Energy Saving Tips

By locating doors and windows to admit more sunlight to the building you can avoid using electricity for lighting your home or office during the day.
Fluorescent lamps and energy saving bulbs (CFL) reduce electricity consumption substantially.
Use of white or light colors for walls, ceilings, curtains, drapes and furniture retains more light within the building and therefore further reduces the cost of lighting.
Use of transparent lamps and lampshades gives the advantage of changing to low wattage bulbs.
Iron your clothes and linen all in one go. Do not keep the hot iron upright since more heat will be lost.
Auto defrost refrigerators consume more electricity. Larger the refrigerator, higher will be the usage of electricity.
Avoid storing hot / warm food in the refrigerator.
Do not set the temperature regulator of the refrigerator at high if the quantity of the food within is small. Also, stack food items inside to allow air circulation.
Select cookers with fully enclosed heating elements.
Use flat-bottomed saucepans for cooking. Switch off the cookers as soon as your cooking is done.
Table fans use less electricity than ceiling fans. Use electronic regulators for ceiling fans.

Our litter problems

Much of our litter problem comes from how we mishandle our personal household garbage on garbage pick-up day. Individuals can do much to thwart problems associated with their garbage attracting birds and animals. Three Basic Rules 1. Do not use PLASTIC SACKS or CARDBOARD BOXES for garbage. Use standard garbage containers recommended by the refuse pick-up company. 2. Keep garbage cans WASHED OUT. Smells attract birds and other animals, including dogs and cats. 3. Make sure GARBAGE CAN LID IS SECURE. Always place cans on a flat surface. Prevent garbage from spilling out when can is tipped over by using bungee cords to hold lids in place.

Dogs and cats are attracted to garbage and pose a threat to people’s safety as well as causing a big mess. Birds, especially crows, have no equal when it comes to spreading litter throughout the borough. Crows are very intelligent and can figure out how to get the lid off a garbage can in a matter of seconds if it not secured properly.

MY ZERO WASTE FIRST

The purpose of MY ZERO WASTE FIRST is to help community to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. We will discuss on a daily basis how we can reduce our own waste by highlighting the pitfalls and sharing our mistakes and successes.

Our vision is that everybody takes small steps towards a zero waste future and begins to see that everybody doing a little bit can collectively add up to significant change.

Our aim of this campaign is to inspire and educate other people to reduce their landfill waste as much as possible. We aim to show that a zero waste Sri Lanka is achievable through practical, workable and realistic steps.
This is one of Country 1st Sri Lanka’s projects and I would like to invite all of my friends to join hands with us.