What Is Carbon Footprint?

What Is Carbon Footprint?

Your Carbon Footprint is a measure of how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted annually into the atmosphere as a result of your day-to-day lifestyle. It encompasses all the daily activities you do and allows you to understand more clearly what impact your regular lifestyle has on global warming as a whole.

Your Carbon Footprint is built up by considering many different elements of your day-to-day actions and applying a CO2 emissions calculation to each of these. The most common and most frequently calculated elements include:

Your home's annual electricity and gas usage for heating, lighting and powering your household.

Your fuel usage for all the car journeys you undertake.

Your portion of the emissions created by the bus, train, boat and plane journeys you take.

The carbon impact of your shopping and consumerism.

The impact of the production, use and disposal of your household waste.

Carbon dioxide is a so called greenhouse gas causing global warming . Other greenhouse gases which might be emitted as a result of your activities are e.g. methane and ozone. These greenhouse gases are normally also taken into account for the carbon footprint. They are converted into the amount of CO2 that would cause the same effects on global warming (this is called equivalent CO2 amount)

The carbon footprint is a very powerful tool to understand the impact of personal behaviour on global warming. Most people are shocked when they see the amount of CO2 their activities create! If you personally want to contribute to stop global warming, the calculation and constant monitoring of your personal carbon footprint is essential.

Smart ways to reduce your carbon footprints:

As well as your primary carbon footprint, there is also a secondary footprint that you cause through your buying habits.

Don't buy bottled water if your tap water is safe to drink

Buy local fruit and vegetables, or even try growing your own

Buy foods that are in season locally

Don't buy fresh fruit and vegetables which are out of season, they may have been flown in

Reduce your consumption of meat

Try to only buy products made close to home (look out and avoid items that are made in the distant lands)

Buy organic products

Don't buy over packaged products

Recycle as much as possible

Think carefully about the type of activities you do in your spare time. Do any of these cause an increase in carbon emissions? e.g. Saunas, Health clubs, restaurants and pubs, go-karting etc. etc...

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Practice 3R to Recyle

Practice 3R to Recyle

The 3R's are basically:

Smart ways to follow for this rule:

Crush Shopping
Waste reduction starts at the supermarket. By making slight alterations to your shopping list you can significantly reduce the amount of waste created in and around the home.

Buy only what you need
Reduce unnecessary waste by avoiding those pointless purchases. Items that rarely get used can be borrowed or shared with others.

Buy products that can be reused
Buy bottles instead of cans and rechargeable batteries. Items such as this create very little waste, as they don’t have to be thrown away after they have been used just once.

Buy all-purpose household cleaner
Instead of buying many different ones for each cleaning role.

Buy products with little packaging
So that less packaging ends up in your rubbish bin. For those items you use regularly, buy them in bulk instead of in smaller amounts. This will save you money as well as reduce waste.

Sell or give away unwanted items
Reduce waste by donating unwanted items to family, friends or neighbours. You could even sell your possessions in a car-boot sale and earn some extra cash.

Second R,

Smart ways to reuse:

	Carrier bags and twist ties. Carrier bags can be reused in the shops or as bin bags around the house. Paper bags make useful wrapping paper and twist ties can be used to secure loose items together, such as computer wires.
	Envelopes By sticking labels over the address you can reuse envelopes. Alternatively, old envelopes can be used as scrap paper to make notes on.
	Jars and pots. By cleaning glass jars and small pots, you can use them as small containers to store odds and ends.
	Newspaper, cardboard and bubble wrap Make useful packing material when moving house or to store items.
	Old clothes - can be made into other textile items such as cushion covers or teapot cosies.
	Packaging Such as foil and egg cartons can be donated to schools and nurseries, where they can be use in art and craft projects.
	Scrap paper Can be used to make notes and sketches. Don't forget to recycle it when you no longer need it.
	Tyres Old tyres can be given to your local petrol station where they will be recycled. Or you could make a tyre-swing by tying a strong rope around a tyre and attaching it to a tree.
	Used wood Can be used in woodcrafts for making objects such as a spice rack or a bird table. Alternatively it could be used as firewood.

