Best Green Living

One way to be a little greener is to reduce the number of physical products you buy.

Many things that you commonly purchase can be downloaded electronically for less.

Books, newspapers, Music and video games can all be purchased electronically.

I love books.  I like the smell of the paper and the feel of a good hardcover.  I must admint that I am not all that impressed with electronic copies just yet.  But the technology is improving all the time and eventually I will make the switch.

Online newspapers have been around for a while.  Only recently with free wireless interenet poping up everywhere (I saw a bus the other day that advertised its onboard wireless service) has it been a reasonable option.  I know there are those who love their morning paper, but I predict that actual paper versions of this media will eventually give way to the electronic age.

Music is a no brainer.  Not only can you buy individual songs, but you get them in a format that is the most useful.  You can play them from your computer, download them to your music player, or burn them to a CD.  This will actually end up saving you money.  You don’t have to purchase the entire album to get four songs that you like.

Video game packaging has always been overdone.  With a big colorful box and sometimes an outer sleeve, the contents are frequently just a disc.  With todays copy protection it is common to have to put the disk in to play which will eventually get scratched and unuseable.  But wth downloaded titles you can play the game with no disc.  You usually get only a limited number of installations but this should not be a problem for regular users.

So how many things are you buying every week that you could get online?  Think about it the next time you go shopping.  You may even save some green while going green.

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