{Tuesday Tip for Greener Living} Green Your Clothing

We've talked about ways to recycle and reuse clothing on this blog before.  But did you know how to take care of your clothes in a more green way?

Washing:   80% of the energy that is attributed to our clothes is actually used when we're washing them.  In the U.S. 4.5 billion gallons of water are used each day in the U.S. just washing clothes.

Tips:

• Wash your clothes only when necessary.  Quite often we wash clothes when we really don't need to.  (Do you have an office job and change as soon as you get home.  You probably don't need to wash that outfit every time.)  Bonus:  your clothes will last longer, too!
• Wash your clothes in cold water.  Cut carbon emissions by 100 pounds and save up to $64 per year on your energy bill.
• Dry your clothes on the line in the spring and summer.  (I even set up a clothes rack inside in the winter!)  You'll save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide!  Again, Bonus:  your clothes will last longer!

My Blog is Carbon Neutral

A few weeks ago, I received an email from someone working for an initiative called "Make it green!"   Their goal is to reduce carbon footprints by raising awareness of the severe environmental damage caused by carbon emissions. 

A blog with 15,000 visits a month has a yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 8lb. To neutralize these emissions they created "My blog is carbon neutral" buttons so bloggers can demonstrate that they care about the environment and the carbon footprint of their blogs.  So, I write this blog, they plant a tree and now I'm carbon neutral here on my blog!

The trees are being planted in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California, where so many wildfires have destroyed the trees.

If you would like to join me in making your blog carbon neutral and having a tree planted, you can find out the information to participate on this website. 

(The company doing this is a Germany based company called kaufDA, which provides advertisement brochures of local stores online to help consumers search for specific products and find good deals in their neighborhood. This reduces the amount of brochures printed and so the project helps the environment by reducing unnecessary paper in mailboxes. An American on average receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year. This has the same carbon footprint as burning six gallons of gasoline.)