Five Eco-Friendly Ideas to Help You Go Green

What do you think is the best way to run an eco house: turning off the lights or replacing your regular lightbulbs with compact fluorescents?

A recent survey published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that most Americans believe the former option to be the best energy saver—but the truth is, the latter goes a longer way toward saving the planet.

There are other surprising eco-friendly ideas that aren't too difficult to adopt and don't cost a lot of money. So there's no need to stress out about replacing your old windows with pricey new ones or spending tens of thousands of dollars on solar panels. Instead, start small with these five easy eco-friendly ideas.

1. Switch to powdered laundry detergent. "Liquid laundry detergent is almost 80 percent water," says Jodi Helmer, author of The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference. "If 20,000 Americans switched to powdered detergent, it would save 55,000 gallons of water annually."
2. Give away things on Freecycle instead of throwing them out. Freecycle (freecycle.org) is a free service that allows its 7.5 million members to give and get stuff they no longer want. Because Freecycle's swap nature helps people avoid adding to the waste stream, Freecycle users keep 800 tons of trash a day from ending up in landfills.
3. Sign up for paperless billing. Helmer says that paper bills contribute almost 700,000 tons of waste and 2 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.
4. Use people power to mow your lawn. If you give up your gas or electric mower for a push one, not only will you cut down on your neighborhood's noise pollution, but you'll also keep 80 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each time you mow your lawn.
5. Stop heat loss in your house. Gaps around windows and doors cause up to 10 percent of your home's heat to leak out. To get an eco house, get out a caulk gun and seal around the frames of all your windows and doors.