Green Your Home

 Recycling           

  •  Californians create nearly 2,900 pounds of household garbage and industrial waste every second!
  • When shopping, look for earth-friendly products that are made up of recycled materials and/or can be recycled. 
  • In Santa Cruz an estimated 85% of residents recycle at home.
  • Santa Cruz curbside recycling includes clean paper, cardboard, newspaper, bagged shredded paper, clean cans, glass, and plastic bottles such as soda, water, milk, shampoo or detergent bottles, and plastic marked with a 1 or 2.
  • Properly dispose of items that contain chemicals or other potentially hazardous materials, such as old freezers, refrigerators, or air conditioners, televisions, computer monitors, and fluids from your car.
  • By composting your organic material, like left over food scraps, fruit peels, and cores you are recycling back to the earth, and making a great soil to add to your garden. 
  • Resources

 Reducing Your Homes Energy Use

  
  • Reducing your home’s energy use can significantly lower your monthly housing bills and reduce your impact on the environment.
  •   Efficient energy use will help improve air quality, reduce your impact on the earth, and help you save money and have more control over your energy use.
  • Use compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs)
  • Turn lights off when not using a room
  • Resources

Fix Leaking Windows, Doors, & Ducts

  
  • Seal leaks you may have around your doors and windows that could be letting cold in air, warm air out, or vice versa depending on the season. I
  • Ideally, if you find your windows and doors are leaking, you can have them replaced with windows and doors that have been rated as Energy-Star.
 

 Setting Your Thermostat
  •  One of the simplest ways you can save energy—and money—is to turn down the thermostat in your home.
  • This is easy if you have an automatic set back thermostat – a thermostat that can be programmed according to your schedule to automatically lower the temperature at night or when no one is home, for example.
  • It is actually a myth that it takes more energy to heat up a house after the thermostat has been turned down than it would to keep the thermostat at a constant temperature.
  • In fact, turning down the thermostat will always help save cooling costs, up to 75 percent according to some studies. The same principle applies to air conditioners – turning the thermostat up on your air conditioner can save you up to 25 percent on your cooling costs, according to some studies.

Water Conservation
  • Over 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, and of this, only 3% can be classified as fresh water. However, less than 1% of this fresh water is actually available for our use. The demand for fresh water continues to grow, as the supply remains the same. 
  • In the US, showers are responsible for 18% of a homes indoor water use! By simply changing your shower head to a low flow shower head, you can cut down your water use in the shower by up to 60%
  • You can install more efficient faucets, which use 2 gallons of water per minute as opposed to the standard 3 to 5 gallons per minute.
  • Toilets are also a big water consumer in the home. The average toilet uses 4.5 gallons of water per flush. Replacing your conventional toilet with a low-flow toilet that only uses 1.6 gallons per flush will make a big difference in your water consumption, reducing water use by about 34%.
  • Outside the home, try letting your grass grow a bit longer than usual. The longer grass will help the soil retain water, and make your lawn less susceptible to scorching. And, you won’t have to hop on that lawn mower (or push it around your yard) as often, which is always a welcome relief in the heat. Also, when watering your lawn, try to water it in the early morning or evenings, when there isn’t any direct sunlight and the temperature is cooler.
  • Plant resilient natural vegetation (Xeriscape)
  • Resources