How To Move Green
Being environmentally savvy oftentimes involves taking into account the things we all do that are far from green and that are easy to change. Moving is an area where people tend to be pretty wasteful, environmentally speaking. There are some excellent towards green moving, as another benefit, you’ll find that green moving is often times easier than moving in an environmentally unfriendly way.
But You Can’t Take
San Francisco is a great place to live, but anybody who lives in the city knows that there are people who are in serious need. You may have items that you really can’t take with you, such as perishable food, but somebody else can certainly use them. If you want to cut down on waste, see what types of foods that you could donate to your local food shelter, which is a great way to help people and the environment by helping to keep someone healthy and by cutting down the amount of waste that goes into our landfills.
Make a Recycling Pile
One of the easiest ways to cut down on the expense of your move is to get rid of items that you really don’t need to take with you. A lot of these items are likely to be old papers – utility bills, notices that you no longer need, etc. – and you should recycle all of them.
Make a pile of all the items that you can recycle and take the time to deliver them to a recycling center before you make your move. This also frees up space to help you pack, which can be a huge benefit as you are packing up and getting ready to go.
Better than Used Boxes
One of the things that usually get recommended for moving in a green fashion is using cardboard boxes that have already been used. You can actually do better than this.
There are companies out there that rent plastic crates and totes that are actually much more durable and easier to use than cardboard boxes. In addition to this, they may get used many times before their worn-out and, of course, that means that you’re contributing less waste to landfills and helping to reduce your carbon footprint by not requiring that cardboard boxes get recycled as frequently.
The other big advantage of using plastic totes and crates is that they tend to protect your items much more effectively than do cardboard boxes. This is particularly the case if you’re using used cardboard boxes, in which case you’re probably going to have to stuff them full of packing material to ensure that the items are protected. You also have to use a lot more taped to make sure that they hold up to the weight.
Reusable plastic containers are much easier on the environment. They also stack more easily, which allows them to be packed more effectively in the truck and, of course, that means that the truck won’t be working harder dealing with a shifting load and other issues.
Save Your Wrap
If you do use plastic bubble wrap, hang onto it after you’ve used it. It’s actually quite easy to roll it back up and store it and, in the future, you may need it for something. There’s no sense wasting it.
There are plenty of other ways that you can make your move more environmentally friendly, and you should take advantage of all of them. There are plenty of simple, effective ways that you can help the environment that really don’t take that much effort and that, as in the case of using reusable plastic totes and crates, actually end up saving you money.
Resources:
http://living.gwu.edu/green-move-outhttp://homebuying.about.com/od/marketfactstrends/a/052708_GrnMovng.htm