If you didn't know by now that being green could help you save green you clearly haven't been paying much attention. We've written a whole bunch of articles on the subject. Here's one more for good measure, with miscellaneous tips for ways to keep our planet healthy and your wallet fuller. Yay environment!
1. Reduce your energy usage. We wrote about climate control here, your fridge here, and general electric things here. And in general, be smarter about your daily activities and their environmental impact.
2. Take the bus or train, or walk instead of driving. Not driving means not paying for gas or parking, and more cars off the streets means cleaner air for you to breathe.
3. Get on your bike and ride. LA Metro has a whole resource page devoted to biking in LA, including maps of all the bike lanes in the county. You can even take your bus on the train or bus!
4. Recycle! The city of Los Angeles provides blue bins to all homes for you to use, as does just about every city in the county. Live in an apartment or condo in LA? Enroll your building in LA's multi-family residential program at no cost to you or your building. California also raised the redemption value of your bottles and cans to 5 and 10 cents depending on size, so save up and cash in. You can recycle a lot more these days than you'd expect, but it does vary from place to place. The city of LA recycles more than most, and unincorporated LA County areas recycle slightly fewer things. Check your city's Department of Public Works website for details about your area. To make you want to recycle even more, LA started a pilot program with RecycleBank to give you incentives to recycle more. And boy do we like incentives.
5. Learn to compost. Keep your food and yard waste from going to a landfill and return those nutrients back to the food chain. LA's Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division (SRCRD) offers free composting workshops and deals on composting equipment available to LA residents. That $5 worm bin is totally in your price range.
6. Grow your own food. First, save your empty yogurt containers or dishes of a similar nature. Then buy some potting soil at the 99 Cent Store and mix it with your compost. Head to the farmers' market for some organic fruit. Savor the flavor and save the seeds to plant in your recycled containers. You'll have more fruit for free in no time!
