One of the easiest things we can all do to lower our impact on the environment is to recycle. Recycling isn’t just about throwing your empty soda can or coffee cup in your office recycle bin. You can recycle almost anything these days. My wife and I bought a 1910 house last year and during our remodel we found a Habitat for Humanity Thift Store in a nearby city. We donated and purchased several construction materials from the store and really appreciated how our money was being used to help others build their homes and that we were finding quality materials for a low cost. 

 

There are several excellent groups on the internet that are for people to give and receive free stuff locally back and forth. Depending on the area you can find almost anything that someone wants to give away ( or  wants what you want to get rid of) and memberships are usually free. Using these groups keeps these items from filling our landfills when someone else could still get some use out of them. We like to use http://www.freecycle.org/ and have had great success finding items we wanted and finding people who wanted things we no longer needed. We’ve found an ellipitical trainer (only 2 years old and in good shape), a working push lawn mower, a gym set, furniture, etc, etc, you get the idea.

 

Ask if your local Municipality recycles. If not, check local churches and non profit organizations in your area. The chances are good there is an organization in your neighborhood that will gladly accept your recyclables.

 

Set up a magazine round robin. My wife and two of her girlfriends each subscribe to different magazines on subjects that interests all three of them. When they each are done, they pass the magazines along to each other. That way each one only pays for one subsciption instead of three.

 

Bartering for things you want or need is another great way to be green. Everyone has an item or a skill that someone else wants and they could have something or a skill that you want. Post notices on local bulletin boards at your local church and social centers naming what you want, what you want to trade for it,  and how to get in touch with you. On the internet, Craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html) has a great barter section in their for sale section. If you google the word barter you will find many exchanges and barter clubs around the country that have many differant kinds of services and items for trade.

 

Not only are you helping the environment, you can also save and make money from your recycling efforts. From something as simple as saving your aluminum soda cans and turning them into your local metal recycling plant for 50 – 80 cents a pound ( our local recycle plant pays 80 cents a pound for aluminum cans — 4 large trash bags = $25 that would’ve been just thrown away!) to saving old computers and cell phones and reselling them to companies that refurbish and resell them to their customers. Whenever you have a yard sale you are recycling!