Ten ways to go green in 30 seconds or less

Think you don’t have the time to get green? You do! Here are 10 easy eco-friendly steps you can try that won’t take more than 30 seconds.

Recycle your old phone book: According to Waste-Free Mail There are enough phone books created each year to measure 106,700 miles when lined up end to end; enough to circle around the earth about 4.28 times! It takes just seconds to toss your old yellow pages in the recycling bin. The entire phone book is 100% recyclable and can be used to make new phone books.
Hang it up: After a shower, you’re clean (or so I presume), so hang your towel instead of tossing it in the laundry bin. Washing towels after one use is so overrated.
Wipe out your microwave: A dirty microwave has to work harder to heat food AND it’s totally gross! If it takes you longer than 30 seconds to do this, you’ve already waited too long.
Buy a recycled role: It takes less than 10 seconds to pick up a recycled package of toilet paper at the store vs. new toilet paper, yet this choice makes a big difference. Recycled toilet paper helps save water, trees, oil and landfill space. NRDC notes that if all households in the U.S. alone bought one 4 pack of recycled TP vs. new, it would save a million trees and eliminate 60,600 pounds of pollution.
Turn on the tap: It’ll take you about 30 seconds to fill up a reusable water bottle with good ol’ tap water vs. the 30 minutes it would take to drive to the store for a new case of bottled water.

Hit a button: Most computers uses 90% less energy while in sleep mode and it takes mere seconds to hit that button and save some energy.
Clean some rubber: When that long rubber seal on your fridge door gets all crusty and gross, the door doesn’t form a tight seal, won’t close properly and energy is wasted. It takes mere seconds to wipe this down with a cloth.
Cancel your catalogs: Amazingly, the average person in the U.S. use 700 pounds of paper products a year. Paper catalogs in the mail help contribute to this issue. Luckily, it’ll take you just 12 seconds per title to opt-out of mail order catalogs using Catalog Choice.
Pull the cord: During daylight hours pull up your blinds vs. flipping on the lights. I can’t tell you how many homes I’ve been in where the lights are on, the shades are down and it’s flipping daytime! Crazy? Yeah, I thought so too.
Turn off the shower: Not for good! Smelling nice is a good thing. However, if you turn the shower off just while you scrub the shampoo into your hair, you can save up to 50 gallons of water per year.