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Your right. Its got to start individually at first. The steps that I've taken so far are:
-My girlfriend and I have instituted mandatory recycling in our house.
-We've gone from 6-7 bags a week down to 1.5. -
-I've talked my girlfriends mon and sister into dropping off their recycleables once per week. -
-I'm trying to talk my ex-wife into doing the same. I get my kids 15 days out of the month, so I can grab the bags from there. She just has to seperate.
-My buddy is getting married in a few weeks. I bought him and his fiance a 4 pack of the higher quality CF bulbs, not the ones that look like they light mental hostpitals :-)
As for my 80 mile commute? I came here for help. I have been averaging 35 mpg's in a car that is supposed to get 23 mpg's. I learned driving techniques from you great people and bought a scan guage to back the data up. I can't over inflate tires right now. Its 10 degrees outside with plenty of ice and snow. I run all 4 at 40 psi. But need traction right now.
-I replaced 900 watts worth of incandecent lights with CF
-Turned down my water tank by 5 degrees
-Turn the furnace down to 60 when we're gone, and no higher than 68 when we're home. I'm going to call my land lord and ask to put ceiling fans in 3 rooms. Doubt he will mind the upgrade. But they usually pull no more than 90 watts on high and are a heck of a lot more efficient than box fans.
So that's this year so far. When I can afford to buy my own land, I'm going to have have a factory built house thrown on top of a basement, then I'll put in a garden and solar bank and hopefully go off the grid.
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