Earth Day isn’t just a day to be a little more savvy about our environment, it’s a day to get some rewards for being Earth-friendly!

Here at KHTS, we recycle cardboard, newspapers, bottles and cans and are planning to expand our paper recycling. One of our staffers takes home plastic cutlery, washes it and brings it back to the station for re-use, eliminating the forks, knives and spoons from the trash. Scratch paper? A growing pile of half-sheets from that extra page printers insist on kicking out – usually all white except for one or two lines, perfect for jotting down notes or messages.

A former newspaper colleague of mine, aka Julia the Bargain Babe, has started her own money-saving website and Earth Day bargains were her headline items today. She’s given us permission to share them and hopes everyone gets into the spirit of reduce-reuse-recycle!

• Free re-usable commemorative water bottle from the Disney Store if you take in three plastic water bottles to trade: http://www.couponcravings.com/2009/04/wednesday-free-reusable-water-bottle-at.html
• Helping local farmers and making your meals more healthy are some of the baby steps you can take to be Earth friendly: http://cookingupastory.com/sustainable-living/baby-steps-to-a-green-kitchen
• At the recent Earth Day/Arbor Day event, utility companies were all over the place with freebies and advice. I learned a LOT about heating/cooling/lighting/watering my house. Here’s a link to some power-saving tax incentives: http://www.bargainbabe.com/2009/04/22/tax-incentives-for-buying-green-energy

Want to save water? Here’s one that’s a drop in the bucket. It’s one I’ve seen done only when necessary – i.e., when the plumbing’s out of order and we have to resort to the gravity system for waste removal. It makes a lot of sense. I’ll let Julia tell you herself:

“My sister has an interesting way of flushing the toilet. She lives on the sixth floor of an apartment in NYC and it takes a while for the water to get hot when she takes a shower. So while the water is warming up she shoves a bucket under the faucet.

When she needs to flush the toilet, instead of pressing the lever, she dumps the water from the bucket all at once into the toilet bowl. The additional water kick starts the toilet’s siphon, which sucks down the dirty water waste.

She saves water by re-using the cold shower water and by only flushing the toilet when necessary. If it’s yellow…

I stayed with her recently and I was surprised how easy it was to adapt to her flushing system. I rather liked the idea of conserving water, though I did worry that we would forget to flush before guests came over. As soon as I got home I returned to my old ways.

Now, in honor of Earth Day, I am trying to adopt my sister’s green habit. I installed a clear bucket under the shower faucet and feel greener already. Hubby says he is on board – as long as he still has the option of flushing the toilet the old fashioned way.”

Be sure to visit Julia’s daily budget tips at www.bargainbabe.com.