eco friendly

18 Smart Ways to Reuse Your Empty Glass Bottles

Carrie Kirby — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:30:24 +0000

I was in a secondhand store recently and saw a beautiful corked bottle on the shelf for sale. It wasn't until I had it in my hand, reading the $3 price tag, that I recognized it as identical to the empty tequila bottle I'd tossed into the recycling earlier.

Maybe you're embarrassed (like me) by the loud jingling sound when you push your bins to the curb, or you'd rather spend your money on a fine vintage than on home decor (like me); either way, turning empty bottles into art, light fixtures, and useful household objects is a smart move. Here are some ideas.

Without a Glass Cutter

If you don't own a glass cutter or any other fancy tools, you can still get artsy with intact empties. For all these ideas, start by soaking the bottle in warm soapy water to get the label off. If there is any residue left after the soak, a solvent such as lighter fluid can get it off.

1. Bird Feeder

All you need to make an inverted wine bottle into a bird feeder is one plank of wood and some basic woodworking tools.

2. Candy Jar

Fill a clean, dry bottle with candy as an alternative to a treat bowl on your desk — or use mini bottles for candy-filled adult party favors. To dress it up, add a stripe of chalkboard paint, where you can write the name of the gift recipient or party guest, or the type of candy.

3. Yard Torch

Anyone can stick a candle in an empty wine bottle, but with a few dollars' worth of supplies from the hardware store, you can turn your empties into torches that could stylishly illuminate your whole backyard. Just fill the bottle with marbles and fuel, stick a tiki wick through a metal coupler, and light it up.

4. Table Card Holder

At a rustic-style wedding, a wine bottle with a cork in the top could handily hold a table number. Slice the cork halfway down from the top, and place the card in the resulting slot.

5. Vase

While an unadorned empty bottle can hold flowers as is, you can also dress it up by painting the surface, swirling paint inside for a Venetian glass effect, or spraying it with adhesive and wrapping with a pretty ribbon.

6. Candelabra

Line up half a dozen identical empties (hello, six-pack discount) and put candles in the tops to make a casual candelabra. For more polish, spray the bottles with metallic paint. Or spring for one of these candelabra bottle toppers to hold all your candles in a single bottle. You could attach your bottle candelabras to a sconce to make them into permanent wall decor.

7. Rolling Pin

Keep a clean empty in the kitchen for this purpose.

8. Boot Holder

Have tall leather or vinyl boots that flop over on the closet floor and get unsightly creases? Put some pebbles in the bottom of empty bottles, and stand them up inside the boots to make them stand at attention.

9. Vessel for a Gift

A pretty, very clean bottle can be repurposed to hold so many homemade goodies: infused oils, homemade infused vodka, bubble bath — the options are endless. If the gift will take a long time to use, securely attach a fancy drawer pull to the cork to make the bottle easy to unstop.

10. Garden Edger

Bury your bottles upside down to demarcate the borders of your garden. This idea is probably best used in a yard not frequented by children who could break a bottle and get hurt.

11. Slow-Drip Irrigator

Drill a small hole through the cork, fill the bottle with water, replace cork, and place upside down in the planter.

12. Leveling Tool

When hanging framed pictures on the wall, use a bottle to make sure it's exactly straight. Fill the bottle with water even with the top of the label and hold it so that it's bottom is perfectly aligned with the frame's top. Adjust until the water in the bottle is level.

13. Bottle Tree

Popular in the American South and linked to folk beliefs about trapping bad spirits in the glass, trees festooned with colored bottles can be a beautiful landscaping feature, especially in winter. There are many spectacular ways to arrange bottles on real trees or frames specially built for the purpose. Blue is the most popular color for these, so bring on the Bombay Sapphire gin, Skyy vodka, and Blue Nun wine.

With a Glass Cutter

Glass cutting tools run from about $5 to $30 (not as fancy as I thought!). They can come in the form of a simple hand tool, or in the form of a drill bit. What they do is score the glass so that you can break it off along the score line. To break it, you need to alternately heat and cool the glass a few times. Or, you can knock the portion of the bottle below the score line off using a hammer. Then you need to sand the sharp edge. Using this technique, you can remove the bottom or top from a bottle, opening up more ways to reuse it.

