Celebuthrifty: Ed Begley Jr.'s healthy solutions for the planet

Transportation
How we get from point A to point B has the biggest impact on our air, water and land. Walk or ride a bike to the market or to go to the bank or video store. Picking up a few small items is not the sort of chore you need a 2,500 pound machine for. It's sort of like using a sledgehammer to pound in a carpet tack. Major overkill. Use public transportation whenever possible.

For the truly dedicated: electric or natural gas vehicles are available at reasonable prices in many parts of the country. For electric car information call (909) 949-7914, or call the Electric Vehicle Association or the Electric Auto Association in your local directory for a listing. For Natural Gas Vehicle information, call the NGV Technology Center at (800)NGV-9440 or call your local gas utility.

Home Energy Use
Chances are, there's a lot of power going to waste in your own home. The easiest thing to start with is lighting. Whenever a light bulb goes out, replace it with a compact fluorescent. They cost more to begin with, but they last nine times as long and they save you a lot of money on your energy bills.

Energy saving thermostats also save a great deal in heating and cooling costs and usually pay for themselves in a few scant months. The savings from them is all money in your pocket.

If you're thinking of replacing an appliance, certainly a large one like a fridge, the newest generation of energy saving models will cut your electric bills substantially. You can get a super-efficient model from the Real Good Catalogue at (800) 762-7325 or from most appliance chains that now offer fairly efficient units as well.

Food
If you're fortunate enough to have a small patch of dirt near your house, plant some seeds and enjoy the truly delicious treats all, or part of the year, depending on where you live. If you live in an apartment, start a community garden, if you can secure a local lot. Or at least grow something in a window box to get a small sense of where food comes from. Most kids today know thousands of brand names by the time they're 8 or 9, but only a half dozen plants - a clear sign of how unaware we've become that dirt is the basis of all true wealth.

Reduce Waste
I've reduced my waste to about a glove compartment's worth of trash a week. It's getting easier to do that in many cities as curbside recycling programs are put into place in nearly every state. Aluminum, newspaper, plastic, and glass recycling are fairly commonplace now. It's the rare community that doesn't have curbside or drop-off centers for these items.

A lot of additional waste is probably paper. If they don't take paper at the curb where you live, look in the Yellow Pages under "Recycling." Chances are, they have a site near where you live that you can also take white paper, colored paper, corrugated and chip cardboard and many other items.

Yard waste is another big component in our daily refuse. Keep it onsite, if you can. Mix it with table scraps (no meat or bones, please), sawdust, wood ashes, etc., and you've got a rich soil amendment for your plants.

PRE-cycling is another effective way to reduce your waste. I really consider packaging when I purchase things and don't buy items that I can't recycle.

Fitness enthusiasts often take supplements, powders and the like. When making purchases of this sort, think "green." The easiest plastic containers to recycle are the ones that have a 1 or a 2 in the center of the recycling triangle logo (usually on the bottom of the container). The 3,4,5 and 6 containers are the more problematic. If you want to know about recycling these or any other items call Californians Against Waste (916) 443-5422.

There are hundreds of other recommendations that one could make on how we might tread more lightly on this planet we call home. The book "50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth" lists them quite nicely, but remember, simplicity is the key. Start with these, and you'll surely have your hands full for a while.

Visit his site now: www.edbegley.com

Subscribe