At Pittman Park’s Green Team meetings, members often end up chatting about where they recycle and what they use–and re-use–to make sure they are living in an environmentally responsible way. For Earth Day on April 22, we asked them to share their tips for being good stewards of the environment.
Conserve energy while lowering your electricity bill:
- Michele uses a wi-fi enabled thermostat that she can adjust from her phone to save energy when she’s not home.
- In the Winter, Michele runs her dryer and dishwasher during the day to help heat the house, and in the Summer, she runs them at night to avoid stressing her air conditioner with extra heat.
- Megan hangs her jeans to dry since they take the most energy in the dryer.
- Jesse uses the same water cup for several days before washing it.
- Jesse eats his supper from a container that he can then use to store leftovers in.
Reduce emissions while lowering your gas bill:
- Megan rides her bike to work at least twice a week.
- Russ drives a hybrid car.
Make green purchases:
- Megan buys her groceries and goods in bulk to reduce packaging waste and save money.
- Megan buys compostable garbage bags.
- Megan uses bar shampoo and laundry detergent sheets to reduce plastic waste and shipping energy.
- Dawn purchased reusable scented dryer balls at Buff City Soap in Pooler.
Recycle:
- Sherrye saves plastic grocery bags to line her garbage cans.
- Sherrye brings all her plastic, tin, and glass to the GreenRock Community Recycling program. She also donates to help support their recycling efforts.
- Dawn uses GreenRock curbside recycling.
- Dawn recycles paper items at Publix.
- Sherrye brings her broken electronics to Goodwill’s e-waste program.
Help community organizations:
- Sherrye saves her egg cartons and plastic grocery bags to give to the Food Bank. It helps them to dispense the large quantity they get to families.
- Dawn donates her plastic grocery bags to Backpack Buddies for use to distribute their food.
- Sherrye saves her aluminum cans for Habitat for Humanity. They use the money from cans to build houses.
- Dawn saves her cardboard boxes for the Food Bank and the Averitt Center arts programs.
- Dawn takes her old Newspapers to the Averitt Center for the Arts.
- Dawn gives her aluminum can tabs to 4H.
- Megan donates her old clothes and household items to Goodwill to support their career programs.
Other:
- Jesse and Russ divert all food waste from the trash to add to an outdoor composting area.
- Russ grows his own lettuce and other produce in his garden.
- Megan makes her own bread.
The Green Team at Pittman Park UMC works to ensure the church operates in an environmentally responsible way. Recent projects include using local flowers on Easter morning instead of imported carnations, re-using old advertising banners for sewing projects, offering washable plates for Sunday breakfast, and using compostable take-home boxes for meal deliveries.