Green Minutes

Green Minutes

How to save your money and save the world in less than sixty seconds...


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Our "Green Minutes" are compiled and produced by Catherine Vieth and Christina Nyquist with production help from Chris Phillips, Alex Crowley, Kate Splaine and Erich Luening.

In the Car:

(From AAA Southern New England)

♦ Think about your car as a bus, rather than a taxi, and drive less by planning out trips.

♦ Drive more slowly on the highway--driving 55 instead of 65 dramatically improves gas mileage.

The Magic Number

♦ Keep in mind that shopping for gas can involve using gas. Instead, compare prices online.

♦ Shut off your car when it idles. It is better to shut off your car than let it idle for more than thirty seconds.

♦ Ask yourself questions before purchasing a new car. Is seating for eight really necessary? Could a smaller car fit into your lifestyle?

♦ Properly inflated tires increase fuel economy.

	↑Current Nantucket gas prices

♦ Cars only need a minute to warm up or cool down, so don't let the car idle to run the heater or air conditioner.

♦ Fast-food drive-throughs burn gas while cars are idling. Park and walk in instead.

(From Green Shuttle of Cape Cod)

♦ Use biodiesel in diesel cars. Virgin biofuels can be used in diesel engines without any modifications.

♦ Driving techniques can save gas. For example, the "pulse and glide" technique involves gliding down hills without a foot on the gas pedal.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

♦ Recycle old motor oil. Every year, 180 million gallons of motor oil are disposed of illegally. Don't throw your motor oil away, take it to an auto parts store, and they will recycle it for you.

♦ Have your car washed professionally. It requires an average of 45 gallons per wash for a professional car wash, whereas a do-it-yourself requires anywhere from 80 to 140 gallons. If you want to wash your own car, then consider using some of the new waterless wash products.

(From The Daily Green)

♦ Park in the shade. Gas can evaporate from a closed tank, but lower temperatures will slow down this process. Also, a cooler car means less air conditioner use, means better fuel efficiency. You can even go one step further and put a cardboard or metallic shade up to block the sun coming through the windshield and heating up the car.

♦ Use your cruise control. Your car performs best when not accelerating, but driving at a steady rate. By driving at a constant speed, you avoid wearing out your brake pads, and you avoid burning gas while accelerating back up to road speed.

♦ Switch to a synthetic motor oil, which can improve gas mileage by up to 10 percent.

♦ Try to carry payload inside of your car if you can. This way, it does not interrupt the airflow around your car, which spoils efficiency.

Disposing of Waste:

(From Three Bays Preservation )

Judy Heller and Lindsey Counsell of Three Bays Preservation

♦ Pumping a Title Five septic system every three to five years prevents contaminants from entering the groundwater.

♦ Pump-out facilities, located in most harbors and bays, allow for the proper disposal of waste and cuts down on fecal coliform and e. coli contamination.

♦ To keep harmful chemicals such as varnishes and old paints out of the groundwater, use town hazardous waste collections.

♦ Secure litter on boats so that it does not wash ashore.

Cooking:

Edible Cape Cod

♦Ask questions about where food comes from. For example, a good fishmonger will know which fish species are endangered and which are in peak season.

♦Look for lobsters with bright green bands that say "Massachusetts" on them. This signifies that they were caught using environmentally-friendly practices.

♦Be mindful of what goes in to putting food on supermarket shelves. It's estimated that the average item on the American dinner plate travels about 1500 miles--which means there was a lot of gas consumed just for food transport.

♦Purchasing from smaller, local farms means supporting the low- density use of land. Local farms also tend to use fewer chemicals, as the farmers both live and work on the land.

♦Make your event more green and use disposable materials that are compostable, including plates, cups, knives, forks, and spoons.

At Home:

(From Building Diagnostics)

♦Get an energy audit. It's a great way to pinpoint energy losses in homes and buildings.

♦The vast majority of attics are underinsulated. Additional insulation provides a cost-effective upgrade--saving money and energy.

♦"Button up" areas to prevent drafts. These areas include pull- down staircases and attic hatches.

g Green Design

♦Save water by putting aerators on faucets and showerheads, and water your lawn every other day.

♦If an appliance is over eight to ten years old, think about purchasing an EnergyStar-rated unit as a more energy-efficient alternative.

Recycle Bin

♦Make recycling easier by putting out accessible bins for paper, plastic, and compost.

♦Change incandescent lightbulbs to more efficient CFL.