14. Hanging Planter

Remove the bottom, then fill with plants wrapped in moss for a cool upside-down, sun-catching planter.

15. Drinking Glasses

You'll see a lot of online tutorials on turning empty wine bottles into drinking glasses. While this is possible, keep in mind that the freshly cut edge of a bottle will be extremely sharp, and may not cut cleanly, depending on your method and skill. You'll need to do a lot of grinding and sanding to get the edge smooth enough to raise to your lips.

16. Bottle Chandelier

There are many, many possible designs for chandeliers made of wine bottles online. What most designs have in common is that you cut your bottle open, string a light inside it, and attach it to a wood or metal holder to suspend from the ceiling. What with the glass cutting, the wood or metal working, and some minor electrical work, it's a bit of a project. But the results can be stunning, and would be great decor for a rec room, man cave, or deck.

With a Drill

Using a tile and glass bit, you can drill a hole in a glass bottle with a little practice and care.

17. Lantern

Drill a hole into the back of a wine bottle and thread through a string of small LED lights to make a beautiful lantern. This technique could also be used when making a chandelier.

18. Party Lights

Drill a hole in the bottom or side of a bottle, then shove in a string of holiday lights. You could also push the lights in the top of the bottle, but it wouldn't look as elegant.

Any clever re-uses for glass bottles we've missed? Please share in comments!

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This article is from Carrie Kirby of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

How to Get the Greenest Lawn on the Block — Naturally

Ashley Marcin — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:30:24 +0000

Want a gorgeous, lush lawn without all the chemicals and other icky stuff? It's not as hard as you might think. With a little creativity and some elbow grease, you can whip your grass into shape without calling a service or spending much at all. (See also: Secret Lawn Tonic Golf Course Groundskeepers Love)

Amazing Aeration

Before the season even starts, you should aerate your lawn so it can have its best year yet. By letting it breathe, you get rid of nasty compaction issues that can cause bigger problems down the line. To aerate, you'll want the grass to be pretty dry. Insert a garden fork or sod coring tool every few inches to get the oxygen in. If you have a big lawn, you might consider going in with a neighbor and renting a power lawn aerator for a day or two. After you've finished this process, collect soil plugs with a bagged mower and add them to your compost heap.

Beer Fertilizer

My grandfather is known as a lawn king of sorts in my hometown. He swears by feeding his lawn with beer. The fermented sugars and other nutrients improve the soil and help to get rid of dead spots. All you have to do is pour about eight ounces of regular beer per 10-inch spot that needs love. Beer can be fresh or flat, hot or cold. Wait about a week and if the area is still droopy, repeat the process.

Soothing Salts, Part I

Not into brews? That's okay. You can actually use your favorite bath time soak to nurture your lawn. Epsom salts help keep your grass green and healthy all year round — they may even soften grass. You'll want to use about three pounds of salts per 1,250 square feet of lawn. To apply, use a lawn spreader. If you'd rather add water and spray, use a tank sprayer or a hose with a spray attachment.

Soothing Salts, Part II

The National Gardening Association explains that epsom salts also work wonders in your vegetable and flower gardens by enriching the soil with magnesium. The group conducted a study where gardeners from across the United States sprayed their peppers and roses with the stuff. The results? Four out of six gardeners reported that their pepper plants were more robust. All the rose plants were bushier with greener foliage and more roses. To try this at home, add one tablespoon of epsom salts to a gallon of water, spray plants, and repeat the process every 10 days (peppers) or six weeks (roses).

Kind Killer

This weed killer is kind to the environment and won't cost you much. In fact, you might already be using it for many tasks in your home. Simply spray all those pesky weeds with plain white vinegar. You'll want to do this on a day with no rain in the forecast (can dilute the effects). My mother-in-law says that heartier, more persistent weeds respond better to something stronger like pickling vinegar. Just pour vinegar into a spray bottle and use as liberally as necessary.

Wondrous Water

Whether or not you live someplace where you have a cap on water usage, it's a good idea to conserve this precious resource. Try building your own rain barrel to collect what falls from the sky. You just need a 32-gallon plastic trash can, brass faucet, flexible downspout, and utility knife. Cut a hole in your can's cover, attach the downspout to your gutter, and then connect the two components. Wait for the rain and then use your faucet to tap into the magic.

