This year the presents won't only be under the tree, they will BE the tree. King County Parks has partnered with Swanson's Nursery to sell living Christmas trees.  Once the holidays are over, and all your ornaments are back in the garage, your Christmas tree can be donated back to King County. From there, your tree will be planted in one of our local parks or reserves. These native species will help restore and enhance salmon habitat for years to come.  (You can even volunteer to help plant your contribution on January 19th) Last year this program donated 275 plants to restoration efforts!

Did you get me a card?  Today is "America Recycles Day", a day when our friends in the solid waste industry answer your burning questions about recycling.  The rates of recycling in the US has tripled in the last 20 years, up to about 1/3 of our total waste stream.  Not surprisingly, the great residents in Redmond are doing much better than average. In 2011 our residents recycled 62% of our waste stream.

But there is still more we can do, especially in our apartment & condo complexes and businesses! Recycling is still one of the best and easiest ways to reduce our environmental impact.

1. Encourage Your Favorite Business to Get on Board: The City of Redmond has great programs to help businesses recycle and compost more.  Encourage your favorite coffee shop compost their kitchen scraps or your work to step up their recycling game. Your advocacy can make a big difference!
   
2. Create Less Trash: Buy items that have less packaging, like buying in bulk at the grocery store.  And don't forget your own re-usable bag at all your shopping destinations.
   
3. Compost More: Get in the habit of taking out your kitchen scraps to your yard waste bin. Methane that is produced from organic waste is a much more potent greenhouse gas that contibutes to climate change.
   
4. Donate Used Household Items: Cleaning out your closet?  Don't just toss it, recycle it by donating to a local agency like Goodwill so it can have a second life with a new family.
   
5. Rent or Buy Secondhand: Many big ticket items like tools are easily rented.  This not only saves you money and storage space in the garage, but will produce significantly less waste.

If you want to celebrate today-but have any questions about what can be recycled-the City of Redmond guides for residents is available online.

Sometimes acting sustainably can seem overwhelming.  There are so many different ways you can lead a green lifestyle, it may seem like a daunting task to take on.  Or maybe the problem of climate change seems too big and it it is hard to imagine how our actions will have any impact.  But just think if all of us in Redmond made one small change, we could really have a positive impact!

Every week we're going to feature a quick tip we call "One Small Thing".  It is a small change you can make that will have a big impact!  We will highlight easy to accomplish but high impact actions that can help save money, protect the environment, and benefit our local community.  Think of it as a weekly supplement to our Impact Redmond Pledge.

If you have any suggestions for an action we should feature, shoot us an email at support@impactredmond.com, we'd love to hear from you!

 

What do Bath Salts and Bubble Baths Have to do With Sustainability?

If you buy bath salts or bubble bath, try to by concentrated varieties.  For example, bubble bath brands that recommend one tablespoon (one-half ounce or one capful) per bath will last twice as long as those that suggest one ounce (two capfuls) per bath.  If you buy a sixteen-ounce plastic bottle of bubble bath every other month and switched to a more concentrated version, you could save about one-quarter pound of plastic and $10 to $20 per year or more.  If one in one hundred households decreased its bubble bath purchases in this way, the savings would total 250,000 pounds of plastic.  This much plastic could build a wading pool the size of Wrigley Field!

Use Fewer Paper Napkins

There's no need to grab a huge stack of napkins from the concession stand when you know you'll use only one or two.  Each American consumes an average of 2,200 standard two-ply napkins per year, or the equivalent of about six napkins per day.  If everyone in the United States used an average of one fewer napkin per day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.  A stack of napkins this size could fill the entire Empire State Building.  Now that's something to think about!

March 12-18 is Fix A Leak Week. 

Did you know American households waste more than one trillion gallons of water each year due to leaky pipes, toilets, showerheads and other fixtures?  The average American home leaks more than 10,000 gallons of water per year, which is equivalent to the water needed to wash 280 loads of laundry, take more than 600 showers, or meet the average family's water needs for a month.

Fixing leaks, though, can be inexpensive.  Finding and fixing leaks around the home is as easy as check, twist and replace:

• Check for leaks.  Toilet leaks can be found by putting a few drops of food coloring into the tank and seeing if color appears in the bowl before you flush.  Don't forget to also check irrigation systems and spigots.
• Twist and tighten pipe connections.  To save even more water without a noticeable difference in flow, twist on a WaterSense labeled faucet aerator or showerhead.
• Replace the fixture if necessary.  Look for the WaterSense label when replacing plumbing fixtures, which are independently certified to use 20 percent less water and perform as well as or better than standard models.

For more information about finding and fixing leaks, go to http://www.epa.gov/watersense/fixaleak.

To find information on WaterSense or to find a retailer in the area that carries WaterSense-labeled products, go to http://www.epa.gov/watersense.