Solar Kids - Solar from a Smart Kid's Point of View

I couldn’t wait a week, so it is earlier than expected!

This series of posts is my Top Ten List of Things To Do to be green even if you don’t have solar. Read the previous post. Here are 7, 6, and 5.

7. In Rags and Tatters

Rags are useful things when cleaning. You can dust with them, wipe spills, clean glass, and pretty much replace paper towels. Rags can be old soft clothes (t-shirts are good, but jeans won’t work), handkerchiefs or towels: any soft fabric that you can’t use anymore. I don’t mean when you grow out of a t-shirt to use that for cleaning; that should go to the salvation army or something along those lines. If you have a shirt that has a gigantic stain that won’t come out or a hole in it; that is perfect rag material! When a rag becomes too grimy, throw it in the washing machine with your towels.

6. Reuse It Again and Again

Many people don’t realize the impact making new things has on the environment. It uses up a lot of energy making these items, delivering them to stores, and later, when you don’t want it anymore, simply throwing it away to create larger and larger hulking landfills. Ewww! That’s not good! What can we do, though, when we need that book for summer reading or want a cowboy hat for a Halloween costume? Go to a garage sale, thrift shop, hand-me-downs, clothing swap, used book store, so on and so forth! It can be fun and less expensive, too. And if you have something that someone can use, but you don’t want it anymore, donate it. Also, if a piece of jewelry, such as a necklace, breaks, don’t despair! You can turn it into a new necklace that is more unique! You can sometimes find a bag of broken jewelry at a thrift shop and you can mix and match and work a little to create pieces all your own. Going to these shops is like an adventure waiting to happen.

5. Paper Saver

Remember number six’s whole ‘impact of making new things’ bit? Well, that applies to paper as well. Somewhere between 3 billion and 6 billion trees are cut down each year, a humongous amount. Buying products made out of recycled paper is a wonderful way to lessen this monstrous figure. You can get napkins, paper towels, facial tissues, and toilet paper made out of recycled paper. Go to this page for a list of products that are green and which to avoid! Remember, some of the paper they are using is from households that recycle, so be sure to recycle as much unsoiled paper as possible (no napkins with food on them, no chemicals, nothing like that. You CAN recycle newspaper, old notebooks, homework assignments from last year, etc.).

Stay tuned for the next trio.