ArcaMax

Have you recently finished painting your living room and wondered what to do with your leftover paint? It's actually recyclable through a nonprofit program called PaintCare. PaintCare is available in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C. These states have passed "paint stewardship...Read more

There are myriad reasons to ditch the use of paper towels at home. Beyond the environmental factors of deforestation, lack of recyclability and waste, they also can be dirty. Even if you make the slightly more eco-friendly choice of buying towels made from recycled fibers, studies have shown recycled paper towels have higher amounts of bacteria....Read more

If you live in a climate that gets a lot of snow, you actually can use it to protect your outdoor plants. The trick is to use it as an insulator by layering clean snow around the base of the plants. Think of the snow like an igloo: It protects the roots from harsh cold temperatures. You also should brush off excess snow from the tops of plants ...Read more

Did you know those who adopt a vegan diet produce 50% less CO2 emissions and use 13 times less water to grow what they eat? But if the thought of going totally plant-based seems impossible to you, you can also just adopt small changes and be semi-vegan. Swap out things like dairy cheese for new creamy vegan cheeses, and opt for things like vegan...Read more

If you drink carbonated beverages, which is better: a plastic bottle or aluminum can? The answer is simple: aluminum. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, aluminum cans are one of the most commonly recycled materials. In less than 60 days, a typical soda can goes from the supermarket to the recycling bin to the recycling facility ...Read more

One of the best things you can do when seeking out consumer goods is to buy used. When it comes to the environmental impact of things like clothing, cars, household items, electronics, books and other nonperishables, lightly used always beats out new in terms of environmental footprint. And with the growth of online marketplaces to connect ...Read more

Bath towels eventually wear out and need to be replaced, but that doesn’t mean the old ones can't be reused for other purposes around the house. The simplest thing is to cut them into rags that can be used to wipe up spills and for regular cleaning around the house. If your old towels are in decent shape, most animal shelters will gladly take ...Read more

It’s important to always run a full dishwasher to get the most energy and water efficiency possible. But what if you need to run it when it’s not quite full? Try loading a few other things from around the house that could benefit from the disinfecting power of the machine. That list could include kitchen sponges, silicone oven mitts and ...Read more

Does your kitchen or bathroom drain have an unpleasant odor? Instead of dumping chlorine bleach down the drain to neutralize the odor, try this nontoxic solution: regular salt. Sometimes decomposing organic matter like food scraps can be stuck on the sides of pipes. The salt helps dislodge the stuck-on waste and acts like a mini scrubber for ...Read more