Emporia
Emporia Classic Level 2 48 AMP EV Charger UL Listed
The Emporia Classic Level 2 48 AMP EV Charger UL Listed is a home charging solution designed for electric vehicle owners seeking efficiency, safety, and smar...
$429
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Advice / Tips
7 Ways To a Healthier, More Efficient, and Money-Saving Home
Too often, sustainability is considered a lifestyle choice that only wealthier people can afford. While the tomatoes at the farmers market sure look tastier and healthier, not everyone can afford to pay $5 dollars a pound for those tomatoes when the supermarket is selling them at $0.75 a pound. Most people might wish that they could lower their monthly energy bill and reduce their household carbon footprint, but installing a $15,000 dollar solar panel system, even with the immediate savings on your monthly electricity bill, might not be financially wise for people struggling to stay on top of their mortgage payment.
Fortunately, as ever more people begin to care deeply about environmental sustainability and their own holistic health, the cost of living a healthy, organic, and environmentally friendly lifestyle is increasingly affordable. While you might not be ready for a complete renovation to turn your home into a carbon zero home, there are several minor renovations and changes that you can make to your home that would not cost you any more than conventional products.
Below, we look at seven household products that cost the same or even less than their conventional counterparts while offering major health benefits and/or sustainability advantages.
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By Tobias Roberts, Rise Writer
Feb 11, 2025 · 5 min read
Recycled Drywall
Drywall is by far the most common type of interior wall used in homes in the United States. Over 15 million tons of new drywall is produced each year by construction manufacturers. When building a new home, almost 12% of the drywall is wasted during the installation process without ever having been used.
Drywall (also known as gypsum board, wallboard, plasterboard, and sheetrock) is made from calcium sulfate dehydrate, a mineral found in ancient sea beds that have since dried up. Because it is a natural material, it can also be easily recycled.
When drywall is disposed of in landfills, it leads to anaerobic decomposition situations where harmful gasses such as hydrogen sulfide are released into the surrounding area. To avoid these problems associated with landfill disposal, the gypsum in drywall can be recycled into new pieces of drywall that maintain that exact same standards and performance while reducing the need to continue to mine new sources of gypsum from around the world.
Recycled drywall costs the same (or even less) than new drywall, and you can find a list of recycled drywall providers here.
Dual Flush Toilets
Older toilets can use up to 7 gallons of water per flush, thus constituting a major source of water expenditure in the home. If you have been considering purchasing a new toilet for your bathroom, dual flush toilets can save you enormous amounts of water. Besides limiting the amount of water per flush, these fixtures also allow you to choose between two flush options: a lower volume flush for liquid waste and a higher volume flush for solid waste. The best part of dual flush toilets is that they don’t cost any more than other types of toilets on the market. One consumer website reports that the average cost of toilets today ranges between $200 and $400, while dual flush toilets can be found for as low as $150.
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Rise Writer
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Article by
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
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