Your detergent doesn't have to be sickly blue like this one! Make the switch to something more natural!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Nine||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to purchase a green laundry detergent.

Green Life Project is into full swing and if you’re following along, I hope that you’re implementing these changes on a week-by-week basis, taking advantage of a gradual process our articles are meant to guide you through toward a more sustainable life.

And we’re focusing mostly on very simple choices you can make — many of them done at the grocery store, where it’s an easy difference in decision.

What’s next up for us?  Well, we’ve concentrated so far mostly on consuming less, consuming smarter, and making less waste.  So for example, using a metal water bottle will cut down on the amount of waste you produce (or that produced on your behalf) and using recycled paper toilet paper helps reduce the number of trees that get cut down, processed, and used for your dirty deeds.

Similar to when we recommended a switch to a greener dish soap, now we’re recommending that you change to a more sustainable laundry detergent.  The guidelines for choosing a greener laundry detergent are similar to those we used for a more sustainable dish soap.  Back then, I had this to say:

Yes, even your crayons can be recycled!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their lives in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Eight||

This week’s green life project action item is to find one or more odd item you normally throw into the garbage and begin recycling it.

You’re reading about helping to improve your envirohuman impact and I suspect that you already recycle some things.  Most likely, you recycle such items as glass, metal cans, paper and cardboard, and plastic.  If you are not already doing that, please join in because those tend to be the simple ones!

We’re not going to concentrate on the simple stuff that you can recycle in this article.  Rather, let’s take a look at some of the small pieces of trash in your life that you could be recycling but maybe didn’t know that you could.  

We create mounds of plastic, metal, paper, and plastic waste (okay, so, “mounds,” is an understatement) but there are so many other sundry items your everyday recycler may not accept but that you could be giving a second life to by sending to a special recycler.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs can save you energy and money -- and help preserve the environment!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their lives in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Seven||

This week’s green life project action item is to replace five of your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs.

Of course, some of you may have already done this.  If so, yes, by all means, take off this week and review our other Green Life Project posts to make sure your project is up-to-date.

But if you have not yet begun using CFL bulbs, you should!  Consider:

• CFL bulbs use a quarter to a third of the energy that incandescent bulbs do.  This means lower power bills!
• CFL bulbs do not give off as much heat, which proves to be good in the summer when you’re trying to keep cool!  This is surprisingly also welcome during the winter as well simply because light bulbs make for an inefficient way to heat a home!  Again,

The toilet may be a source of waste you rarely think about. You can significantly reduce that waste starting today!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.  If you’re just joining us, feel free to jump right in here on week six — you can catch up later!

||Week Six||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to displace water in your toilet’s tank.

We had so much fun greening our TP use last week that we figured another week spent greening our bathrooms made a lot of sense!  If you already have a high efficiency toilet, you can take this week off.  Otherwise, there is a simple and effective way to reduce water waste right now!

If you’re like most Americans,  you probably have an old clunker of a toilet flushing with several gallons of water every flush!  You might be using several times the amount of needed freshwater, and we can help you to trim a little of that waste.

Putting a Bandage on this Problem

With water potentially becoming the new oil, we all need to do all of those, “little things,” to reduce our own water use.   According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “inefficient toilets are responsible for most of the water wasted in American homes.”

So we’re starting with this issue to try to put a, “bandage,” on the problem, since this is not a permanent fix. Ideally, we would all have high-efficiency toilets, but not all of us are going to be updating our toilets anytime soon, especially not if you rent or are feeling the effects of the economic downturn.  But, you can use less water with every flush starting today with materials you already have!

Recycled paper toilet paper no longer looks like the rough-as-a-cob stuff pictured here. You can find TP made from recycled paper that is actually soft!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.  If you’re just joining us, feel free to jump right in here on week five — you can catch up later!

||Week Five||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to begin purchasing 100% recycled content toilet paper.

