Community
It’s
only natural for members of any community to take pride in both its
character and appearance. Included are a number of subtle practices you
can help to implement. You’ll not only be helping the environment but
you’ll be meeting new friends and if you’re self employed, perhaps
you’ll even increase your level of commerce along the way.
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Avoiding Clogging Landfills: Check
online for a list of professional recycling organizations that aim to
assist and empower communities into eliminating municipal solid wastes
that end up in landfills. These organizations have unlimited composting
and recycling expertise to offer. Check with as many sources as you can
prior to tossing out your unwanted items.
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Beach & Parks - $$$: Do
an online search to find out when volunteers plan to get together to
clean up a beach or a park and get involved. If no one is in charge, get
help from the city council in focusing paid employees or clean-up crews
assigned to obvious problem areas. If necessary, organize a monthly or
quarterly clean up with other Earth Mom members located in your area. If
there are no Earth Mom members, get a few of your friends on board and
start making a small difference in your local community.
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Be Proactive - $$$:
Gather together neighbors in your community who are as committed to
saving the environment as you are. You can start information campaigns
that encourage creative people to take part. For example, organizing
programs that utilize local talents to create art out of worn items
while promoting environmental awareness is a great start. You'll find
that local reporters love to do stories on events and special
initiatives that help both the local youth and the environment.
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Buy Local - $$$: Research
Farmer’s Markets and seek out locally grown organic fruits and
vegetables. Don’t be afraid to investigate to make sure they are not
watered with toxic ground water from polluted wells. Ask the farmers for
a certificate that they’ve had their water tested.
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Change the World:
Start the change within yourself and your household. Discover and teach
your children brand-new methods to recycle old products and clothing.
In this manner you will be able to help transform the world.
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Craft Ideas:
Discover your gift of art through recyling your old materials into
something usable. You may visit the internet and find unique craft ideas
using products that can be modified and made into useable and sellable
goods.
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Eco Friendly Ad-Specialty Tools - $$$: If
you’re a sales professional in insurance, real estate or other
profession, canvas your neighborhood with flyers embedded with flower
and herb seeds or green rated ad specialty items informing everyone that
you are putting on monthly recycling exhibitions and to drop by for
free tips, coffee, and compost for their flowerbeds.
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Eco-Sponsor Opportunities - $$$: If
you’re a business professional or small business, you already know how
important your community can be to your livelihood. Take some time to
learn all the different ways you can set your products or services apart
from competitors who care nothing about preserving the environment. If
you take a few moments out each week to research, you will find several
"eco-sponsor" opportunities in and around your area that can help gain
you special recognition for helping to save the planet. Put your heart
into it and you’ll be amazed at just how quickly you too will see that
going green costs you nothing, but rather pays off big time for everyone
in the long run.
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Encourage an artist:
If you don’t already know someone who makes and sells creative art,
encourage your kids or neighbor’s kids to get involved. If you frequent
art and wine festivals, you will see many product ideas that can be
adopted or improved upon using recycled materials. Be sure to mention
these creative concepts to art teachers, scout masters, church fund
raisers, etc., who can help you research and adopt the needed processes
to make functional or decorative new products from recycled materials.
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Encouraging The Youth - $$$: Keep
young people in your community interested in your efforts. During
summer breaks, you can organize fun activities such as tree planting to
encourage the youth to take part in something that can help further the
cause in saving the environment. Your actions will help you keep kids
out of trouble and allow you to make life long friends.
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Excess Compost - $$$: Once
you start composting and generating more mulch and compost than you can
possibly use, find friends, neighbors and community gardens where you
can donate your extras. If you’re a sales or financial professional,
this is your chance to get your name out, meet and get to know community
leaders who can help match you up with the type of people who want to
reward "eco-friendly" professionals.
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Food Systems Recovery: Take
the initiative and encourage local restaurants and bakeries to partner
with local food rescue organizations to help feed the poor. Supporting
food recovery systems is a great way to help the community and the
environment.
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Fund Raising – $$$:
Your old aluminum cans and newspaper can be worth a fortune. If you’re
not already turning them in for cash yourself, contact your local
scouting organizations and churches for information on pending recycling
drives in your area. Save up your aluminum cans and newspapers to help
support their fund raising needs.
