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© Learning ZoneXpress
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Why Get on the Green
Fast Track?
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Safeguard natural resources
Cut expenses, cut waste
Improve your health
Feel good about your
contribution
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Get Up to Green Speed
• Search the Internet
• Check through
books
• Browse magazine
articles
• Ask a semi-expert
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Can You Speak the
Language?
• Sustainability – a way to live in
harmony with the environment
• Global warming – activities that
cause the earth to heat up
• Renewable resources – an effort to
protect water, food, timber and energy
to use again and again.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – a plan to
create less daily waste
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Flip a Switch to Save
Energy
• Turn off lights, electronics and
appliances
• Replace regular light bulbs with
CFLs
• CFLs use ¼ energy, last 15
times longer
• Turn heat down a few degrees
• Use fans instead of air
conditioning.
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Get Out of Hot Water
• Take a quick shower
instead of bath
• Wash your clothes in
cold water
• Dishwasher uses less
hot water than hand
washing
• Brush teeth then rinse
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Gauge Your Gas
Oil is not a renewable resource
• Carpool with friends
• Public transportation is a
bargain
• Hop on your bike
• Rediscover your feet
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Solve the Plastic
Problem
• 500 billion plastic bags are used each
year
• Family of four uses 15 bags per
grocery trip
• Plastic bags kill hundreds of
thousands of marine animals
• Bags made with petroleum
substances and toxic chemicals
Solution
Shop with reusable cloth bags
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Drink to Your
Environment
• 40 million plastic
bottles discarded
each day
Solutions
• Recycle plastic bottles
• Tap into tap water
• Carry a reusable bottle
• Bottle throwaways
eyesore and waste
• Bottled water costs
10,000 times
more than tap
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Save a Tree
• Paper takes up one-half of
landfill space
• Millions of trees cut for mail,
paper products
• $1 of a $10 purchase goes to
packaging
Solutions
Recycle all paper
Pass on books and magazines
Use less packaging
Opt out of junk mail at
www.dmachoice.org/mps
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Visit a Landfill
• Nearly 60% of trash buried
• 3,500 landfills in United States
• 200 million tons of solid waste
per year
• Costs around $40 a ton to
dispose of waste
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Weigh Your Waste
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Average person creates 4-5 pounds of daily garbage
Save all your trash today
Include garbage at home, school, in public
Weigh the total at end of day
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Give Biodegradability
a Break
• Organisms break down biodegrade - products to
return to the earth
• Some biodegrade
quickly, some never
How Fast Items Biodegrade
• Banana peel – 7 days
• Paper – 5 months
• Cotton clothing – 5 months
• Nylon – 40 years
• Aluminum cans – 100 years
• Disposable diapers – 500 years
• Plastic bottles - never
Use a biodegradable
product today
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Rev Up to Reduce,
Reuse and Recycle
Plan to Manage Waste
• Reduce trash by using less
• Reuse items for a longer
life
• Recycle discards for new
products
Check your community
for recycle locations
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Eliminate E-Waste
• What: computers, TVs,
cameras, phones, batteries,
music players
• Why: contain toxins – lead,
mercury, nickel
• How: recycle or safe disposal
• Where: tech stores, local
centers, www.earth911.org
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Give Grooming the
Green Light
• Consumer uses more
than 15 personal care
products per day
• Less than 1% of care
products get safety check
• Choose safer personal
care products
• Look at ingredients.
Chemicals? Organic?
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Go Green in Your
Closet
• Recycle clothes with
donations and
exchanges
• Benefits come with
chemicals
• Consider natural
fibers – organic
cotton, hemp,
bamboo and corn
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Eat Something Green
Today
• Organic – USDA Label
• Not genetically modified
• 95% pesticide free
• No hormones
• All Natural – Mostly a
Farmers’ Markets – Local
produce
• Fresh, seasonal
• Check for organic label
slogan – Claims include:
• No preservatives
• No artificial flavors
• No food coloring
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Consider Safety-First
Cleaning
• Toxins in cleaners can harm people, and
the environment
- nausea - headaches - rashes
- eye irritation
- difficulty breathing
- liver, kidney problems - cancer
• Try new green, non-toxic cleaners
• Create natural cleaners with baking soda,
vinegar, salt
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How Green Is Your
Building?
• Building supplies often contain toxic
chemicals
• Building industry starting to turn
green
• Organic materials, natural woods
and fresh air ventilation offered
• Check out organic paints
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Reduce Your Carbon
Footprint
What’s a carbon footprint?
• The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions you use
• Calculate home, energy, travel, shopping,
food
• Calculators on Internet
• Go carbon neutral –
• Offset CO2 usage with charitable
donations
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Turn Someone Green
• Share your discoveries
• Explain reduce, reuse,
recycle plan
• Personal experiences
can guide others
• A good review for you
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Good Job –
Good Beginning
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List your changes
Weigh your waste again
Are you recycling?
Give yourself a green star for a great green start
Keep on living green
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What Will You Do
in 21 Days?
• Journal about your
transition to a green
life. Each day write a
quick note about what
you did to support the
environment and
remember to use
recycled paper.
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Review Questions
1. How many plastic bags are used every year?
500 million? 50 billion? 500 billion?
500 billion.
2. What can you do at the grocery store to reduce waste?
Bring reusable cloth shopping bags.
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How can you save energy in your home?
Turn off lights and appliances when not in use.
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How much garbage does the average person create each
day?
Four to five pounds.
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Review Questions
5. What slogan tells you how to cut down on all the garbage
you create?
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
6. What is the number one substance people throw away?
Paper.
7. What are two common household ingredients you could
use to make natural cleaners?
Baking soda and vinegar.
8. Clothing manufacturers are making fashions out of what
two unusual plants?
Bamboo and corn.
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More on Environmentalism From
Learning ZoneXpress
• Go Green Around Your Home Video/DVD
• Global Warming Poster
• What to Do with Used Clothing Poster
• The Mechanics of Organic Food
PowerPoint
• Organic Food Poster
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Resources
Books
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Better Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less
Toxic Living – Annie Berthold-Bond
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Conscious Style Home, Eco-Friendly living for the 21st
Century – Danny Seo
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Creating A Healthy Household – LynnMarie Bower
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Naturally Clean, The Seventh Generation Guide to Safe
and Healthy Non-Toxic Cleaning – Jeffrey Hollender,
Geoff Davis, Meika Hollender, Reed Doyle
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Organic Housekeeping – Ellen Sandbeck
Green This! – Deirdre Imus
It’s Easy Being Green, a Handbook for Earth-Friendly
Living – Crissy Trask
Internet Sites
•www.epa.gov
•www.earth911.org
•www.idealbite.com
•www.greenlivingtips.com
•www.thegreenguide.com
Wake Up and Smell the Planet: The Non-Pompous, NonPreachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day” – Grist
Magazine
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21 Days to a Green Life
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www.learningzonexpress.com
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