One of my goals for 2020 (and there are many, more really SMART [Specific, Manageable, Achievable, Rigorous, Time-based.] ones, too) is to post daily tips to #savetheplanet and #saveyoumoney. Every 11 or so days, I will do a wrap up blog post with links and extra suggestions. The idea is to have a bunch of things that are easy to do that will save you money and help the planet. They likely won’t save you time, but them may give you a sense of accomplishment and the feeling that you are actually making a difference. Here are the first 11.25 ideas with some explanations, links and pictures.

1. Go less than 5 MPH over the speed limit. Optimal speed for fuel economy is 55 m.p.h. After that speed, the airflow cuts into your mileage to the tune of about 7% for every five miles an hour you drive faster.
2. Buy a drink in aluminum or glass instead of a plastic container. In order of most recycled to least we have steel at 88%, aluminum at 76%, glass at 54% and plastic at 1.6% (NOT 16%. 1 point 6!). Then recycle it.
3. All that packing material you got with gifts? Take styrofoam popcorn to shipping places, use brown paper to wrap next years packages with string. I also wrap presents in Sunday comics that I have been saving for years. They are more colorful, but if you’ve got kids they can decorate the brown paper with crayons, markers or stamps. I also recycle the gift bags and wrapping paper that I receive. My older daughter and I gave each other back the same two sided cellophane/foil wrapping paper with CDs in it for several years.
4. Take home your plastic flatware and wash it and reuse it until it breaks. Some great restaurants are using corn-based flatware that is biodegradeable. 4.25 Buy a portable metal set or spork! You can pick up Sporks, even netallic ones pretty inexpensively. I recently saw a kickstarter for a folding FLATware set made of spring steel. It’s incredibly thin. Or this one, bulkier, but 100% recycled.
5. Wash your resealable bags inside out in the dishwasher. When they leak, use them to store things that don’t need sealing. I use them when I’m packing for camping or travel. They might not keep all the water out, but they make it more likely to stay dry and easier to pack and track.
6. Buy recycleable batteries for the things you reuse constantly. They’re reasonable considering the amount of times you can reuse them. There are even some designed now for use in electronics. If you buy a charger that has a bunch of individual slots, they work better than the ones that have to charge in pairs. Don’t throw them all away when one goes bad. I’ve saved so many batteries from the landfill because someone was throwing them away and only one of the four was bad.
7. Use toilet or paper towel rolls in an ‘zon box to sort all those extra cables you might still need but don’t want taking up space. Oh, and I just noticed there are old phone cords in this box. I’ve been using them to tie up my berries and legumes in the garden. [Hhhmmmm. This will probably reappear in a few months as one of the 365.15 tips.]
8. Don’t throw away lawn lights: Try a new rechargeable battery, if they are still dead, donate them for reuse of solar cells at a ReStore/Habitat Store. I’ve picked up a bunch of lawn lights. I’ve refurbed many of them by cleaning the solar panels, removing some of the plastic and or simply refurbing the batteries, by charging them and running them down in a flashlight. More than half of the batteries were still good.
9. Need a new shop, garden, or household tool? Go to your local salvage/reuse place like the ReStore/Habitat Store, or borrow one from a friend. One tool can help a lot of people. Ask yourself how often you will use it. The one I’ve shared around to multiple households is a spring-loaded, extendable limb-trimmer. You’ll need one a few times a year.
10. See a piece of plastic on the ground? Pick it up: We humans consume a plate of microplastic every year, animals.
11. Cut the bottom off plastic creamer containers (my worst eco-sin. ) to use as funnels or as a cloche to start seeds under outside. I’ve recently stopped buying 2 liter plastic bottles, they work well to protect plants from slugs and increase the level of heat.