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Ways you can help the Environment

Create an Eco Challenge:

Involve your office, classroom, sports group, friends or family in an eco-challenge! An eco-challenge is when you set a task of eco-friendly options to complete in a certain time frame. Some eco-challenges include:

Keeping power off, conserve energy
Recycling challenges
Planting trees
Composting
Identifying eco hazards and finding solutions for them

Keep it simple and do an eco-challenge for 24 hours or make it a big social event and do it longer with prizes for winning teams!

Recycling

Check your garbage and see what can be recycled instead. Most communities have recycling depots and some even have curbside pickups. All you have to do is rinse your recyclables clean and put them in the container - now how hard is that?

Here in Airdrie we use Ready Recycling, they come pick up our recycling every week. We pay for the service since the City doesn't yet have a curbside pick up, but it's only $3 a week and really cuts down on our garbage - plus it's great for the environment! When we lived in Calgary and didn't recycle, we threw out approx. 5 bags of garbage a week - (yes, 5!) and now we are down to 1.5 - so just imagine how much recycling can help!

Refuse

If you find products in non-recyclable material, see if there are other options. If something, say spaghetti, is wrapped in cellophane and there's an alternative brand that comes in a box - choose the box! The box can be recycled, the cellophane can not!

Take out food: one of the biggest concerns is the packaging take out comes in. Try to choose restaurants that offer recyclable packaging. If you really love your restaurant but they don't offer recyclable materials: ask them to change! Don't think they won't, they probably just never thought about it before and every business welcomes feedback from it's customers!

Reuse

If you can reuse products & containers - go for it! Water bottles are a BIG item today! You can buy a bottled water for a buck and throw it away when done. Even if you recycle it still takes energy to break it down and reuse. The best option for your daily water is the water bottles you can buy in the store (BPA free) and wash after each use!

Ink cartridges are another area you can reuse. You can get ink refills and instead of replacing a cartridge with a new one each time, simply refill it! However, this can also void your warranty so it's understandable if you don't want to reuse an ink cartridge for your machine. Drop your unwanted cartridges off @ Staples or your ink supplier so they can recycle for you!

Composting

You can view a great video on how to compost here:

Ways you can help the Environment

Eco-Challenges and Green Living!