Green Aluminum Foil

I absolutely love baked potatoes and I like to do it the old-fashioned way with aluminum foil and the oven, however, I’ve noticed that it’s adding up to a LOT of wasted aluminum. My local recycling center won’t take aluminum foil sheets so I’ve been wondering if I can use less or be more green by using it in a variety of ways.

Luckily, I found out ten AWESOME ways to reuse my aluminum and, hopefully, yours too!

1. Sharpen your scissors. If you’ve got some dull scissors that aren’t fit to cut through oxygen, try folding some old aluminum foil into seven or eight layers and then cut into it with your scissors. It’ll be sharp and finally you can use them to cut out some of those now, much-needed coupons right?
2. Use as a stove cover or burner liner. I get spills and messes all the time from soups and grease, but cutting a hole in some aluminum foil and placing that around my burner makes the cleaning process a lot easier.
3. Gift wrap with it. This one is Landon’s idea and I’m not exactly sure if I approve of it aesthetically, but hey, it works!
4. Clean your jewelry. All you need to do is to take your jewelery (gold or silver), wrap them in foil along with some salt water, let it sit overnight, and in the morning it’ll be shining like nobody’s business.
5. Simply reuse it. Clean the aluminum with some warm soap and water, let it dry, and then use later on to wrap lunches or other food items.
6. Clean your iron. Is your iron getting all gross from starch and buildup? Run a bit of aluminum foil over your hot iron and that should do the trick.
7. Keep your pets off the furniture. I actually haven’t tried this before because I don’t mind my dog on my couch, but apparently if you place some of the foil over any area, your pets won’t jump onto it because of the noise.
8. Scrub pots. Those hard to clean messes after get-togethers can suck. My mom recommends that you crumple some aluminum foil and start attacking the stubborn left overs. It really works as well as steel wool!
9. Soften brown sugar. Wrap the hard sugar in foil and stick it in the oven at around 300° Fahrenheit for five minutes.
10. Fix loose batteries. Don’t you hate it when the batteries in your remote control keep getting loose? Just attach some aluminum to the springs; now you can get back to watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta in peace!

I hope these tips make living green a little easier and if you have some ideas of your own, please feel free to leave them in the comment box and I’ll post your suggestions right here!

Top 10 Ways to Go Green

According to Yahoo!GREEN, the top 10 best ways to go green are:

1. unplug (turn off the lights, unplug electronics from their outlets, choose energy efficient appliances)
2. use less water (turn the water heater down to 120°, use cold water, be stingy with your water and how much goes down the drain)
3. switch to compact flourescent lighting (can save $30 in energy costs over the life of each bulb)
4. choose products with less packaging (with so many similar products out there, why not choose the one that doesn’t waste the biggest amount of resources?)
5. eat organic and local foods (conserves fuel, reduces pollution, and supports your local economy)
6. drive less (use public transportation, carpool with friends, or, dare I say it, walk?)
7. plant a tree (trees absorb carbon dioxide, convert pollutants to oxygen, offers wildlife a place to crash, and its roots can help stop erosion)
8. recycle more (once you get started on sorting out your plastics from your papers, it’ll get way easier and you’ll be motivated to find other cool ways to help reduce your own carbon footprint)
9. switch to “green” power (in a lot of states, you can choose to purchase renewable energy from your local power company; click here to see if your local utility has a green power source)
10. spread the word (notify your friends, inform your neighbors, tell off your dog for eating your newspaper–that can be recycled!)

All of these tips are great and easy to apply and most of them will not only help the environment, but do you a favor as well, like save you money or influence you to live a healthier lifestyle.

GO GREEN!