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How To “Go Green” And Mean It

tisha — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:28:34 +0000

In this day and age, “going green” is increasing in popularity among American consumers, who are trying to do their part to clean up the environment and make the world a better place. With that comes the companies who promote everything as eco-friendly, but in reality they are the farthest thing from it. It is also becoming increasingly harder to determine fact from greenwashing fiction these days. According to Wikipedia, greenwashing is “a term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.” But a few very basic steps can help ensue you are getting what you want.

Natural Don’t Mean Nothin’ – Just because the package says natural, eco-friendly, or non-toxic, it doesn’t mean it has to be. Such terminology is not government regulated so anyone can add them to a product. Words like organic and phrases such as “post-consumer recycled content” accompanied by the certified symbol are what you should be seeking.

Don’t Accept a Promise As Written – It may say that if you use Product A, you will reduce pollution in your neighborhood by 50%, but do you really think it is possible? Go with your gut and common sense. Companies will tend you promise those things you want to hear most.

Research Before You Shop – If you are serious about buying all-things eco-friendly, take the time to research the various places such as books, magazines, and websites like Consumer Reports’ http://greenerchoices.org/ where you will find information about what to look for in products.

Think About Your Own Habits – You may be buying greener products but are you committing to the changes of lifestyle that go along with it? Do you recycle all materials you use at home each and every time? Do you purchase products in bulk to reduce the amount of packaging materials involved? Do you use rechargeable batteries and other products that eliminate disposal of potentially hazardous wastes making their way to the local landfill?

Being green is more about accommodating your lifestyle to meet the needs of a healthy environment and promoting your own good health and choices. Making a commitment to change will have a great impact on the environment as a whole if you take the necessary steps. There are many simple things that can be done by each and every person that would have an effect on the environment. Take the time to read up on the subject and begin practicing it in your every day life instead of waiting for someone else to do it first.

How To “Go Green” And Mean It was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Don’t Charge It- Recharge it

Debbie — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:44:41 +0000

Do you have children? If you do, chances are you spend a great deal of money on batteries. It seems almost every toy and game that kids play with require batteries these days. Not just one or two batteries even, but we have toys that take four to eight batteries to operate- things that really should have a plug and run off electricity but for some unknown reason, they power up with batteries.

Batteries that only seem to last a few hours before they don’t deliver enough power to make the toy or game work. If you try to save a few dollars by purchasing the store brand batteries, forget about it! They end up not being strong enough to operate the toy in the first place, or they only work for about half the time the more expensive brands work.

On a typical month, we purchase an average of the following Energizer batteries (because we found buying cheaper batteries resulted in less run-time and we had to buy them more frequently):

12 Pack of Triple A Batteries: $12
12 Pack of Double A Batteries: $11
8 Pack of D Batteries: $14

For a grand total of around: $37 a month or $444 a year.

I about passed out when I figured this out.

Now, there may be a month that we just let the toys run out of batteries, but this is the average cost to keep them powered up and running properly each month.

I have rechargeable batteries for my digital camera, and I wondered how much I could save if I invested in enough rechargeable batteries to keep our toys powered up for the kids. Assuming I didn’t already have chargers (which I do) this is what the price breakdown would be:

An Energizer universal charger will charge at one time four triple A batteries, or four double A batteries, or four C or D batteries; or 2 9Volt batteries. You can buy a universal charger for about $30. The average recharge time is from three to five hours.
An 8 Pack of Double A, rechargeable batteries runs around $18
An 8 Pack of Triple A batteries runs around $18
A 2 Pack of D batteries is about $9, and we would personally need at least 8. I couldn’t seem to find these sold by Energizer in larger packages, so the initial cost for 4 packs would be $36.

Grand total? $102. For a little more than what we pay in two months time, we could invest in a battery charger and rechargeable batteries and power all the toys and games all year long. I’m sure that rechargeable batteries have a limited lifespan but they’d only have to last a few months to get the investment back and make it worth it.

In addition to saving some money for yourself, rechargeable batteries are better for the environment since you throw them away s0 infrequently.

Don’t Charge It- Recharge it was created by and is property of American Consumer News.