8- Tips to Go Green

Segregate wastes. Have separate receptacles for compostables like kitchen wastes and dried leaves; recyclables like paper, plastic and glass; and other wastes for garbage collection/dump. Label each receptacle and make sure that you tell your household members about it.

If you do not segregate wastes, recycling/reuse is futile. All wastes just end up in the landfills.

7- Tips to Go Green

Promote organic fertilizer. Compost dried leaves, kitchen wastes, pet wastes and other organic matters. If you have no plants or garden, you can always give these to others who can use these wastes as organic fertilizer. The less chemical fertilizers farms use, the better for the soil and for us. 

In some communities, there are also regular collectors of kitchen left-over/wastes (kanin-baboy), which are used to supplement feeds for home-raised pigs. Support their livelihood by giving your kitchen wastes.

6- Tips to Go Green

Switch to green home. If you are doing house repairs or renovation, try second hand lumber store, junk shops, surplus or salvage stores and antique shops in your neighborhood for used but inexpensive building materials and fixtures. It will reduce your carbon footprint and save some trees from being chopped.

If you are renovating your house, try to salvage as much as reusable materials as you can. You can sell building materials and fixtures to junk shops or second hand lumber stores. The remaining scrap lumber that was not sold can be turned into charcoal.

5- Tips to Go Green

Conserve water at all times. Fix all water leaks and faulty toilets without delay. The faster you repair leaks, the less water wastage and lower water bill. It will also help a lot if you turn off the water while brushing your teeth, and use a glass of water instead.

4- Tips to Go Green

Use green lights. Instead of incandescent bulbs, switch to LED lights, fluorescent bulbs or compact fluorescent lights (CFL), which last longer and cost less energy for the same amount of light output. It will save you around 80% of your lighting cost.


Of course, it will save you more if you turn off the lights during daytime or if not in use.

3- Tips to Go Green

Re-use detergents and water. In doing laundry, use a semi-automatic washing machine, which allows you to reuse the detergents and rinse water. Avoid using automatic washing machine, which discards all detergents and water automatically. The detergents can be used three times or more. First, for the white clothes, then the colored clothes, then for rugs or rags, and finally, it can be used to clean up the driveways, pathways, and floors. You can use the rinse water in the same way just like the detergents. In addition, you can use the rinse water to water the lawn, trees or plants that are not so sensitive to this type of water.

Don’t wash clothes in small loads. Try to wash these by batches or full load depending on the capacity of your washing machine. Remember that you are using the same amount of detergents and water per load.

2- Tips to Go Green

Sort and reuse plastic bags. Don't just throw these away as litters. You can facilitate reuse by sorting the plastic bags according to size: Small, Medium, Large and Very Large. Use four properly labeled old sacks or  bags to easily segregate plastic bags at home. Remember it is difficult to reuse if you don’t sort. This can save you from buying garbage bags and new plastic bags.

This will also reduce clogging of canals and drainage, and flooding, as plastic bags and wrappers are found to be the major causes of these problem in most urban areas.