20 Ways to Keep help keep our neighborhoods Green:
- Use rechargeable batteries: Dispose of non-rechargeable batteries at your nearest library, recreation center, fire station or local city building.
- Reuse bags: Bring your own cloth or other reusable bags; plastic bags consume 12 million barrels of oil, paper 14 million trees.
- Reduce junk mail and save paper: 100 million trees are used for junk mail each year. Visit www.stopjunkmail.org for simple forms to stop the waste.
- Adopt-a-spot or block: organize work parties on your street or in your neighborhood.
- Plant a tree: During a 50-year life span, one tree will generate $30,000 in oxygen, recycle $35,000 worth of water, and clean up $60,000 worth of air pollution, or $125,000 total per tree, without including any other values!
- Recycle food scraps: Empty it into your large green waste bin.
- Let worms eat your kitchen garbage:Start a compost box in your garden.
- Turn trimmings into mulch: Great way to keep plants cool during the hot months.
- Conserve water: Fix those plumbing leaks. Grow drought tolerant and native plants.
- Recycle used computers and E-waste: Visit County of Los Angeles Computer and Electronics and Recycling for more information.
- Use fluorescent lamps instead of incandescent bulbs: A 28-watt fluorescent bulb uses 1,020 pounds less carbon dioxide and three pounds less nitrogen over its lifetime than an incandescent bulb. Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program for more info.
- Buy products with the least packaging: Choose paper, glass over plastic. Not all plastic containers are recyclable.
- Recycle packing “peanuts”, cardboard, moving boxes and bubble wrap: Many packing/shipping services will accept these items for reuse.
- Choose recycled and green products: Buy recycled paper and office supplies. Choose less toxic cleaning products, low- or no-VOC (volatile organic compounds) paints, Energy Star® certified appliances and computers.
- Donate office supplies and other items to school art programs: LA Shares
- Recycle unwanted usable items: Goodwill Industries Out of the Closet
- Build and remodel Green: LA Chapter of US Green Building Council
- Buy close to home: 75 cents of every food dollar goes to processing, packaging, marketing, transport and retailing. Support your local Farmers’ Markets and local stores.
- Drive less & smarter: Walk when you can, share rides, consider biking and public transportation: LA Metro
- Report illegal dumping, graffiti, overflowing litter cans: LA Dept of Public Works
