth’ list is a bid by the forces of the rich and powerful to stop people from thinking political activism is important. But I am cynical enough about politics in the US to think some of them are.
Get an electronic thermostat and change the setting to:
Winter 65F (Day) and 55F (Night)
Summer 78-85*F
If you are cold on a winter’s day, put on a sweater.
If you are cold on a winter’s night, put on an extra blanket (or have sex more often, or both!)
If you are too hot during the summer, strip.
A little extra cold (or heat) is good for the body, and the wallet.
And of course, if you go geothermal for climate control, you can stay comfortable, and get free hot water for a good part of the year, without resorting to such extreme setbacks.
About the airplane thing…
Yes, airplanes eat fuel incredibly fast and are chock-full of nasty synthetics that are petroleum-derieved. However, for long-distance travel, say, NYC to LA, a large, fully loaded airliner is probably the MOST energy-efficient means of transport. On such a trip, less fuel is used per-person per-mile than if all those people have driven themselves coast-to-coast in their own cars.
Learn green cleaning. Soap, baking soda & vinegar will clean almost everything. Use washing soda for extra tough jobs and borax instead of bleach. And use the minimum. Try using half the amount of your laundry detergent.
Not only is this greener, but it is also cheaper.
Curious, but a few things aren’t adding up.
Is borax really cheaper than bleach? Bleach is already very cheap.
Can you cite where bleach is worse for the environment than borax?
I went through this once with peroxide vs. bleach and it turned out peroxide was no more green than bleach.
Jim
Or sleep in a sleeping bag designed for low temps. I did that as a cost saving measure for a few winters, and it was fun. As an added bonus, sex in a sleeping bag is a nice switch from whatever you usually do. 
Upon further review, perhaps flying is better than driving.
Using this site: http://www.terrapass.com
I figured a round trip from San Francsico to Los Angeles.
Flying = 431 lbs CO2
Driving* = 523 lbs CO2
*alone in a 2007 Toyota Camry. Obviously results will vary based on vehicle type & whether you’re travelling alone.
When you’re done with the Britta filter, is it okay to empty out the charcoal and use it in the garden?