Taking
Care of Our Resources
We can all
use some tips on reducing our impact on our environment.
From big cities to small towns and even rural residents,
see what you can do. The following tips focus on
our water, land and energy impact.
Reduce
- Reduce your use by turning of the water while
brushing your teeth. Install water efficient
appliances when replacing old ones. Learn more at Low
Impact Living and Water:
Use it Wisely.
- Buy in bulk to avoid the excess packaging found
in single serve items. Buy items in containers you
know you can recycle to reduce the amount of waste
you're throwing out (and resist buying disposable
products).
-
Visit www.reduce.org
for a wealth of information on reducing your impact.
-
View our brochure on Waste
Prevention, Waste Reduction and Buying Recycled.
- Use
alternative cleaning products and methods instead of
chemicals (see our household hazardous
waste page for more details).
Reuse
- Collect
rainwater or gray water (clean water from washing fruits
and veggies) and use for watering indoor and outdoor
plants. Water
Reuse Association
- Reuse items such as coffee mugs instead of
disposable foam cups.
- Bring/purchase
items to/from the thrift stores in your area rather than
purchasing new items.
Recycle
-
Water recycling is reusing treated wastewater for
beneficial purposes such as agricultural and landscape
irrigation, industrial processes, toilet flushing, and
replenishing a ground water basin (referred to as ground
water recharge). When old items (recyclables) are
made into new items, some take water, but not nearly the
volume of water used when making items out of new
(virgin) materials.
- When you recycle, you help reduce the amount of
waste heading to the landfills. This helps slow
the need for finding more space to bury our waste.
See our "what to
recycle" page for more details.
- Some energy is used in the recycling process,
but again, many of the items require more energy when
new items are made. Check out how much energy
recycling saves on the Earth
911 Web site.
Compost
- When compost is used on your lawn and plants, it
will help retain moisture and reduce the need for excess
water.
- By composting grass, leaves and other organic
materials, you will help save space in local landfills.
Yard waste typically makes up one third of our waste
stream.
- When you have the right combination of organics,
the microorganisms put forth the effort to reduce the
pile rather than you expending your energy.
- Check out the "how-to" on composting
with the "Cheat
Sheet for Composting" page and the "I
didn't know that was compostable!" page by
Earth911 writers.-
The ND Department of Health has several brochures
regarding composting, grass and wood chip uses, etc. on
their Web site
(see "publications").
-
Finally, see our organics page
for more information.
Buy Recycled
Help close the loop by purchasing items made with
recycled products. For example, "paper"
egg cartons are made from newspaper vs. buying eggs in
cartons made from foam. You can also purchase
office/white computer paper that has at least 30% post
consumer recycled material in it at most office supply
stores. See our buy
recycled page for more information.
Have a tip? E-mail us at the address below.
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