Dishwasher or Sink

Research says that a load of dishes cleaned in a dishwasher requires 37 percent less water than washing dishes by hand. While this is true, there is also something else to consider. The reason it uses less water is because we let the water run while washing dishes. If we fill the sink basin with water and wash dishes without endlessly running the water, we will actually use less water than our dishwasher. Actually, we could use half as much water. That makes a difference. So there are two ways here that we can go green while washing dishes.
1. We can fill our sink basin with water and wash dishes by hand.
2. If washing dishes by hand just doesn’t work for us, then we can put them in the dishwasher without washing them first.
Both ways will save water and money at the same time.
One more thing to think about with dishwashers: According to the California Energy Commission “as much as 80 percent of the energy your dishwasher uses goes to heat water”.
Going green is more than just saving water. It means saving energy too.
Sources
www.consumerenergycenter.org

Shower or Bath

Okay, this one is hard for me. Normally I take a shower, but every once in a while I like to soak in the tub. It seems to help a lot in coping with daily stresses. So I still take the occasional bath, but most of the time I take a shower.
Here are the facts I discovered while investigating this topic:
~ How much water you use depends on your shower head
~ Older shower heads can use approximately five gallons of water per minute.
~ An average bath requires 30-50 gallons of water.
~ A four minute shower with an old shower head can use approximately 20 gallons of water.
~ A four hour shower with a low-flow shower head can use about 10 gallons of water.
~ To test whether a shower or a bath uses less water for you, perform a simple test if you have a bathtub.
o Plug the tub when taking a shower. When your shower is done, see how much water is in the tub. Is it less than you would use for a bath or more? This will tell you whether you use less water taking a bath or a shower.
Sources
www.consumerenergycenter.org

Computer Paper

Computer paper can add up money-wise and tree-wise as well. One thing I have made it a habit to do is to use both sides of paper. Even paper I get in the mail, or handouts from school, etc. Anytime I get paper that is printed only on one side, I make sure to use the other side in my printer. Of course, I can’t use this paper to write personal letters, or business letters, or print out customer receipts. But there are other things I can use it for such as printing out my receipts for tax purposes and stuff like that. I am not sure how much money I save by doing this, but I know I would use twice as much paper as I do now. At $35 for a case of paper, the savings really adds up. And that is before I consider the cost to our environment by wasting paper unnecessarily.

We can take this one step further and put the paper into the recycle bin when we are done with it. Unless it has personal information on it, then shred it for your own protection.

This Tip was brought to you by
Donna Loudon
Tupperware Director
Click here to visit my website