Your Waste Education Resource
Almost everything we use in our daily lives comes from natural resources. There are many environmental education resources available on water, pollution, waste, and conservation. These topics are important to learn about in order to protect our environment. Water is a vital resource that we need to conserve. Pollution can be harmful to our health and the environment. Waste management is important in order to reduce pollution and conserve resources. There are many ways to conserve water, reduce pollution and learn how to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
As a professional Realtor® and certified EcoBroker™, I have rounded up the best online resources for the Environmentally-conscious citizens of Earth.
Landfills
- Solid Waste Landfills – Information about solid waste landfills.
- Zero Waste Sonoma – Information about Sonoma County Refuse Disposal sites.
- EPA’s Municipal Solid Waste Landfills – the EPA’s factsheet information about municipal solid waste landfills.
Automobiles
- Commuting, Driving & Cars – Information about eco-friendly commuting resources, reducing petrol consumption while driving, how to choose the right ‘green’ car, and more.
- Car and Light Truck Emissions – Information on how you can control your vehicle emissions from passenger cars to light trucks.
- Fuel Economy Guide – EPAs fuel economy guide for current model year cars.
- Green Vehicle Guide – EPAs Green Vehicle Guide.
- Donate Your Vehicle – Information about donating your vehicle to the Polly Klaas Foundation.
- Zero Waste Sonoma – Sonoma County information on where you can donate your vehicles to help make an environmental difference.
Travel
- Green Vacation Rentals – Resources for eco-friendly rentals.
- It’s a Green World – Eco-Friendly Travel Destinations.
- Information about off-setting your carbon footprint for air travel – Learn how you can carbon offset your flight to reduce total carbon emissions from air travel.
- Carbon-Offset Flight Calculator – From MyClimate.org, an online calculator for assessing the carbon offset of your flight.
Water
- Locate Your Watershed – Locate, use, and share environmental information about your watershed.
- Groundwater Foundation – Dedicated to educating and motivating people to care for and about groundwater.
- Sonoma County Water Agency – Home page for the SCWA.
- Sonoma Ecology Center – Learn about Sonoma County watersheds, how you can protect them, and more.
- Water Footprint Calculator – Calculate your personal water footprint and learn about ways to reduce your water usage.
- Take It From the Tap – Learn about where your water comes from, the quality of water sources around you, and the environmental benefits of Sonoma’s tap water versus bottled water.
Pollution
- Pollution Prevention and Toxics – The EPA’s resource on ideas for preventing pollution where you live.
- Pollution Prevention in Sonoma County – Ideas for preventing pollution in stormwater, at home, and at work.
- WHO Pollution Factsheet – A pollution fact sheet provided by the World Health Organization.
- NASA Air Filtering Plants – Check out the 12-NASA-approved plants that improve air quality.
- California Air Resources Board – Simple solutions to help reduce air pollution.
Electronics
- Donate or Recycle Used Electronics – Information on donating or recycling used electronics, including programs from most major electronics stores.
- Californians Against Waste – Learn all about e-waste and how you can properly recycle your electronic devices.
- Zero Waste Sonoma – Your local resource for electronic waste disposal, including recycling options, information on free e-waste events, and lists of which items are acceptable to recycle.
Composting
- CompostGuide.com – A thorough guide to composting.
- Apartment and Condo Composting – Recycle Smart’s guide to at-home composting.
- Zero Waste Sonoma – Your local guide to home composting, including virtual workshops.
- EPA’s Composting At Home – The EPA’s guide to composting basics, the benefits of composting, and how to compost at home.
Housing
- Green Housing Resources – Courtesy of MelodyMontero.com.
- CalRecycle’s Green Building – Learn about how your home can become a green space, including the positive environmental impacts of green building, the benefits of sustainable housing, and more.
- 29 Tips For an Eco-Friendly Home – Discover simple solutions for you to turn your home into a more environmentally conscious living space.
Education
- Environmental Education – Educate yourself on a variety of environmental topics and issues.
- Global Climate Change – From NASA, learn about the impacts of climate change and the changes you can make to help create a better planet.
- The Climate Movement – an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA’s mission to better understand our natural world and help protect its precious resources extends beyond national borders to monitor global weather and climate, and work with partners around the world.
- Project Learning Tree’s Environmental Education – Project Learning Tree uses trees and forests as windows on the world to increase students’ understanding of the environment and actions they can take to conserve it.
- Conserving Earth – From National Geographic, learn all about the Earth’s natural resources and how we can conserve them.
- The Plastic Problem – From PBS News Hour, an increadibly infromative science-based program on plastics. Well worth setting aside 50 minutes to watch!
- Humanity’s Impact – How many plastic bottles do we produce? – Created by Studio Birthplace, this is a great 3-minute educational/awareness video on visualizing how much plastic we produce in one minute, one hour, one day. It’s perfect for an “Environmental Moment” in a club meeting.