Useful tips in reusing your old items:

	Old Electrical Equipment Donate old electrical equipment to schools or community centers so that others can reuse them.
	Donate Old Clothes and Books Other people can reuse your unwanted clothes and books when you donate them to charity shops.
	Car-boot Sale Have a car-boot sale and get rid of some unwanted items. Other people may find a use for them, plus it gives you the opportunity to earn some extra cash.
	Rechargeable Batteries Rechargeable batteries can be reused many times before they need throwing away, opposed to regular batteries that create unnecessary waste.
	Build a Compost Bin You can reuse many waste items, such as eggshells and old tea bags, using a compost bin. This waste then degrades and turns into compost that can be used to help your garden grow.
	Grass Cycling After mowing your lawn, instead of throwing the grass cuttings away, leave them in your garden. The nutrients from the cuttings go back into the soil and act as a fertiliser.

Third R,

Recycling in and around the home can be easy when you know how. By thinking carefully about what products you buy at the supermarket and how to recycle them is the first step towards efficient recycling.

Find ways of recycling different materials
Many materials can be recycled, such as paper, plastic, metal and glass. Other items such as furniture, electronic equipment, building material and vehicles can also be recycled but many people don't often think to do so.

Buy products that can be recycled.
When shopping at the supermarket, buy products that can be recycled easily such as glass jars and tin cans.

Buy products that have been made from recycled material.
You can tell if a product is eco-friendly by looking at the label on the packaging.

Avoiding buying hazardous material.

It is difficult to recycle products that contain hazardous waste. Try to find safer alternatives to household cleaners and buy non-toxic products whenever possible.

Recycle bins.
Make sure you have a recycle bin in your home. Keep it in an obvious place so you won't forget to use it. Your local council should be able to provide you with a recycle bin that can be used for materials such as glass, paper, aluminium and plastic.

Info taken from http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/

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Recycle Facts

Recycle Facts

Did you know that:

• 1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours.
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• 1 recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.
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• 1 recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours.
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• 70% less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
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• Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.
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• The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours.
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• As much as 50% of waste in the average dustbin could be composted.
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• Aluminium cans can be recycled and ready to use in just 6 weeks.
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• Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again.
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• Glass that is thrown away and ends up in landfills will never decompose.
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• Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials.
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• It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper.
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• Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled.
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• Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.

SO PLEASE BRING US TO RECYCLE BIN!

Info taken from http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/

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Electricity Saving Tips

Electricity Saving Tips

Don't Leave Electrical Appliances on Standby

Many of us with use the remote to switch off the TV or stereo, leaving the appliance running on standby. Even when we are running late for class, we would simply leave our PCs turned on. This actually means the appliance is still using up electricity and wastes a considerable amount of energy. By switching off at the main power button, or even the socket, you could be saving both energy and money.

Remember!
Items left on standby use up to 85% of the energy they would use if fully switched on. An extra million tonnes of carbon will be released into the atmosphere through this power wastage.



Lighting

In most homes, about 10-15% of the electricity bill is for lighting so energy saving light bulbs can cut your costs considerably. Traditional bulbs waste a lot of energy by turning it into heat but energy saving bulbs work in the same way as fluorescent lights, the tubes coating glows brightly as an electric current passed through gas in the tube.

They may be more expensive to buy than traditional bulbs, but they are worth the investment as last over 10 times longer and use up to 4 times less energy. Where you would use a 100w ordinary bulb, you would only need a 20-25w energy saving bulb. With savings like this, changing bulbs throughout your house could really cut your electricity costs.

Remember!
No matter what type of lighting you are using, always turn the lights off when you leave a room.



Tumble Dryer

Electric tumble dryers are commonly the second biggest energy user in the home, after the fridge. They are obviously used a lot less, but still use a huge amount of electricity when switched on.

You can avoid using the dryer so often by line drying clothes whenever possible or using an indoor clothes dryer when the weather is bad.

Please note,
If you do need to use the dryer, then ensure the clothes are as dry as possible after washing, eg, they have gone through a fast spin so that there is minimum excess water. This will reduce drying time considerably.

Info taken from http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/

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