Blog Action Day - Let's Green Out!

Blogger, the host of 10linksaday, is a participant with the Blog Action Day organization. Thousands of blogs across the world are taking part in an environmental action of sorts today. Hence, today, we will be bringing you 10 resources to get "greener"

Today's 10linksaday: Greening Out for FREE!

Junk mail - be gone!
The Benefits:
You will save trees - enough said

Check your tire pressure in your car
The Benefits:
- You can increase your gas mileage by 2 mpg. Over a year, that will save the average driver $60.
- The average life of your tire is extended by 15%.

How about "Free"cycling
The Benefits:
- Keeps stuff from going into the landfills.
- Reuse/recycle means less need for virgin material, and it reduces the strain on valuable resources, such as fuel, forest and water supplies.
- Promotes a sense of community spirit, and teaches kids (and, um, er, adults - see Personally Speaking) the importance of giving.

BYOB - Bring your Own Shopping Bag
The Benefits:
- Save oil and/or trees. In the US, about 12 million barrels of oil and 14 million trees go to producing plastic and paper bags each year.
- Reusing makes cents. Stores like Albertsons and Wild Oats offer a 5-penny discount if you bring your own.
- Be a role model. Other shoppers will watch and learn.
- Make sure plastic bags don't harm sea creatures. They're one of the 12 most commonly found items in coastal cleanups.

Donate your Old Cell Phone
The Benefits:
- Decrease landfill: more than 500 million mobile phones are in landfills now, with another 125 million heading to shelves and landfills this year alone!
- Help Katrina, tsunami and domestic violence victims - you can donate your phone to the charity of your choice and even get a tax write-off.
- Start a trend - in the past 4 years, fewer than 1% of phones were recycled or reused.
- Get stuff - some cell phone recycling services let you trade in your phone for new gadgets.

BYOC - Bring your Own Cup

The Benefits

• Small changes make a big difference, especially for daily drinkers. Individually, one cup of coffee purchased every day in a disposable container contributes about 22.75 pounds of waste per year.
• Prevents use of highly non-biodegradable polystyrene (a.k.a. Styrofoam). While Styrofoam can be recycled, the facilities that do so are few and far between, helping contribute to an annual 25 billion cups of trash.
Save money! Companies like Starbucks offer a small discount to customers who bring in their own reusable containers. In 2004 alone, 15.1 million Starbucks customers brought in their own mugs, keeping an estimated 655,500 pounds of paper out of U.S. landfills.

Think at the Sink

The Benefits

• Instant results. Turning off the water between rinses can save at least two gallons in one brushing session.
• In an average household, faucets result in 15.7% of daily indoor water consumption – about 10.9 gallons. Turning off that faucet while brushing can cut that number in half.

Air Dry

The Benefits

• Line drying is free. Savings in energy costs alone total up to $135 a year.
• Longer lasting clothes and the elimination of static cling. Electric dryers produce static electricity by rubbing clothes over each other repeatedly.
• In those dry winter months, hanging your clothes indoors acts as a hassle-free humidifier.
• For those instances where you need the electric dryer, use its moisture sensor, which automatically shuts off the machine when the clothes are dry.
• Keep your socks from being eaten.

Sign up for E-Statements

• Save trees. If all Americans viewed and paid bills online, we'd save 18.5 million trees each year.
• Protect your identity. According to a
  2003 study, web bill pay reduces identity theft risk by as much as 18%.
• Easily access old statements online.

Turn off the tube

The Benefits

• Live a little. Spend time with the family or friends, cook, go hiking, get it on... Anything besides watching another Friends rerun.
• Save a little energy. TVs account for about 3% of household energy use.
• Lose pounds? An
  International Journal of Obesity study found that watching TV contributes to childhood obesity.

Turn off your computer at night, it doesn't need sleep

The Benefits

• Cleaner air through zzz... Desktop computers can cause 1,500 lb of CO2 per year; enabling sleep mode can reduce energy consumption by up to 70%.
• Saving bucks. Save up to $75 per computer per year.
• It's as simple as popping some Valerian. Changing your PC's settings or downloading a program that does it for you is easier than you think.

Say NO to Receipts

The Benefits

• Less litter. Receipts from the 8 billion ATM transactions each year in the United States create alot waste.
• Easy access. You can view all your transactions on your bank's website, and some stores, such as Apple, will send an e-receipt to your email.
• Peace of mind. Misplaced receipts can help identity thieves steal your info.

Many thanks to Ideal Bite for providing many of the facts for today's posting.