Modified Mowing

How often and how short you cut your grass has an impact on its overall health as well. There's no one-size-fits-all approach, unfortunately. Regardless, grass cut too short can be more prone to problems like weeds, drought, and heat damage. So, if you're experiencing little precipitation, it's a good idea to let grasses grow taller as a defense. For guidelines on how tall or short you should keep your grass in general, call your local extension office, garden center, or seed supplier.

Clover Comeback

So many of our neighbors seem to battle to keep white clover out all season long. We've embraced clover because it's actually a natural way to crowd out weeds. Clover also spreads quickly and covers the ground with greenery to blend with your other grasses. It grows well in shadier areas of your lawn and those with poor drainage. Best yet, it's a legume and can convert nitrogen into its own free fertilizer. Learn to love this misunderstood ground cover!

What are some natural ways you care for your lawn?

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This article is from Ashley Marcin of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

12 Green Living Habits That'll Save You Every Month

Mikey Rox — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 10:30:32 +0000

Another Earth Day is just around the corner. Let's get a head start on saving the planet with these eco-friendly lifestyle tips that'll also save you moolah every month. (See also: 11 Ways the Government Pays You to Live Green)

1. Take Advantage of Natural Light

I try to keep the lights off in the house as much as possible, even when I go to the bathroom late at night (I use my phone as a flashlight instead) to reduce my overall energy costs. As an alternative to the artificial lights in my house, I take advantage of natural light from the windows during the day (open your doors and blinds) and sometimes candles or other secondary light sources (like my devices) when the sun goes down.

2. Plug Drafts to Reduce Heating Costs

If there are drafts coming in from holes and crevices around your house, the climate-controlled air for which you pay is escaping. Resolve this costly problem by plugging drafts yourself (if you're able to identify the draft location and capable of doing the work) or hiring someone to help you out. Many times, however, the solution to the problem is as simple as putting a towel or blanket in front of doors and wrapping windows and A/C units for the winter.

3. Adjust the Settings on Your Appliances

Your appliances could be working overtime unnecessarily. Check the settings on your fridge, freezer, stove, microwave, and more to determine if they're turned up too high. If they can get the job done properly on lower settings, turn them down.

4. Install a "Greywater" System

Greywater — essentially any household wastewater with the exception of the toilet — can be repurposed in other areas around the home to help you cut back on water usage across the board.

"A... laundry-to-landscape greywater system can reduce water costs by reusing water used on clothes washing or sink/shower water to irrigate the garden," says Morgan Vondrak, a certified sustainable landscape designer at Argia Designs in San Francisco. "This is a great way to grow fruit trees and water intensive edible shrubs."

Conservation and green design expert Pablo Solomon suggests a couple more uses for greywater. "Put a dishwashing pan in your sinks and showers to catch water. Also dip out and save your bath water. This greywater is great to flush toilets and to water plants," he says.

5. Use Cold Water to Wash Clothes, and Clean the Dryer Lint Trap

Using cold water versus hot water when washing clothes won't save you a ton, but if you're looking to shave a few bucks of your bill every month (and you're okay laundering with cold water), it's a decent solution.

"When doing laundry, use cold water instead of hot in your washing machine, which can save you over $3 per month," Solomon advises. "The dryer typically accounts for 5% of your monthly electric bill, but keeping the lint trap clean on a regular basis will dry clothes faster and lower energy expenditures."

6. Use Sunlight to Help Control Temperature

Drafts can affect the temperature of your home, especially when the heat is pumping during the winter months. But the amount of sunlight in your home can also dramatically raise or lower the inside temperature, which is important to remember during both the hot and cold seasons.

"Use window coverings to keep sunlight from heating your rooms too much in summer and to let in warming rays in the winter," Solomon recommends. "Window coverings can be expensive, but you can also improvise. You can use blankets, and you can also make your own curtains or buy them at resale shops. I have a friend who sewed bubble wrap between layers of cloth to make really attractive and amazingly efficient drapes."

7. Lower the Temperature of Your Hot Water Heater

I recommended using cold water instead of hot to wash clothes to save a few bucks a month, but you also should inspect your hot water heater to see if perhaps it's running too hot in general.

