Go Green At The Store

Here's today's Weather Matters segment from the morning show if you missed it:

We continue our month long series on going green. This week we find ways to go green at the store. Here are a few tips for you:

Tip #1: Choose Paper
According to the CW's Be Free To Be Free campaign, Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags every year and only 1% of those end up getting recycled. It even takes a lot of energy to make paper bags. So, next time you head to the store think about bringing your own reusable bag. If you do get suckered in to using paper or plastic bags, recycle them!! If you live in Salisbury, you can recycle them at the Civic Center or the Walmart on N. Salisbury Blvd.

Tip #2: Think Less Packaging
We love to buy in bulk. But buy minimally packaged goods. Try to buy items with less plastic wrapping or even less styrofoam padding. Try to buy the "As is" products. Reduce your garbage by 10% and save 1200 lbs of CO2 and better yet $1000 a year!!! And once again, remember to recycle the packaging. You can recycle paper, plastic, glass, cans, etc.

Tip #3: Shop on Delmarva
It's almost that time of year when the farmers' markets open up for the season. Buying goods produced locally saves energy by reducing the fossil fuels needed to transport food and other items across the country and around the globe. It not only helps our farmers stay in business but it tastes great too!

Tip #4: Go for the tap
Skip the bottled water. It's already been banned from city offices in San Francisco. We all associate bottled water with healthy living. But did you know that roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water. Often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefit. Instead of buying bottles, filter your tap water.

Here's some more information on bottled water.
Did you know that the US is the world's leading consumer of bottled water. In 2004, Americans drank 26 billion liters of it. To make all those bottles required more than 17 million barrels of oil. That's enough to fuel more than 1 million US cars for a year. And as you can imagine, a lot of those bottles never get recycled - actually 86 percent never saw a recycling bin. Buried bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

Look for more green steps next week as we wrap up our month long series. By the way, have a great Easter!!