10 green-living tips

1.Ride a bicycle

While choosing pedal power over taking a car will help the environment by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, there are personal benefits to riding a bike. With gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, riding a bike around B-town will save you money.
“(Riding a bike) is faster, easy, offers mobility, can easily save gas … the advantages are limitless,” Kyle Davidson of Revolution Bike and Bean, 401 E. 10th St., said.

2. Recycle
Recycling can reduce your garbage by 60 to 70 percent. For students living on campus, this can be as easy as walking past a blue or green recycling bin and tossing in your recyclables. For those off campus, recycling is still easy. Monroe County Solid Waste Management has five recycling centers in Monroe County. Check out its Web site at www.mcswmd.org for hours and other information. Still unable to get those recyclables to the center? A local business called Bloomington Pedal Power, a “green” delivery service that uses bicycles instead of cars, will regularly pick up your recyclables and deliver them to a recycling center for a small fee. Head to www.bloomingtonpedalpower.com for more information.

3.Buy local food
When you purchase food produced in or around Monroe County, your money goes to the local producers. In contrast, when you take a trip to the nearest supermarket chain, your money goes toward the purchase of gasoline used to ship the food. Looking for some fresh, local food? Chad Roeder, owner of Bloomington Pedal Power, suggests that readers “ride their bikes to the local Farmers’ Market for fresh produce, local entertainment and for information concerning other green initiatives sponsored by the community … the market is a real treasure!”

4. Recycle your lightbulbs
When you swap your old incandescent for compact fluorescent light bulbs, it’s important to recycle your old light bulbs. Both incandescent and compact fluorescent ones contain mercury, a toxin that can seep back into the environment if thrown into a landfill.

5.Think before you buy
When you’re out shopping, think about what you’re buying. This is especially important if you are shopping for products that could be harmful to the environment. Check the label and look for terms like biodegradable, nontoxic, no dyes or fragrance-free. If you do have products that are hazardous, be sure to dispose of them properly by bringing them to a recycling center.

6.Turn off your power strips
Phantom load, also known as standby power, is the energy that runs through appliances such as televisions or computers even when they are shut down. Around 6 percent of total energy consumption is the result of phantom load. By turning off your power strips when your appliances are shut off, you can save yourself some green on your next energy bill.

7.Turn off the water
Running the water while shaving (in the sink or shower) or brushing your teeth is very wasteful. While this is one of the best-known tips, it is one of the most important; running water in the shower unnecessarily can waste anywhere from five to 10 gallons per minute.

8.Pay your bills online
Still getting those envelopes in the mail every month for anything from cable to credit cards? If at all possible, sign up to pay your bills online. The trees will thank you.

9.Grow native plants
The next time you decide to purchase a pot of flowers or plant some vegetables in your backyard, try to find local plants. The ones that grow in other climates not only take more effort to grow, they also require more water than native plants.

10.Use rechargeable batteries
Getting into this easy habit will keep the landfills a little emptier and prevent the toxic metals found in batteries (including mercury) from getting into the environment. You will also save quite a bit of money the next time you need to swap out the batteries in your digital camera.