Green Living

There are lots of other ways you can do things differently and think about the environment. Heres our ideas for how to Green-up your lifestyle - and hopefully save yet more cash by doing so!

Recycle more

Local authorities have a commitment to increase the amount of household waste sent to recycling plants rather than landfill, and of course this will be of benefit to all of us, our children and future generations. Keeping the things that can be recycled out of landfill sites means that this limited space if used only for the things we throw away that are not recyclable.

So paper, tins and glass are the usual suspects for recycling, but card and plastic bottles are often accepted too. What you can put out in your recycling for collection will depend on which recycling plant your local authority uses.

Even if your council doesn't recycle something, you can recycle it yourself with a little bit of help from the major supermarkets, who usually have recycling points for a variety of things in their car parks, including clothing, shoes and tetra packs - the packaging from juice and milk cartons not usually accepted in kerbside collections.

Or of course you can recycle clothes by dropping them off at a local charity shop. These often have shoe banks too. Hardware stores will recycle batteries so avoid putting them in the bin, plus there are several websites to help you give and receive recycled goods for free, see below.

Think about how you shop too - can you put your vegetables in a paper bag rather than buying them in plastic? Do you have a re-usable shopping bag you can fold up and take with you? In Wales and Scotland, all shops now charge 5p for a plastic carrier bag - its not the law in England yet but it could be soon, so get in the habit now!

As a rule of thumb, consider these three principles in order:

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

There are a myriad of websites dedicated to recycling where you'll find loads of tips and hints, heres just a few

http://www.freecycle.org/group/UK/North%20West

http://www.recyclenow.com

http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk

http://www.northwestelectronics.co.uk

Travel wise

Do you think about how you get from A to B in terms of energy use? We all consider the cost to our pocket, but if you can factor in energy efficiency too, it's often the cheaper option.

Can you use a bike? Biking is a great way to travel. Its free to do and has the added bonus of getting you fitter too. If you work, some of the bigger workplaces have salary sacrifice schemes to subsidise your bike purchase. Or see what bargains can be had from local bike shops - they often have secondhand or ex-display models on sale; it might just be about waiting for the right one to turn up.

Buses and trains are far more energy efficient that using a car and there are always offers on bus passes and train tickets - you need to shop around for the best deals.

Car shares are becoming more popular too. If you work, it could be as easy as asking around your workplace to see if anyone if doing the same run as you. There are lots of websites to help you contact other drivers and passengers and share the cost of getting to work, travelling to another city or and event.

http://www.letstravelwise.org

Grow your own

Not everyone has the space to grow their own fruit and veg, but community growing schemes are popping up almost as fast as tomatoes in the summer sunshine! These enable people to grow on communal land - such as neglected green areas on housing estates or unused areas of church yards - so you don't need a garden of your own. Even urban beekeeping is becoming more popular, with neighbours sharing hives and, of course, enjoying the honey produced.

Across Merseyside there are quite a few of these projects already established. Good examples include the Village Farm Orchard Project in Stockbridge, Knowsley and the Toxteth Produce initiative - both run by Squash Nutrition and linked to the national Local Food organisation - links below

http://www.squashnutrition.org/village-farm-orchard.html

http://www.localfoodgrants.org

Have you got any good tips for easy ways to greener living? especially if they save the cash too! We're interested to hear from you. Contact us here [link to contact page form] and tell us your ideas...

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