Going Green at the Rapid City Public Library

By John Pappas, Outreach Services Coordinator

With Ralph Nader’s birthday coming up on February 27th along with some lofty heating bills piling up from a hard and cold winter, our thoughts may lead us to wonder “How could I have saved some money this previous year and at the same time made some steps towards a greener lifestyle?”

Even if these thoughts didn’t cross your mind, you could look into some quick and easy activities that you could implement in your daily life to save some “green” as well as reducing your environmental impact.

Lucky for you, going green does not necessarily infer running out to purchase new, energy-saving windows or solar panels. Nor does it infer leasing a car that runs on dandelion clippings and fits a grand total of you and half of your best friend. Nor does it mean building a mulch heap larger than Mt. Rushmore. So…sit back, take a sip of your white-chocolate mocha frappuccino and take a look at some these quick and easy methods to reduce your carbon footprint down a foot-size or two and save some money to boot.

Without further ado, here are some ways normal people can “Go Green” as collected from the RCPL’s print and online collection of articles, including David Bach’s “50 simple ways to save the Earth and get rich trying” and “Worldchanging: a user’s guide for the 21st century” by Alex Steffen with a foreword by Al Gore.

1. Reuse Old Candle Scraps: This is probably the strangest entry on this list and my personal favorite. Recycle old candles by melting down scraps and pouring the melt into old glass jars. This may not actually be “green” in the normal sense but it does save you money on candles and provides great housewarming gifts.

2. Reusable Coffee Filters: Using a reusable filter can save on paper waste or, if that seems like too much of a hassle, you can always go for unbleached filters or ones made from recycled material. This also reduces those HORRIBLE mornings that you suddenly realize that you used your last filter the night before. I’m pretty sure Ben Franklin had a saying about this.

3. Give Up Paper Towels: This is easier than it seems if you stock up on inexpensive cotton washcloths or, for the more adventurous, old T-Shirts. It’s not a big deal. We already use them to dry our cars, why not our hands or kitchen spills.

4. Online Bill-Paying: If you can, go online for your banking and bills. This saves you time, postage, and gas. As an added bonus, it also reduces the amount of paper for bank statements. While you are at it, you can also cancel all those catalogues you love and “flip” through them online.

5. Find a Second Use for Plastic Bags: My left-over shopping bags just love to be used for kitty-litter or to line smaller trash cans. Or better yet use mesh bags for quick trips to the store and avoid the plastic all together. Keep them in your car or purse (most can be folded up to a very small size).

6. No More Bottled Water: Purchase a personal water bottle or reuse one over again (and again and again). Drinking water is healthy but who has room for all those cases of water or enjoys lugging large jugs around. Just fill up from the tap and go. Either way, you save space in both your house and in the land-fill.

7. New Bulbs: Replace your light bulbs with lower energy, longer lasting one (compact fluorescent bulbs or CFLs). No joke here, this is just way too easy not to do.

8. New Shower-Head: Save hot water by using a low-flow shower head. It feels more like a rain shower and can be much more relaxing. Some even come with a pause button to stop flow when you don’t need it.

And most importantly, enrich your mind and go green by borrowing a book from the Rapid City Public Library. Our books get reused time and time again and we have a recently increased selection on “Going Green”. “The World without Us” by Alan Weisman is a great book on the effect of humans on the environment and how long it takes for Nature to take back the Earth if we were to suddenly leave. For the Teen/Young-Adult in your household you could look into “Generation Green: The Ultimate Teen Guide to Living Green” by Linda Silvertsen or you can peruse through Emily Anderson’s book on Eco-chic weddings. If you want something new and are technologically savvy, download an audio-book from Overdrive.

Check out the resources at both library locations and online for more ways that you can go green.