♦Green cleaning products clean just as well as their chemically- laden alternatives, but they are non- toxic and can be used in a variety of places.

♦Use paints that have no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for a greener and healthier home.

♦Instead of turning on the air conditioning, open a window, put up window films as insulation, turn off lights, or turn on a fan.

A Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb

♦If an appliance is over eight to ten years old, think about purchasing an EnergyStar-rated unit as a more energy-efficient alternative.

♦Make recycling easier by putting out accessible bins for paper, plastic, and compost.

♦A driveway made from shell or crushed stone contains far fewer chemicals than one made of pavement. Using a pervious driveway contains none of the petrochemicals of a tar- based driveway.

Energy Star

♦Clean the air filters on heating and cooling systems at least once every three months. A dirty air filter slows air flow, wastes energy, and worsens performance.

♦Heating and cooling systems need to be tuned to maintain efficiency and performance. Make sure to have your heating and cooling system tuned up every year.

♦If you are away from home for set hours every week, think about installing a programmable thermostat. If used correctly, a programmable thermostat can save you $150 on your heating and cooling bill every year.

♦Seal the joints and seams of air ducts with duct sealant (mastic) or metal backed (foil) tape. Next, cover ducts with insulation. If done correctly, you can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by 20%.

♦If your heating and cooling system is still not performing well or efficiently, consider replacing it with a system that has earned an energy star rating.

♦Consider a geothermal heat pump instead of air- source heat pumps. They are quieter than air-source units, while maintaining the same performance. While these pumps may be more expensive to buy up front, they will eventually pay for themselves through lower heating and cooling bills.

( From The Green Guide)

♦When watering your lawn, set the sprinkler to the setting that sprays large drops of water, low to the ground.

♦Position the sprinkler so that all of the water falls onto your lawn, and not on the sidewalk or driveway. Certain types of sprinklers allow you to bend the nozzles to spray the water where you want it (noodleheadsprinkler.com).

♦Water your lawn in the morning so that the water gets absorbed by the soil, and does not evaporate.

♦Many electronics and appliances are not in use, they still use power when plugged in. Unplug appliances that don't need to run often throughout the day, such as electronic shavers, toothbrushes, coffee machines and microwave ovens. Just by doing this, you can save up to 135 pounds of carbon a year.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

♦Buy rechargeable batteries instead of regular ones. This helps reduce the amount of hazardous materials you throw away, and can save you money.

♦Consider buying reusable grocery bags instead of wasting paper or plastic ones every time you go to the grocery store. If you don't want to buy reusable bags, then try to reuse bags from the last time you went grocery shopping.

A Reusable shopping bag with a message

♦Buy recycled paper towels. If every American home replaced one roll of paper towel with a recycled roll of paper towel, then we could save 1.4 million trees, 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, 526 million gallons of water, and prevent 89,400 pounds of pollution.

♦Try not to buy bottled water. Americans buy 8 billion gallons of bottled water, and throw away 22 billion plastic bottles a year. Try to use a reusable plastic bottle and fill it with tap water. If you do use disposable plastic bottles, try and recycle them.

♦Donate or sell old electronics. Many cities have services in place that will properly dispose of or recycle old electronics. There are even some companies that will buy your old electronics from you.

♦ When you mow your lawn, leave the clippings of old grass on the lawn. They will decompose, and return nutrients to the new grass, reducing water and fertilizer requirements.

( From The Daily Green )

♦ The average toilet uses anywhere from three to seven gallons each flush, but many can operate with less water. Place a water bottle filled with pebbles or sand in your toilet's water tank. You can save up to one gallon each flush, or ten gallons per day in the average home.

♦ Replace cordless phones with corded ones. Cordless phones use two to three watts, and 60 percent of their energy use occurs when they are not being used for a call. Corded phones use a fraction of the electricity cordless phones use, and you can still use them if your power is out.

( From Union of Concerned Scientists

♦ If you are buying lumber for a deck, consider composite lumber. It is made from recycled paper and wood wastes.

♦ If you are looking for a new grill, consider a propane- fired grill. It produces half the carbon emissions of a charcoal-fired grill. If you like the taste of food cooked on a charcoal grill, try to avoid buying charcoal briquettes, and instead buy cleaner-burning lump charcoal harvested from sustainably managed forests.

♦ If you use a charcoal grill, light it with a chimney starter instead of lighter fluid. All the lighter fluid used annually in the U.S. produces 46,200 tons of pollutants.



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