Make your Valentines GREEN. We tend to go overboard and buy gifts like stuffed animals and plastic thingy’s that end up getting tossed. Even the plastic gift cards are harmful to the environment. Each year, 75 million pounds of PVC is dumped into landfills from plastic gift card waste. If you are going to give a gift card go for the electronic and paperless option, an eGift card. OR Make your own gift certificates for an experience. Any busy person would appreciate a handmade gift certificate for a homemade dinner, doing laundry for a week or any other task you know they would appreciate. Get creative.

Recent research has found that air inside homes can be more polluted than the air in the largest, most industrialized cities. Indoor air pollution is caused by a lack of ventilation and can lead to more frequent colds, respiratory problems, and other ailments and diseases. Keep the house clean. House dust mites, pollens, animal dander, and other pollutants can be reduced through regular cleaning. Install and use fans vented to the outdoors in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms. Keeping humidity levels in these areas below 50% can prevent water condensation on building materials, which can breed bacteria and mold. High levels of mold can be incredibly dangerous to your family’s long-term health.

Here’s two easy ideas to help save you money and the planet. Adjust your water heater. If you lower the thermostat on your hot-water heater from about 145 to 120 degrees, the change isn’t likely to be noticeable. This step could save you more than $20 a year if you heat water with gas and more than $50 if your water heater is electric. Buy a programmable thermostat for your home. They cost between $30 and $100, but that’s money you’re sure to make back over the course of a year because your energy bills will drop. A programmable thermostat allows you to adjust your home’s temperature on a predetermined schedule, so you don’t unnecessarily waste energy when you’re not home or when you’re sleeping.

You made the switch to energy efficient CFL bulbs. It seems that they last forever∑but when the light does finally go out what should you do? Recycle! Most CFL bulbs with the Energy Star logo have a two-year warranty. Once it’s time to recycle don’t just throw it into your household garbage can where it may leak mercury into whatever landfill it find its way to. Place the CFL in a sealed plastic bag. Check with the City Of Toronto for your local Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Centre. Home Depot, RONA and some IKEA stores offer CFL drop off programs.

Today you can help the environment by sending your kids outside to play. It can improve their concentration and fight climate change. Researchers at the University of Illinois found that children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder who took walks outdoors raised their attentiveness scores AND kids who walked in natural settings did better than those who walked city streets. A dose of nature was just as effective as a dose of Ritalin. Of course, the more time kids spend playing outdoors the less time they’ll spend at video-game consoles—which consume an estimated 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

Hundreds of millions of pillows hit our landfills each year. Pillows are bulky and often filled with synthetic fibers such as polyester. Based on changing a pillow once a year, hundreds of millions of
pillows would head to landfills in North America each year. Reduce their impact on the environment by finding useful ways to recycle them. If you have pets use them as a dog or cat bed. You can also donate them to an animal shelter or vet clinic to use as bedding. Make throw pillows out of them or use the stuffing as packing material.

How green is your car? You don’t have to drive a hybrid to go green with your vehicle. The first thing you can do to is make sure your car has decent tires fitted. Up to 20 percent of your fuel can actually be wasted with the wrong tires, especially if the resistance is too high. This makes the car work a lot harder and burn more gas. How much junk is in your trunk? Are you carrying around unnecessary weight? Lighten your load to save fuel. Don’t idle. If you are stopping for more than 2 minutes turn your engine off. The same energy is used to restart a car as if it was to run in idle mode. This helps to save you money and stops unnecessary emissions of green house gases.

You clean out the lint trap in your dryer so it will work more  efficiently and save energy and money. But what do you do with the lint? Did you know it lint be recycled? If the lint came from clothes  that are made of cotton, wool, or linen, then you can compost it or even put it in your garden. You can also use it as insulation in your outdoor sheds. To cut down on the draftiness and keep out the winter
cold, plug the gaps with wads of dryer lint. Some people even use it for arts and crafts.

This weekend if you order in…take out the plastic utensils and napkins from the bag. Most take out restaurants throw a stack of napkins that most likely get thrown into your garbage! When ordering your food make sure to tell them you don’t need any utensils or napkins. If you have a stack of them, find other ways to use them. You can save them in your car for unexpected messes, or pack the utensils with your lunch for work. Make sure you compost the napkins in layers, or recycle them with your other paper goods. Whatever you do just don’t throw them into the trash.

How can you save energy and save money? Use your electricity wisely and take advantage of Toronto Hydro’s PowerShift program. You can power or load shift by turning off appliances or lights during peak hours and turning them on again during off-peak hours. Toronto Hydro has started to introduce Time-of-Use rates throughout the GTA. Even if your not part of the program yet there are still ways to reduce your energy usage. Try to do your laundry and dishwashing during off-peak times, either evenings or weekends. Use a programmable thermostat. For more info log onto www.torontohydro.com