CLAM SHELL DRIVEWAY

Last Saturday I purchased a dozen little neck clams from George's Fish Market on Route 28 in Harwichport, Mass on Cape Cod. After cooking up the clams I throw the clam shells on a small portion of my stone covered driveway by my enclosed porch as shown in the picture on the left. I later crush up the shells by stepping on them. I have joked with the people at the fish market when purchasing the little neck clams that I am gradually building a crushed shell driveway a dozen clam shells at a time.

At a cost of $4.80 per dozen this driveway area will be quite expensive and take many years to complete as I generally purchase a dozen clams at most once a week. However, I think it is a good idea to use the clam shells in this manner instead of just throwing them into the garbage.

Small steps such as this can add up if enough people do the same thing and reduce the amount of trash that they generate day to day.

CARDBOARD AND PAPER RECYCLING

As shown in the photo on the left and the picture below; cardboard, office and computer paper can be compressed and recycled.

CARDBOARD AND COMPUTER AND OFFICE PAPER RECYCLING

At the town of Dennis transfer station on Cape Cod they have a recycling area where you can recycle cardboard,computer paper and office paper. As shown in the picture on the left and on the picture above this post; the recycled material is compressed and later transported to a recycling center.

Does your area have this type of recycling service? If not, you might want to investigate adding this to your recycling center.

PAY BY COMPUTER

It is a good idea to sign up by computer to pay some of your recurring monthly bills such as your heat, electric, cable television or satellite, credit card, and telephone bills. This action reduces the amount of stamps you have to buy as well as cutting down on the amount of paper and mail that you have to store in your home or throw in the garbage. With the advent of the computer you can always look up account information online and print a hard copy of any information that you need.

This action can reduce the amount of car miles you need to drive to bring mail to the post office or utility office as well as saving your time.

In addition to paying your bills online it is also a good idea to consider signing up to receive stock security annual reports online and to vote your shares for annual and special meetings online instead of receiving all of this information through the mail.

Small steps like these can multiply into a large amount of energy savings when multiplied by the actions of millions of people throughout the country.

LEAVE THE DRIVING TO THEM

When possible it is a good idea to use public transportation and motor coach travel to get to your destination. For example, motorcoach travel currently provides 184 passenger miles per gallon with each motorcoach having the potential of removing 55 cars from the highway. Traveling by motorcoach reduces fuel consumption,emissions and traffic congestion. In addition, taking a motorcoach reduces the mileage on your person car and the wear and tear these miles would have produced on your tires, engine oil, etc. With the high cost of gasoline particularly last year where the U.S. Internal Revenue Service estimated a cost of 58.5 cents per mile after June 30th; taking a motorcoach is often a cheaper form of transportation which can often reduce your individual highway tolls and parking fees on many trips.

You can also read, sleep,look out the window, use your personal laptop computer and talk with your friends without having to concentrate on the road ahead. So, leave the driving to them when you take a motorcoach instead of your personal car.

CEREAL INNER LINING

The inner lining of your cereal box can be re-used for many things such as storing leftovers in your refrigerator or as a bag to store almost any items around your house.

You paid for the cereal, you might as well re-use the bag inside the cereal box.

DRINK ORANGE JUICE SAVE RAINFOREST

Tropicana orange juice has a promotion together with Cool Earth where they aim to save thousands of acres of rainforest. This promotion ends 12/31/09. For every code you enter they will preserve 100 square feet of rainforest. I have no involvement personally with the Tropicana company, however, if you drink this brand of orange juice or find it on sale; it makes sense to me to take the time to enter the code on the carton and do your part to help preserve the endangered rainforest.