In 500 words, describe how your family is conserving, reusing, and recycling resources. Also describe what more your family might do to protect the environment.

(Answers may vary.)

My family is conserving, reusing, and recycling resources in the following manners:

We keep a compost bin outside our house. We throw fruit peels and other natural wastes in the compost bin. These wastes decompose in the bin and turn into fertilizer eventually. We then use this as fertilizer for our garden, where we grow tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupes, and beans.

We use bicycles to travel wherever possible to prevent environmental pollution caused by the use of gasoline. We prefer to walk short distances. Walking helps our bodies exercise and helps save fuel too. When we take trips we usually take mass transit to save on gas. Our family carpools as often as possible to save on gas.

We believe in gifting memorable experiences to friends and family members on birthdays instead of articles such as toys or gadgets. Materials such as toys may deteriorate over time with repeated use, break, and add to wastes. However, experiences such as going hiking or visiting a museum remain with you for lifetime as pleasant memories.

We turn off the lights when not required or when nobody is present in a room. In the summertime, we keep the air conditioning at 79 degrees so that it is not overused. Whenever possible, we cool the house by opening the windows. We’ve planted trees around the house so that in the future, shade will be the primary source of cooling. In the winter, we keep the house cooler and dress warmly. Sometimes we have a wood fire to keep the house warm. We also turn computers and other appliances off when not in use.

We reuse the bottles containing fruit jams as containers. Whenever possible, we make our own jams and jellies. We also use the containers to hold small items such as nails, pushpins, and paper clips. We’ve converted some of these jars into piggybanks and also use them for crafts. My mother uses them as gifts sometimes by decorating them with ribbons and pretty fabric.

In order to protect the environment, we can additionally take below steps:

Plant trees in our neighborhood. Trees provide oxygen and improve the quality of the air. When the neighborhood has lots of trees, not only is the air quality improved, it provides shade to cool the homes. That way, air conditioning is not used as often.

Use carpooling to travel long distances such as to work or the store to control the use of automobiles. Many cities encourage the use of carpooling by providing high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes.

Grow herbs and vegetables in the backyard to eat fresh and healthy food as well as save energy on transportation. Transportation of food is a major cost and can lead to environmental harm. By growing our own food, we do our part in saving on transportation pollution.

Use recyclable materials for containers. By supporting companies that use recycled materials for packaging, we use our dollar vote to support the environmental efforts of these companies.

Explanation: Edementum