A popular recent New York Times article states that, “In the United States, which is the largest market worldwide for toilet paper, tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands.”

What should you do?  Wipe your butt — with a green toilet paper!

Purchase a 100% recycled content toilet paper.  Try to find one with at least 50% post-consumer product and one which was not manufactured using chlorine-based bleach.

But it’s toilet paper.  Why does it matter what I flush down the toilet?

As we work toward personal sustainability, we have to look beyond our own backsides.

Check it out these four must-read bullet points regarding the, “toilet tissue issue,” (mostly from the same New York Times article) and see how your use of a such a seemingly mundane product could be so very damaging to our environment!

You don't have to sacrifice your suds when you switch to a greener dish soap!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Four||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to purchase a green dish soap. This is yet another simple step toward a more sustainable you!

Where to start? Here are some broad, basic guidelines to use for a greener dish soap:

1. First, try to get a dye-free, frangrance-free soap.
2. Second, attempt to find a dish soap with plant-based surfactants, such as coconut-based ones.
3. A third, related item to look for

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Three||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to purchase and begin using reusable grocery bags.

We’re in week three of a year-long quest toward a greener lifestyle.  If you’re just joining us, it’ll be easy to catch up — and you can do so at your own pace!

This week, we have another simple step you can take toward more sustainable living!  The next time you’re at the grocery store, be it your Jewel, Trader Joe’s, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods — no matter what your typical place for groceries, buy one or two reusable grocery bags and begin using them!  We’ve discussed this before, and now it’s part of your year-long journey toward a more sustainable you!

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week Two||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to begin reading a green blog!

This week's Green Life Project action item is to begin reading and following an environmentally-focused blog!

I know definitively that you read blogs or news sites on occasion that have a, “green,” or, “environmental,” theme to it, because you are reading one right now!  But in order to move forward with this transformation in your life, I recommend beginning to follow some websites, and I’ll list a few here with some explanation for why I think they are important.

For you to become immersed in this essential movement toward sustainable living, you’re going to need one of the most crucial ingredient to your success: information!  So pick a site, and start following it!!!

Keeping well-informed of simple little actions you can take to improve

Green Life Project is a weekly series of posts highlighting one change for readers to make in their life in order to gradually green their lives.

||Week One||

This week’s Green Life Project action item is to go out and purchase a reusable metal water bottle.

Using a metal water bottle is Green Life Project's first action item.

Yes, I know many of you probably have already done this, so I hope this is not too ho-hum for you…  Hear me out!

I also know many have not taken this easy step, and it is one of the simplest, so it makes a great first step!  It also saves money and helps toward improving one’s envirohuman impact immediately!

Reusable water bottles save a lot of energy because the water you drink from the tap is much more efficient to use than having bottles of water shipped from across the country (or, in some cases, the world).  Just think, if one were drinking an average of two bottles per day, that equals 730 bottles each year for just one person!  That’s about thirty 24-pack cases of water, which is about a pallet load of water — just for you!

And that’s a lot of money, too!  Think how much one case of water costs and how much lugging them around isn’t all that fun, either.  Storing them in the closet or pantry.  Keeping the fridge stocked.  A $10-$20 water bottle will pay for itself qui

You can make a green calendar to begin charting your progress!

Yesterday, I wrote about our new upcoming series, Green Life Project, in which a weekly article will direct readers to adopt another green option in their lives, meaning small product or habit changes to make their lives more sustainable.

This week-by-week guide is supposed to be an easier tool to use in moving toward greener living than if you were to attempt to make all of the changes we outline in a matter of a few weeks. You’ll be able to ease yourself slowly into greener living, following a simple guide of steps to take each week.

But now, I would like to help you to not only keep track of the changes you are making, but to find inspiration in being able to look back at your progress.  For this purpose, a written or typed journal might work.  I personally blog about my own changes, and much of what I write about is my own journey toward more sustainable living.  But blogging is not for everyone and even a typical journal may not be the best method for