Wednesday, November 24, 2010

5 Tips for Eco-Friendly Holiday Shopping

With Christmas just around the corner, millions of people will begin their annual shopping spree to find gifts for all those on their list. Problem is, this time of year can be really hard on the environment if people aren’t at least a little conscious regarding the choices they are making.

This year, make it a goal to try to do eco-friendly holiday shopping. You can do this by keeping these five tips in mind:

1. Narrow your stores. Rather than running all over Ottawa in search of those perfect gifts, narrow down where you will go. Try to get as much as you can at one or two stores, thereby limiting the amount of travel between points.
2. Choose less packaging. Christmas morning often features garbage bags filled with packaging materials. Look to purchase items that are not over-packaged.
3. Skip the plastic. It is well known that plastic products are wreaking havoc on the world, from their production through the never-ending disposal of them. The less plastic you put in your cart, the better for the environment.
4. Take reusable bags. Since you know you are heading out shopping, grab your reusable bags, so you can avoid those plastic ones from the store. Plastic bags are damaging to the environment and require a lot of resources to produce.
5. Notice the miles. If you are considering buying a product, look at where it was made. Buying products that have traveled thousands of miles to reach the store is damaging to the environment. You can reduce your carbon footprint by opting for gifts made closer to home!

From turning used newspaper into wrapping paper to recycling as much as possible after everyone has opened their gifts, there are always ways for you to be more eco-friendly, this time of year. And if your Christmas list includes items like new furniture and appliances, contact Capital Junk to remove your old ones! We will make sure they are disposed of in an environmentally friendly way by means of donating or recycling.

Capital Junk serves the entire Ottawa area and specializes in helping businesses and individuals with unwanted junk removal, including furniture, old appliances, and miscellaneous items. With an eco-friendly mission, they work to keep items out of landfills.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

5 Ways to Make Your Business More Eco-Friendly

There are many reminders out there about how individuals can strive to be more environmentally friendly. Yet even though we may not realize it, businesses of all kinds are also creating a lot of waste. Every business, no matter how large or small, can do things to be more eco-friendly.

Beyond making sure that every business takes care of toxic waste in accordance with the law, here are five things you can do within your business right now to make it greener:

1. Set up recycling centers. If you are not offering recycling in your office you can easily set this up. Recycling such things as paper and ink cartridges can go a long way toward being more eco-friendly.

2. Create an office policy that all equipment must be shut off at the end of the day. Millions of businesses leave computers, copy machines, and lights on over night, just wasting resources. You will also see a drop on your monthly utility bills!

3. Reduce the amount of waste your office produces, especially where paper is concerned. Remind people to only print what is absolutely
necessary and to use both sides of the paper, if possible.

4. Buy recycled products when you make your office supply orders. Today you can find compostable pens, recycled copy paper, and more, all of which helps toward a cleaner planet.

5. When it comes time to do a junk removal, call us at Capital Junk. Whether you are relocating, cleaning out, or replacing older items, we can take the stuff off your hands and help keep it out of landfills by recycling or donating them.

Serving the entire Ottawa area, Capital Junk proudly assists smaller local businesses as well as large 10 story office buildings to remove unwanted junk, including old appliances, furniture, e-waste and more. They are committed to being environmentally responsible and work to keep as much of the items out of landfills that they can. And when you schedule your Ottawa area junk removal appointment online, you receive $10 off!