Green Team Eco-Messages
BEING GREEN FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Consider using solar powered holiday lights. Not only will they cut down your carbon emissions and energy bills, they'll also save you the trouble of finding an outdoor outlet or turning them on and off. They activate automatically at dusk. If you MUST use outdoor lights put them on a timer from 5-9PM. There is very little traffic around after 9PM to see your lights anyway!
PAPER RECYCLING REMINDER
At Christmas time, we have a lot of packaging. Cardboard, junk mail, chipboard, magazines, colored paper, newspapers, envelopes, post-it-notes, file folders and white paper should all go in the recycling bin. This means please do not put Sunday church bulletins in the trash - either return them to the last pew or put them in a blue recycling bin. Staples are ok, but no metal tabs. PLEASE remember to REMOVE all plastic sleeves from newspapers and no other plastic bags. The following CANNOT be recycled and should NOT be put in a recycling bin: food-contaminated paper (i.e. pizza boxes), bubble or shrink wrap, carbon paper, photographs, plastic folders, rubber bands, spirals (from spiral notebooks), string and rope, and kind of tissue paper, including paper towels. Thank you, The Earth
GIVE GREEN GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS
There are many web sites for green shopping. Some are "fair trade"; some made with recycled or organic materials. Here are some web sites to investigate: oompa.com (toys), earthentree.com (toys), hazelnutkids.com (fair trade toys), ecoartware.com (bath & kitchen accessories), everybodygreen.com (jewelry), earth.net/store, giftswithhumanity.com. Or simply Google "green holiday gifts" for many more. And don't forget 10,000 Villages in Prairie Crossing as a great place to shop! Thanks, The Earth
WHAT TO DO WITH BATTERIES??
Many people are confused as to how to dispose of batteries. According to SWALCO regular household batteries (e.g. alkaline) may be disposed of with your regular garbage. Rechargeable batteries can be taken to various places that offer recycling for rechargeable batteries, such as Home Depot. Lead-acid automotive batteries can be recycled through most scrap dealers or retail automotive service centers such as Sears, AutoZone, NAPA and Trak Auto. Hope this helps in this battery heavy season!!! Thanks, The Earth
RECYCLE STYROFOAM PEANUTS
So all kinds of packages came with Styrofoam packing peanuts and now you don't know what to do with them! DON'T put them in either your recycling bin or your regular trash!!!! DO take them to any UPS Store. One is located at 872 S. Milwaukee in Libertyville, but there are others in Mundelein, Grayslake, etc. They will gladly take any amount of packing peanuts - just put them in a plastic bag and take them in to a store. Thank you, The Earth.
RECYLING SMALL ELECTRONICS
Did you know that the US Post Office offers a FREE mailing to recycle your small electronics? Go into your local post office and you will find small plastic bags, postage paid and preaddressed, to mail cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, digital cameras or smart phones to be recycled. The directions are on the bag. (Actually, you can usually recycle cell phones at the store where you bought your new phone.) Thank you, The Earth.
UNPLUG THE CHARGERS!!!
How many small electronic devices do you recharge the batteries for at your house? (cell phones.....etc). Remember to UNPLUG the charger when you are not charging the device! Even though nothing is plugged into the charger the charger is still using electricity! Thank you, The Earth
SAVE FORESTS - SHOP SMART FOR TISSUE PRODUCTS
Forests are being destroyed to make toilet paper, facial tissues, paper towels and other disposable paper products. If every household in the US replace just 1 box of virgin facial tissues with 100% recycled we could save 163,000 trees. If each replaced just 1 package of paper napkins we could save 1 million trees. For toilet paper, we could save 423,900 trees, and for paper towels, 544,000 trees. Avoid buying Scott, Kleenex, Bounty, Charmin, and other "virgin" paper products. Instead, look to the recycled products isle which includes brands such at Seventh Generation (available at Jewel), Earth First, Green Forest, and a host of others. Thank you, The Earth