Take Simple Steps to Live Green

Recycle your aluminum, glass, and plastic products, as well as newspapers and mixed paper.

Always try to recycle your cans, jars, bottles and paper. The benefits are multiple: saving energy, reducing air emissions, reducing the need for additional mining and logging in sensitive habitats, as well as lowering the threat of aquatic and marine deterioration. For example, it takes 90 percent less electricity to produce aluminum from recycled cans than from virgin sources.

Unfortunately, U.S. recycling rates are abysmally low relative to countries in Europe and Japan. According to supermarket industry estimates, the average consumer uses 500 disposable paper and plastic bags a year, and closer to twice that many when factoring in bags from other store visits. Grocery bags cannot be made from recycled paper, while plastic bags are made from petrochemicals and very few are actually recycled.

Make a one-time purchase of a reusable tote bag capable of holding groceries, and stop your dependence on plastic and paper bags at the store. And if you do use plastic sacks for vegetables or groceries, reuse them, then recycle them at supermarket drop-off bins.

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