Reducing your carbon footprint does not have to be a complicated process. Instead, go room to room in your home to locate different ways you can make your household greener. Get your entire family involved to make the biggest positive impact on the environment you can.
Cut down on the amount of electricity you use in the house. When you leave a room, turn off the lights. When you’re not using an appliance, unplug it from the wall outlet. All light bulbs should be switched to energy-saving versions like compact-fluorescent lamps or CFLs. These types use less power and have a longer shelf-life.
Reduce your household waste to decrease your carbon footprint. Recycle and reuse should be part of your household mottos. Look for the recycling logo on all food and beverage containers. Instead of throwing out vegetable and fruit peels, paper products, coffee grounds and garden clippings, use them to create compost for garden fertilizer.
Use less energy to heat and cool your home. Turning down your thermostat during the winter or turning up your thermostat in the summer by a couple of degrees lowers your energy bills and cuts back on the fossil fuels used to regulate the temperature of your home. Buy green insulation and double-pane windows to ensure heat does not escape from your home
Retailers of energy-saving products can make decreasing your carbon footprint a cinch. Although energy-saving items may initially cost more than traditional products, you’ll likely save cash in the long run by lowering your utility bills. Additionally, remember to keep all of your cleaning products green by using cleaners with all natural ingredients such as lemon and baking soda.
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As this post states, CFLs are a better solution, both economically and environmentally, than incandescent bulbs, which ultimately result in greater mercury exposure than CFLs, because they consume more power and require more power generation. Since mercury is a byproduct of burning coal, coal-fired power plants are a larger source of mercury pollution than the mercury content in the CFLs. Although CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury, with a proven packaging configuration and proper disposal, CFLs can be used effectively without releasing harmful mercury vapor.
While a variety of containers are marketed for transportation of fluorescent lamps and CFLs, many don’t provide sufficient protection against mercury vapor emitted from broken lamps. Using a proven packaging design is vital to ensuring the safety of people who handle these lamps, as well as maintaining their green benefits. Read about a recent study that tested several packaging configurations here: http://vaporlok.blogspot.com/2010/05/layers-of-protection-packaging-used.html If a bulb breaks, consumers can learn more about clean-up procedures here: http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup-detailed.html