Is your family trying to incorporate more earth-friendly routines in your everyday life? Here are some great ways for the whole family to go green.

At Florida's Natural, we're proud to say that we've been "going green" for a long time. As citrus growers, we've been aware for many years of our responsibility to take care of the land that's been so good to us. We also work to reduce our waste by using nearly every part of each orange in a variety of ways.

Is your family trying to incorporate more earth-friendly routines in your everyday life? Here's some great green tips--some easy, some a little tougher--for the whole family. You'll all feel great about conserving the earth's resources while saving money!

1. Don't leave the sink water running while you brush your teeth. Turning off the water while you brush your teeth can save up to four gallons a minute. That means that a family of four can reduce their weekly water use by 200 gallons just with this one step!
2. Make it a house rule that the TVs, computers, DVD players and video game consoles have to be unplugged before going to bed. Why? Because nowadays, the off button for these items is not really off, it's just a type of standby. These appliances (aka "energy vampires") use small amounts of energy all day long and can add as much as $200 to your annual energy bill.
3. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. It's a good start to ask for paper bags instead of plastic, but it's just not enough. Both plastic and paper have negatives: millions of trees are cut each year to make paper bags; plastic bags break down into tiny toxic pieces that get into soil and waterways. So, your best option is to keep some canvas bags in your trunk and keep reminding yourself to bring them into the store.
4. Set up a permanent recycling bin in your home or garage and use it every day. How's this for motivation: The energy saved by recycling just one aluminum can is enough to power your TV for three hours. To make your items easier and less costly to recycle, rinse your cans and bottles before putting them in the bin.
5. Each week, play a board game or other indoor activity that doesn't use electricity. This is a green twist on the idea of family game night. Make sure to turn all your cell phones off and don't have the TV or radio on, either. While playing, you can beguile your kids with stories about the "olden days," when TVs didn't have remotes and you had to use books to research school projects.

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