"If you have to turn on the cold water along with the hot so your shower isn't scalding, you are paying too much to heat your water," says Eileen Flanagan, author of Renewable: One Woman's Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness, and Hope. "Most experts recommend 120 Fahrenheit. Once you find a temperature that is comfortable when you turn on just the hot tap, you can leave it set there and forget about it — except for vacations when you can turn it down further."

8. Power Your Devices From a Strip — And Remember to Turn It Off

Rather than plugging devices in single outlets spread all over the house, try to consolidate your energy and charging efforts onto one charging strip so you can control the power usage with one switch.

"Smart power plugs can detect how much electricity your 'energy vampires' — like TVs, game consoles, and mobile phones — are consuming and can be set to automatically turn off every night and then turn back on every morning," says Gene Wang, CEO and co-founder of People Power, a tech company in California.

As a habit, only plug in other devices and appliances — like printers, toasters, and coffeemakers — when you need to use them.

9. Nip Drips in the Bud ASAP

Hopefully we're all shutting off the sink while we're brushing our teeth and taking quick showers to conserve water, but it's all for naught if you have a leak in your pipes or a drippy faucet. If either of these situations are flushing your money down the drain, put a stop to it.

10. Think of Carpet and Rugs as Extra Insulation

Rugs and carpeting can provide extra insulation in your home, which is helpful during the winter months. It's often cheaper to install — especially area rugs — than re-insulating your home or turning the heat up. Plus, your little tootsies will thank you for not having to touch a cold floor in the morning.

11. Travel by Foot, Bike, or Public Transportation More Often

You can save a serious amount of money on gas and car maintenance by changing the way you travel, especially locally. Walk, bike, or take public transportation to the places you need to go more often when the weather is nice. Carpooling is a great option, too. I used to carpool with a buddy of mine to work — we would each have one week on and one week off, which resulted in significant fuel savings (more than $1,000) that I was able to put toward other expenses.

12. Consider Scheduling an Energy Audit

If you're serious about going green, but don't really know where to start, consider scheduling an energy audit to determine what can and needs to be done to reduce your carbon footprint and monthly energy spend.

"Most utility companies offer them free or close to free," says Shel Horowitz, author and green business profitability expert. "Last time we did one, they gave us hundreds of dollars worth of LED light bulbs and picked up two-thirds of the cost of re-insulating."

What are some of your green living habits that save you money every month? Let me know in the comments below.

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This article is from Mikey Rox of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

8 Reasons to Buy Local (Even If It Costs a Little More)

Kentin Waits — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 10:30:24 +0000

When I was a kid, the small Midwestern town I called home had three hardware stores, three clothing stores, two shoe stores, two jewelers, and a bookshop. Each one of those businesses is gone now and a single mammoth department store has taken their place.

As we complain about the hollowing out of our towns, few of us make the tough choices necessary to reinvigorate our local economies by supporting independent businesses. Not many are willing to pay just a little bit more, adjust their schedules to more limited hours of operation, or make two or three additional stops to get the things we need. Maybe it's time for a retail reawakening — time to trade online buying for offline community-building, and time to swap big-box shopping for some small-batch love. (See also: Buy This — Not That — at the Farmer's Market)

Here are eight reasons to buy local, even if it costs a little more.

1. It Supports Our Neighbors

Few things we do in life have a clear impact. In a typical retail transaction, consumers are vaguely aware that their purchase helps someone somewhere, but all the details are missing. Buying local helps us support our neighbors, avoid layers of economic complexity that can often hide labor abuses, and sustain the communities that sustain us.

2. The Revenue Boosts Local Economies

Sure, large national department stores employ members of our communities and their wages benefit local economies, but the profits (and real wealth) rise to the top and are funneled away. Seldom do outside manufacturers and sellers significantly invest in the communities they serve. When they do, it's usually through charitable donations that don't create enduring cycles of benefit. But when we buy from small-scale independent businesses, the salaries, the revenue, and the profit are more likely to stay local.

3. It's Green

Items produced and sold locally require less shipping, which reduces the need for fuel, packaging, warehousing, refrigeration, and other carbon-intensive services. And for consumers (particularly those in rural areas or cities with heavy traffic), buying local means less time spent behind the wheel and less cash spent filling up the tank.

