10 Quick Tips for Going Green at Home - ConsumerReports.org

Turn Off the Tap
Shutting off the water while brushing your teeth will save about 2,000 gallons a year. Turning off the shower when lathering up or shampooing will save even more: The typical showerhead gushes up to 5 gallons per minute. Find out how to cut your water use in half.

Do Dishes the Right Way
Follow these tips for hand-washing your dishes. Or use a dishwasher but don't prerinse the dishes. It's unnecessary and wastes up to 6,500 gallons of water per year. Check out these energy-efficient dishwashers.

Recycle Electronics
Cell phones, laptops, tablets, and other electronics contain toxic materials including lead, mercury, and cadmium, which can leach into the environment if not disposed of properly. Go to Earth911 or Call2Recycle for locations near you that collect old electronics to be refurbished, resold, or recycled. Also, see other ways to get rid of your electronics, including selling or trading them in if they’re in good condition.

Opt Out of Unwanted Mail
Yes, you can recycle that pile of unwanted mail, but it’s even better to eliminate paper waste in the first place. Each year more than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrives in American mailboxes. Register with Catalog Choice or the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service to opt out of getting junk mail. Prefer using an app? Try PaperKarma. Extra credit: Ask your utilities and financial service providers for paper-free billing and statements.

Expand Your Recipe Repertory
The average American wastes about 1 pound of food a day, and food waste is the largest category of material in our landfills, where it emits methane, a greenhouse gas. Find a recipe that incorporates food scraps, such as vegetable stock or carrot top pesto. (Remember, we wouldn’t have banana bread without overripe bananas no one wants to eat.)

For everything else, return those nutrients to the earth by composting or find a community garden or farmers market that will be happy to take your vegetable peels, fruit cores, egg shells, and coffee grinds.

(Read more about food waste in Spoiler Alert: You're Wasting 1 in 4 Bags of Groceries from our archives.)

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