As spring and summer approaches, so will the days where it’s nice enough outside to spend an afternoon washing and waxing your car or truck. So, you go to your local big box store’s auto section and pick up some products for the task at hand. As you check out, you get that ever-prevalent question about bagging your purchase; paper or plastic…or a reusable bags for a dollar and ninety-nine cents. You decide to help the planet and opt for the reusable bag and head home. At home as you begin to clean the car you wonder what else you might do with your car to promote green and eco friendly living.
The first thing you think about is what kind of car you are driving. Was its selling feature the mileage or how many horsepower are under the hood? Car technology has spoiled some attempts at green and eco friendly living by letting us have our cake and eat it too. A sixties muscle car with loads of horsepower got twelve to fifteen miles per gallons at best. Some really hot cars were lucky to make ten. Nowadays you can find cars that go zero to sixty in less than seven seconds yet are still very fuel efficient. Of course you have to put that in the context of a sixties economy car got twenty miles per gallon and today forty-five mpg is almost a minimum.
One thing hasn’t changed, the condition of your car. If your cars engine is tuned up and has clean filters it will run better, cleaner and be good for the environment. Check the tires, low tire pressure can cut your gas mileage as much as fifteen percent. When you are done washing and waxing the car, think about going back to the store and refilling your reusable cotton shopping bag with a couple of filters and a tire pressure gage.
If you have to return to the store for those type of things, think about consolidating your trip. Maybe you shouldn’t have made a trip for the detergent and wax after all. Maybe you should have put it on your grocery list. Most big box stores have a section for auto basics that include detergent, wax and even that tire pressure gage. If they don’t have what you need in the big box store, at least stop at the auto parts store in the same trip.
Another aspect of green transportation is ride sharing. Most states sponsor rideshare programs to work, but they are not particularly effective for a multitude of reasons. People have trouble synching their work schedules, and are not particularly comfortable posting their schedules online for strangers to see. But, there are other options – like sharing trips to the store with a neighbor or carpooling groups of kids to soccer practice and school. You know who they are, chances are you meet over backyard barbeques, so why not give it a try? It’s a great way to spend some adult time and live green and eco friendly.
Things like organic cotton bags give us something to think about when we bag our purchases. Think about your car and how you use it for green and eco friendly living.