4. It's a Great Way to Network and Build Relationships

Buying local connects producers and consumers in a way that big-box shopping simply can't match. Since we all buy stuff, why not use our economic activity to build and nurture relationships? Maybe you'll become fast friends with the couple who sells organic produce; maybe your daughter will work at the local bookstore during high school; maybe your son will apprentice with the chef at the farm-to-table restaurant.

5. It Helps Us Keep Tabs on Quality

Shrinking the distance between producer and consumer helps both parties keep tabs on quality and respond quickly to any issues. If that jar of fresh salsa you purchased just wasn't up to par, you can speak directly to the manufacturer at the farmer's market. If that handmade wool sweater begins to fray, work with the weaver on a repair or replacement.

6. It Creates a Direct Seller/Buyer Feedback Loop

Large manufacturers covet consumer feedback and spend lots of money to get it. When we buy local, the feedback loop is organic and ongoing. Buyers can request a special color or size, point out a design flaw, or suggest a great way to expand a product line or customize a service. With this sort of informal and direct exchange, sellers collect valuable customer feedback and buyers get heard.

7. It Expands Choice

Though large retailers may advertise a wide selection, the variety of what they market is decided by a small group of corporate buyers. Real choice comes from dozens of independent businesses tailoring their goods and services to the very unique needs, tastes, and interests of their communities.

8. Each Product Comes With a Story

When we buy from local, independent businesses, we're buying a story — a story about how an oak chair was made, the challenges a beekeeper faced the previous season, or the inspiration for an artist's work. These narratives attach themselves to the things we buy, enrich our transactions, and help us appreciate the vital links between maker and market.

Do you make a point to buy local when you have a choice? How has keeping the buyer/seller relationship close to home benefited you?

This article is from Kentin Waits of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

8 Green Products That Aren't

Paul Michael — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 12:01:05 +0000

Going green is something most of us are trying to do on a daily basis. But sometimes, products are not quite as green as the fancy packaging and ad campaigns would have us believe. Here are eight offenders; beware of their claims, or the implications they are making.

1. Seventh Generation Lemon Dishwashing Gel

Say it isn't so! Seventh Generation is a label synonymous with natural, eco-friendly products. In fact, their mission statement is "To inspire a consumer revolution that nurtures the health of the next seven generations." However, its lemon-scented Dishwashing Gel received an F on the EWG product safety scale, and contains sodium borate and methylisothiazolinone (look it up…it's nasty). It appears that when Seventh Generation states the product is non-toxic, they mean "not acutely toxic." That, in itself, is some very tricky language right there.

2. Aveeno

Aveeno's tagline is "Active Naturals." But look beyond the fancy packaging and use of the word natural, and you will find some very unnatural ingredients. A class action suit filed against Aveeno cited that it used many synthetic ingredients, including glycerine, cetyl alcohol, and sodium hydroxide, on top of things things like petrolatum, mineral oil, and dimethicone. And, the carcinogen 1,4-dioxane is present in Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash. While these ingredients are used widely in the beauty industry, Aveeno is making a play for the green market. And that is not right.

3. Tarte Cosmetics

You will be very impressed with the things the Tarte CEO has to say about the brand: "Today Tarte is a leader in healthy, eco-chic beauty, offering cruelty-free cosmetics infused with skinvigorating ingredients like superfruit and plant extracts, vitamins, minerals, essential oils and other naturally-derived ingredients." Sounds amazing, right?

Tarte products have been found to include crushed beetles (carmine), formaldehyde releasers, parabens, and their Amazonian Clay Illuminating Moisturizer received an EWG toxicity rating of 7/10. Just know exactly what you're buying before you pay extra for something that claims to be green.

4. Huggies Pure & Natural

We all want to make eco-friendly, natural choices when it comes to our children. So when you see Huggies Pure & Natural on the shelf, boasting organic cotton and packaged in green leaf nirvana, you think you're making a sound choice. Well, not so fast.

The University of Cincinnati revealed that the organic cotton used in the diapers is actually only on the outside. The stuff in contact with the baby's skin is what you'd expect to find in any regular diaper, including wood cellulose fiber, polyacrylate, polypropylene, and polyethylene. As of August, a federal class action suit filed against Huggies claims the use of toxic synthetic ingredients, including one that can "strip skin of pigment." And, the diaper is NOT biodegradable — even the packaging is only 20% recycled materials.

