Horizon would like to work with our residents to help make the world a better place for future generations.
This article contains a number of suggestions that could both save you money and collectively make a very positive impact on the planet
Share these tips because together we can make a difference!
Energy
- Turning the thermostat on your central heating system down by 1°C could cut your heating bills by up to 10%
- Washing clothes at 30°C instead of 40°C uses around 40%lessenergy
- Unplugging your PC overnight could save you as much as £35 per year
- One energy saving light bulb can save you up to £9 per year – that adds up to more than £100 over the course of the bulb’s lifetime
- By boiling only as much water as you need, you could save enough energy in a week to run a TV for 26hours
- The average household could save up to £300 a year on energy bills and two tonnes of carbon dioxide by being more energy efficient
- Change your electricity to a green supplier such as Good Energy and get 100% of your electric from renewable sources; good-energy.co.uk
Energy Saving tips
- Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows
- Make sure your hot water cylinder thermostat is not set higher than 60°C/140°F
- Turn off the lights when you leave a room
- Don’t leave appliances on standby and remember not to leave appliances on charge unnecessarily
- Dry washing on a clothes line outside whenever possible
- Put the lid on a pan to reduce the amount of time and energy it takes to boil.
- Walk, cycle or take public transport wherever possible
- Share car journeys where possible; www.nationalcarshare.co.uk or www.freewheelers.co.uk or join a car club carclubs.org.uk
Water
Did you know?
- Simply turning the tap off whilst you clean your teeth could save as much as nine litres of water a minute
- Don’t overfill the kettle when making a cup of tea. Only fill and boil what you need
- Taking a shower rather than a bath could save you up to 400 litres of water a week
- Fix dripping taps – a dripping tap can waste 90 litres of water a week
- Don’t let the cold water that comes through before a tap runs hot go down the drain – use it for watering plants or put it into a water butt in the garden
- Keep a jug of water in the fridge to prevent wasting water every time you wait for the tap to run cold
- Only use the washing machine and dishwasher when you have a full load
- Consider buying a water butt to collect rain water for the garden – using rain water not only saves mains water but also the energy used to treat it
- Putting a water-saving device, or simply a plastic coke bottle full of water, in your toilet cistern could save three litres of water every time you flush
Waste
Did You Know?
- On average, every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks
- The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will power a colour TV for 15 minutes or a computer for 20 minutes
- 100,000 tonnes of plastic bags are thrown away in the UK every year – that is the weight of 70,000 cars. Carrier bags dumped in landfill take 100 years to decompose
- If you recycle your paper, in just seven days it could come back as your newspaper
- 50% of food purchased in the UK goes to waste
- The UK produces enough waste every two hours to fill the Albert Hall
- The UK produces more than 434 million tonnes of waste every year
- Glass bottles can be recycled into house insulation. Plastic bottles can be recycled into fleece jackets
Saving tips
- Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Register with the Mailing Preference Scheme to avoid receiving junk mail; www.mpsonline.org.uk
- Use shredded wastepaper as a substitute for animal bedding or cat litter
- Donate unwanted items to charity shops or give them away through freecycle.org
- Compost kitchen and garden waste
- Recycle as much household waste as possible – contact your local council to find out about recycling facilities and services in your area
- Choose to reuse – take shopping bags with you and if you cannot avoid an occasional plastic bag then re-use it
- Write a shopping list to help you only buy what you need to avoid throwing away excess food, paint etc
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