Helpful Hints

---

As part of HOPE’s aims to reduce waste and conserve energy and resources, we offer the following suggestions to remind you that: underlying all our human activities, we should be mindful of things we can do every day to help the environment.

• Avoid - collecting or creating waste.
• Reduce - waste and use of resources, especially water and electricity.
• Reuse - what you can.
• Repair – give an item a longer life.
• Divert – send items to welfare stores, not to the tip.
• Recycle – glass, paper, plastic, steel, aluminium – support you Council recycling programs.
• Disposal – to the appropriate facility. Don’t litter or illegally dump.

Clean and Green in the Backyard

• Give your garden a good soak twice a week - that's all it needs
• Install a drip system - it puts the precious water where it's needed.
• Water when the weather is cool and not too windy; water the roots, not the leaves.
• Make a clean sweep - use a broom to clean paths not a hose.
• Wash your car on the lawn so run-off doesn't end up in storm water drains. Clean with soapy water from a bucket, then rinse with clean water from a bucket
• Keep an eye out for leaky taps - drips and leaks waste lots of water.

Reducing Greenhouse Gases / Saving Electricity

• Enable the Energy Star power management feature on office equipment to send it into a "sleep" mode when not in use. This reduces emissions by over 75%.
• Portable computers use less energy than desktop models and generally ink jet printers use far less energy per page than laser models.
• Install energy efficient lighting. Lower wattage globes reduce greenhouse gases by 30-80%
• Install ceiling fans or use portable fans, which improve comfort levels, even in air-conditioned rooms, and generate less than a kilogram of greenhouse gas every 10 hours
• Paint rooms light colours. Dark coloured walls absorb light, increasing the amount of lighting needed.
• Don't overcool: a 1 degree Celsius difference in temperature between indoors and outdoors adds 10%to your power bill and increases greenhouse gas emissions by the same amount.
• Fluorescent lights, including compact flouros generate only half as much greenhouse gas as ordinary globes but produce the same amount of light.

Reducing Greenhouse Gases / Saving Fuel

• Make one less trip per week in your car by using alternate transport - e.g. use public transport, save money and catch up on your reading.
• Get your daily exercise while getting from A to B by going for a walk or cycling.
• Tele-access! Beat the traffic and use the internet or phone to bank and shop.
• Choose shops and facilities nearby to reduce the need to travel.
• Tele-work! Arrange to work from home more often.
• When traveling by car, plan your travel in advance and try to combine activities to save trips.
• Shop with a friend and car pool to the nearest shopping centre.
• Get the kids to school in a fun way by catching the bus or joining a walking to school program.
• Talk to friends about being TravelSmart
  For more information about TravelSmart visit  www.travelsmart.gov.au
      (This article sourced from Green News, September 2003)

Saving Water

• Wash your car on the grass – not on the street or driveway. Nutrient rich, soapy water causes algal blooms in our waterways. Don’t wash your car on the driveway or the street where soapy water can flow down the drains to our waterways. Wash your car on the grass where the nutrients will enrich your lawn. Using water sparingly from a bucket will also save this valuable resource.

• Reduce use of Chemicals
• Composting and Mulching
• Other ‘R’ words

• Refuse plastic shopping bags – use a calico or string bag instead
• Research – compare the price, quality and environmental performance of different products AND buy from manufacturers with a good environmental track record.

Leonie's top tips for successful vegie gardens (valued contributor)

• Make your own compost, it will bring so much life to your garden
• Add worm castings
• Add Zeolite & Rock minerals
• Finish with organic hay mulch aprox 7cm thick
• Plant plants that relate to our climate eg: in summer we should be planting sub tropical or tropical plants .
• Foliage spray of seaweed & fish emulsion onto the plants
• Deep water every couple of days late in the afternoon
• Plant green manure crops inbetween harvests
• Don't keep planting the same family in succession, you'll attract pests

• Reheat food by placing it in a plastic bag. Remove all the air from the bag (squeeze) and seal the top carefully. Place in 1/2 small saucepanful of hot water straight from the tap. Leave for 10 mins. The food is heated to the original consistency and is not dry.
• If you want to soft boil eggs for this meal or to use on another day (ideal for that quick breakfast), just pop them into this hot water and use a thermostat to maintain the temperature at 64degrees for a minimum of six (6) minutes. The white and yolk of the egg are soft but firm.
  Can keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. The eggs are still soft and firm.
• When you have finished the meal, use this water to wash the dishes by hand.
• Put in glass shutters. That way you don't need an air conditioner. Excellent security also.

Two handy articles

• Worm farming (30kb)
• Shopping Green in Australia (34kb)

           See our "Publications" page for more useful information.