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Garage Sales - $$$:
Start or help organize a community wide garage sale weekend. Many
communities offer a special quarterly or annual pick up for you to
dispose of major household articles you no long wish to own. Schedule
your garage sale to just prior to these dates to try to raise money from
the sale of unwanted goods.
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Goodwill - $$$: Instead
of tossing out old clothes, donate them to the local shelter or Good
Will type of bargain store. They will happily issue you a tax receipt
for writing off the value as a donation which can translate to hundreds
of dollars.
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Old Mattresses:
Old mattresses may not be pretty but there is usually some life left in
them. Find a shelter or place that accepts them to refurbish for the
needy. Worst case, find a recycling center that accepts them and can
render them back into their basic component for recycling.
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Outdated Food:
Our cupboards are filled with unwanted or outdated packaged food
products. Try to find a local food drive or "Second Helping” food
centers that accept extra food of this type. Any old or rotted
vegetables should go into your compost unit. If it’s safe for your pets
to eat people food, augment their bowls with leftover foods that you
would normally throw out. Strive for the day when foods are no longer
rotting away in your garbage cans awaiting garbage day.
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Refurbish - $$$: Instead
of simply tossing out your comfortable old shoes, consider getting them
re-soled. Or, if you no longer wish to own them, try to donate them to a
shoe recycling program where they are either repaired and put back into
service for the needy or rendered down and transformed into brand new
objects.
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Re-Plantable Christmas Trees - $$$: Instead
of cutting down a fresh tree each time, seek out a tree that you can
release back into the wild when you’ve completed your holiday rituals.
If you have a large home, line both sides of your driveway with memories
of Christmas’s past. Otherwise, find a nice park or forest where you
can visit and perhaps care for your tree from time to time. Who knows,
if your tree hasn't grown too much, you might even be able to reuse it
again the next year.
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Restaurant Feedback - $$$: Use
the feedback form on the back of your fast food receipt to ask fast
food management to adopt a "Greener Attitude” by cutting back on
needless paper products such as hamburger and French fry box packing.
Most trays have fresh paper lining them. Ask them to offer a "Go Green”
option where your food is placed directly on your tray or in your bag to
go, without all the extra fluff. In many cases, you'll receive valuable
discounts in return for your feedback.
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Worn Items: Examine each undesired or worn product
for re-usability prior to tossing into the trash or recycling bin.
Doing so will help minimize the amount of trash that goes to landfills.
You’ll get a great deal of satisfaction from knowing they are going to a
good home instead of ending up in a landfill to disintegrate over
hundreds or thousands of years.
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Unwanted Items - $$$: Consider
the opportunity for another to use any old or unwanted items before
tossing them into the trash or recycle bin. You’ve no doubt heard the
saying about "One man’s trash being another man’s treasure”. Even
getting .50 cents for an old item at your next garage sale is better
that tossing it in the trash. Hold or organize a neighborhood yard sale.
You’ll get to know your neighbors and might even make a few new
friends.
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Used Christmas Trees - $$$: After
Christmas, check with your city or local churches for programs to turn
your Christmas tree into garden mulch. Or consider organizing the rental
of a wood chipper on behalf of the neighborhood. Be sure to alert and
invite the neighbors to bring their trees and return home with mulch for
their flowerbeds.
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$$$ - Indicates Indirect Income Opportunities: If
you're a sales professional whose income depends on our ability to make
new friends, these dollar signs represent an opportunity for you to
become widely known for your environmental efforts throughout your
community.
$$$ - Indicates Direct Savings or Income Opportunities: Anytime
you see green dollar signs listed above, this signals an opportunity to
cut overhead costs, take advantage of discounts or even put money in
your pocket by following one of our tips and/or by clicking on one of
the links provided.
$$$ - Note: Our
goal is to help demonstrate all the ways that it pays for you to
consider the environment first. While saving or generating money is
important, please don't allow it to become your primary focus or become
obsessed with it. Once you learn to effectively use these ideas to help
grow a beautiful rose garden, please don't forget to stop along the way
to smell and enjoy them.
Community Resources:
