Five Everyday Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Reducing your carbon footprint may involve big choices and lifestyle changes, but it can also involve small choices that add up day after day. Here are five everyday ways you can be greener in Avon:

1. SWAP: Did you know that the Avon landfill has an exchange shed, sometimes called the swap shack, where residents can drop off and pick up usable items. It's open to Avon residents only Tuesdays and Fridays from  7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Saturdays from  7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. There's also a Salvation Army clothing bin on site.
How it helps: The manufacture of just about anything uses energy and contributes to carbon emissions, and disposing of it can pollute. Reusing an item instead of throwing it away is the most basic form of recycling. 
More information: Town of Avon, www.town.avon.ct.us  

2. FREECYCLE: Take the swap shack idea, above, add modern technology and you get the freecycling movement, which encourages people to use the Internet to give away the things they don't need. Join the Avon Freecycling group and you can post notices of things you want to give away and search for things you might need. It's not just environmentally friendly, it's charitable and frugal. Items given away include furniture, household goods, electronics, clothing and even garden produce.
How it helps: Manufacturing creates carbon emissions but reusing things doesn't. 
More information: Avon Freecycling, groups.yahoo.com/group/AvonFreecycle/   

3. LEARN TO BE GREENER: The Avon High School Sierra Club will hold its Eco-Night Fair April 29 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the high school to promote sustainable practices. Admission is $5. In addition, Tunxis Community College in Farmington offers an online course called Going Green at Home. The non-credit course lasts six weeks and covers such topics as reusing and recycling, nutrition, commuting and heating. It will also explore that eternal question: paper or plastic. A new session starts every month. The course fee is $109.
How it helps: The Tunxis course descriptions says "By the time you’re done, you’ll know how to make your living space eco-friendly from top to bottom!"
More information:  Tunxis Community College, www.ed2go.com/tunxis 

4. WASH IN COLD: Not you – your laundry. You can conserve electricity and reduce carbon emissions by washing your laundry in cold water with a cold-water detergent. Washing full loads also cuts overall energy use. And bypassing the dryer to hang the laundry out just adds to the greenness.
How it helps: About 90 percent of the energy that a typical top-loading washing machine uses to clean a load of laundry is consumed by heating the water, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
More information: Project Laundry List, www.laundrylist.org

5. AIR DRY THE DISHES: If your dishwasher has an air dry option, use it. If not, turn the machine off before the drying cycle, prop the door open and let your dishes air dry. The Department of Energy also recommends that you avoid using the “rinse hold” for small quantities of dirty dishes because it uses extra hot water. (Experts generally agree that washing dishes by hand consumes considerably more energy and water than machine washing, by the way.)
How it helps: The drying cycle uses about 15 percent of the energy it takes to clean a load of dishes, according to the Green House Project.
More information: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Savers, www.energysavers.gov/tips