5. Coca-Cola Life

The use of a green label on its own is not grounds for a green claim. But when you consider the usual color of Coca-Cola is red, black, or silver, the green is striking. However, Coca-Cola Life is nothing special.

It has 35% less sugar than regular Coke, but adds an artificial sweetener (stevia) to make up for that. And there are still 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 600ml bottle of Coca-Cola Life. All in all, it is a sugary drink packaged in green, and sprinkled with magic marketing dust to make you believe it's a better, greener choice. It's not.

6. American Plastic Lumber

Take a look at American Plastic Lumber's website, and you'll see a logo that screams "eco friendly" in every way. In their About Us section, you'll read a statement on how the company has provided recycled plastic lumber for two decades across the country and beyond.

However, the FTC has brought two cases against APL for false claims. In actuality, their products contain an average of less than 79% post-consumer content. And in some cases, they contained only 15% recycled materials. The company has been very careful with its wording since those cases, but the logo and the implication remains.

7. Lush Cosmetics

Greenwashing is rampant in the cosmetics industry. There are many examples of beauty products that make claims implying an eco-friendly footprint, but Lush is doing it to cover some toxic ingredients.

As Nicole Dunst writes in her greenwashing alert on Lush, "Some of the ingredients they consistently use in their products have consistently been advised against by such respectable organizations as the Environmental Working Group and the American Cancer Society." Those toxic ingredients include sodium lauryl sulfate, propylene glycol, and cocamide DEA (another 7/10 ingredient on the EWG toxicity scale).

8. Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner

This product got into the EWG's cleaner Hall of Shame. Simple Green states that it is both "non-toxic" and "biodegradable," yet contains: 2-butoxyethanol, a solvent absorbed through the skin that damages red blood cells and irritates eyes; and a secret blend of alcohol ethoxylate surfactants, some of which are banned in the European Union. What's more, the product is supposed to be diluted for every use, yet it comes in a spray bottle!

Now, have you had any experiences with green products that were not as eco-friendly as they stated? Please let us all know what to avoid.

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This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

4 Green Home Rebates That Save You Big in 2015

Christa Avampato — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 17:00:09 +0000

For the first time, I'm beginning to seriously consider buying a home and I'm deep into the research and learning phase. One of the aspects I'm most intrigued by these days is how to perform a "green" renovation on an existing home. I've been happy to learn that there are multiple green rebates and credits that you can use in 2015 toward specific green improvements.

1. Geothermal Heat Pumps

Not surprisingly, energy consumption is one of the key areas that benefit from tax credits. Geothermal heat pumps are renewable energy appliances that are not only good for the environment, but also an incredibly comfortable way to heat and cool your home. These heat pumps utilize the ground to generate hot water, heat, and air conditioning, unlike traditional heat pumps which utilize air. Geothermal heat pumps are more efficient — and therefore less expensive — to run than traditional heat pumps.

2. Small Wind Turbines

Windmills may conjure visions of Holland or Don Quixote. But they should also give you visions of green, as in green energy and green back in your pocket. Small wind turbines convert kinetic wind energy into electricity that connects to your home's electrical system, and homeowners enjoy significant tax credits for their implementation

3. Solar Energy Systems

Solar energy systems have undergone significant innovation over the years, making them more efficient and less expensive than when they first appeared on the residential energy scene. In terms of tax rebates, there are two types of solar energy systems that qualify: solar water heaters and solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. (See also: Cut Your Electric Bill With Solar Panels)

4. Fuel Cells

Of all of the green home rebates, the fuel cell is the newest kid on the block. Fuel cells take advantage of the emerging hydrogen economy to power cars and other consumer goods that have traditionally been powered by fossil fuels. They offer a much cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

While these are the formal green home rebates offered by the federal government, there are plenty of other ways to save money (and the environment) with improvements to your home. ENERGY STAR offers an online Home Energy Yardstick that will help you determine the energy efficiency of your home as it currently stands, and will make suggestions for ways to improve it.

These improvements include better insulation and sealing, ENERGY STAR appliances and proper use of light fixtures, and even changes as simple as installing drapes, storm windows, and programmable thermostats. While these improvements don't carry tax rebates, they will help lower your energy costs without compromising your comfort. Good for you, good for the planet.

How have you made your home more "green"?

This article is from Christa Avampato of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: