Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Congratulations – you've decided to spring for those efficient, long-lasting compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Trouble is, the bulbs contain tiny bits of mercury, a hazardous material that sometimes requires special disposal. So what to do when the corkscrew-shaped bulbs finally go out?
Waste Management Inc. introduced a CFL recycling kit. For $14.95, a green consumer gets a box that will hold 15 10-watt bulbs, with postage to the company's recycling plant in Minnesota.
The Houston trash collection company also offers battery recycling kits at its Web site.
Waste Management spokesman Wes Muir said the company expects consumers will like the convenience of the program since there's no financial incentive to recycle the bulbs and batteries.
But for Waste Management, the financial incentive is great.
The price the company charges for the kits pays for the postage and recycling, so Waste Management can sell the recyclable materials it receives for pure profit.
