Earth Day is in March, but that’s not the only time you should focus on the resources you’re using. Going green should be a year-long initiative, and it starts in your home with your family.
Instilling eco-friendly habits in your kids also helps cement the process early on, making it more likely they’ll use the same practices when they’re grown up with families. Here are five ways you can involve your kids to go green and be more environmentally friendly.
Teach Your Kids Composting
A compost pile is a great way to reduce the amount of things in your trash and ultimately in a landfill. Up to 40% of garbage could be composted, including food scraps, shredded newspaper and even pet hair. Have a separate bin near your trash can and educate your kids about what can and can’t be composted. Then, use your compost as fertilizer for your garden. For more information, The Happy Housewife has a step-by-step article on how to start a compost pile.
Use Alternative Transportation
Yes, that means bikes, public transit and even walking, but sometimes those options aren’t always realistic. What happens when you need a little room for groceries or picking up your kids from school?
Most errand trips and even work commutes are less than 12 miles, so instead of revving up the SUV, think smaller and look into low-speed vehicles. They’ll save you about 44 cents per mile and you won’t have to worry about the rising gas prices. As far as retailers, Road Rat Motors has a great selection of neighborhood electric vehicles that you should check out.
Invest in Solar Charges
Kids these days are more connected than ever, and it’s likely you have a host of small electronics, from cell phones to hand-held video game consoles. Instead of having one charger for everything, pick up solar charger (typically about $70) to power these devices. Plus, this will reduce the amount of vampire power —charges plugged in but not used — you’re using.
Elect Energy Police
The little things make the biggest difference. Case and point: Just by turning off the water when you’re brushing teeth will save 8 gallons of water per day! Don’t just teach your kids the importance about turning of lights when you leave the room or taking shorter showers: Give them the power to enforce it. Elect them as Energy Police so they can “arrest” you for having the light on when watching TV or taking too long of a shower. Making a game out of it will get them to actually do it.
Replace Sticky Notes with Dry Erase Board
As the chief commander of your house, you’ve got to keep everyone in line and that will mean leaving notes to remind everyone of what needs to be done. Instead of the magnetic pad and paper on your fridge, get a dry erase board to leave these notes and save paper. On the same vein, use a dry erase board for your family calendar. The Aesthetic Writer has a get DIY dry erase calendar made of paint chips that you can loop the kids in, too.
About the Author
Rainier Fuclan is a writer for Bintelli Scooters, an eco-friendly wholesale scooter brand that is currently looking for dealers across the country. Rainier is constantly looking for new ways to save both energy and money around his apartment in Florida.
