On The Road - Individual Actions Can Make a Difference

• Rethink your transportation options.
• When running errands, combine trips so that you are not using your car for single-purpose trips.
• Give your car a break – consider transportation alternatives such as public transportation, bicycling or walking to work, bicycling or walking for errands.
• When you do drive, keep your car tuned up and its tires properly inflated to save on fuel costs.
• Drive wisely. Idling is a No! no! Save petrol by switching of the engine even when you are stationary for a while.
• Fill your fuel tanks during cooler evening hours to reduce Volatile Organic Compounds.
• Use non-ozone depleting refrigerant for your car air conditioning system.
• Make sure refrigerant from your vehicles will be recovered and recycled during servicing. Repair all leaks in the air conditioning system.

Make a Difference At Home

• Use household and garden chemical wisely.
• Use non-ODS, low VOC paints and solvents. Be sure to read labels for proper use and disposals of product.
• Repair air conditioners to prevent ozone depleting refrigerants from escaping.
• If you purchase a new air conditioning system or heat pump, purchase one that uses non-ozone depleting refrigerant.
• Turn off lights, fans, televisions, air conditioners when not using to cut energy use.
• Practise wise waste management. Recycle aluminium can, glass bottles, plastic, cardboard and new papers.
• Buy products made of recycled content.
• Replace old light bulbs with new florecent bulbs.
• Stop practicing open burning.
  

Three R's To Reduce Waste

Reduce

Waste prevention, or "source reduction," means consuming and throwing away less. It includes:

purchasing durable, long-lasting goods;
seeking products and packaging that are as free of toxics as possible;
redesigning products to use less raw material in production, have a longer life, or be used again after its original use.

Source reduction actually prevents the generation of waste in the first place, so it is the most preferred method of waste management and goes a long way toward protecting the environment.

Reuse

Reusing items -- by repairing them, donating them to charity and community groups, or selling them -- also reduces waste. Reusing products, when possible, is even better than recycling because the item does not need to be reprocessed before it can be used again.

Recycle

Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become waste into valuable resources. In addition, it generates a host of environmental, financial, and social benefits. Materials like glass, metal, plastics, and paper are collected, separated and sent to facilities that can process them into new materials or products.

Recycling is one of the best environmental success stories of the late 20th century. Recycling, including composting, diverted 79 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2005, up from 34 million tons in 1990. By 2002, almost 9,000 curbside collection programs served roughly half of the American population. Curbside programs, along with drop-off and buy-back centers, resulted in a diversion of about 32 percent of the nation's solid waste in 2005.