Ready to go green? Here are some eco friendly moving tips to help take the environment into consideration when moving home.
There is already much to consider when planning a move. From searching for the best moving companies in Westchester to determining how to pack your belongings into the right size boxes, it is likely to be a very busy time.
Here at Al’s Moving and Storage we are a leading green moving company Westchester. We hope that you will take the time to think about how to make your move environmentally friendly.
The process of green moving is admirable when considering the large environmental footprint and waste generated when moving. Making an effort to reduce your footprint during the move and implementing these green moving tips should help to make a difference in the end.
So how can you plan an eco-friendly move? Here are the top green moving tips for a leading green moving company
1. HIRE A GREEN MOVING COMPANY
At Al’s Moving and Storage, we take pride in being a leading green moving company Westchester. Our local movers feel that one of the best ways to make your next move eco-friendly is to hire a moving company that cares about the environment as well.
A good technique for finding an eco-friendly mover is to ask the moving companies you’re reviewing about what specific measures they take to implementing green moving services.
If a local mover Westchester does offer green moving services, then they won’t mind explaining to you in great detail exactly what they do to preserve the environment.
To be able to judge whether a moving company is in fact a green moving company one or just pretending to be such in order to be trendy, here’s what the best eco moving companies do to offer green moving services to their customers:
- Using biodiesel in their moving trucks;
- Investing in modern moving vehicles that are fuel-efficient and emit less harmful gases in the atmosphere;
- Offering professional packing services with eco-friendly packing materials – from recycled cardboard boxes to biodegradable bubble wrap;
- Consolidating shipments, whenever possible, to make fewer trips while offering more affordable green moving services;
- Offering to buy back any packing materials that their customers have not used.
2. Green Moving Tips: Donate, or sell any unwanted stuff to help nature
In order to organize an eco-friendly move, one of your top-priority tasks is to declutter your home and move with you only the things that you do intend to use in the future.
Now, you may be wondering how purging your home of items that you no longer need will make your move any greener. Well, here’s the secret: you will not just throw away irresponsibly the things you’ve decided to leave – on the contrary, you will make an effort to keep unwanted stuff from landfills by selling, gifting, or donating many of your still usable things to other people.
And, whenever that’s impossible, you will recycle your stuff in an environmentally-friendly manner too. That’s right, show that you care about the environment by never discarding unwanted items right on the curb or dumping them in the garbage containers without any thoughts about proper recycling.
Show that you care about the environment by keeping still usable items off the local landfill.
GIFT to friends or family members the lightly-used items that you’re not taking with you. This way, you’ll show that you care both for your dear pals and the environment. And if you happen to know that anyone you care about has had their eye on something you own, then things become even easier for you.
DONATE still usable items – furniture, appliances, electronic devices, clothes, shoes, books, toys, canned food, etc. – to various charitable organizations. Some of the charities you contact may even offer to come to your home and pick up the donated items directly from you.
SELL the things you’re not moving with you, or at least try. The money you pocket from the online sale or the garage sale will go toward your moving budget and will NOT go to a local landfill, which under the circumstances, is a true win-win situation for you.
And if some of your things are only good enough to be thrown away, make sure you contact your nearest recycle center and recycle those soon-to-be discarded items in an environmentally friendly way.
3. Dispose of hazardous goods in an eco-friendly way
When moving house, the worst thing you can do from an environmental point of view is to discard improperly of substances and materials that are harmful to the environment. Remember that green movers will not move any hazardous items for you, so the only good option for you is to dispose of such dangerous goods in an eco-friendly manner.
Materials that can be bad for the environment include are flammable, corrosive, or explosive in nature, and include acids, gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, motor oil, engine oil, pesticides, fertilizers, weed killers, paint, paint thinners, and so on. You should be careful how you dispose of any chemicals, including most of the cleaning supplies you have in your home.
If you find yourself unsure what to do with seemingly dangerous items before Moving day, then get in touch with your local office of the Environmental Protection Agency for advice.
4. Pack your things using only eco-friendly moving and packing materials
How to organize an eco-friendly move? It’s easier than you think. Just focus on using nothing but eco-friendly moving supplies. What that means in practice is that you’re encouraged to get only recyclable and biodegradable packing materials to pack up your things. At Al’s Moving, our green movers offer discounted second hand moving boxes and packing supplies as well.
- Plastic is an enemy to the environment… but plastic bins made from recycled plastic can be used for moving hundreds of times.
- Cardboard boxes. Instead of purchasing all your moving boxes brand new, do consider using second-hand cardboard containers as long as they are in good condition. Under normal circumstances, standard cardboard boxes can last up to 4-5 moves before ending up in a recycling center.
- Plastic bins. Plastic is bad for the environment but here’s the deal – plastic bins that are made of recycled plastic can be used and reused up to 400 times, so using plastic moving containers will prove to be an eco-friendly investment for years to come.
If you decide to purchase most of your moving boxes brand-new, then remember to get eco-friendly moving boxes made from recycled cardboard.
5. More Green Moving Tips
Also, another eco-friendly moving option to keep your move as green as possible is to use packing containers and padding materials that you already have in your home but never knew you did. That great idea will also help you lower your packing and moving expenses simply because you won’t need to purchase as many packing supplies as you estimated in the beginning.
Alternative moving containers. Make good use of all containers in your home that you’re taking with you anyway: baskets, buckets, trash cans, suitcases, trash bags, vacuum seal bags, Ziploc bags, etc.
Alternative wrapping and padding supplies. Limit the usage of bubble wrap and use a number of great alternative wrapping and padding materials such as blankets, towels, bed sheets, and even socks. Also, newspapers are great space fillers inside cardboard boxes but you should be careful not to let delicate surfaces get stained by the newspaper ink.
6. Stay green after the move as well
You’ve proven that you care about the environment: you’ve hired green moving services, you’ve kept unwanted items away from the landfill by selling, gifting, or donating most of them, you’ve disposed of dangerous materials in an eco-friendly way, and you’ve used only eco-friendly packing supplies to protect your items on the road.
You deserve praise for planning an eco-friendly move to your new home but your efforts to minimize your ecological impact shouldn’t stop after the move.
Here’s what you can do after the move in order to continue to be an ecologically conscious person:
Hopefully, planning an eco-friendly move will be only the beginning and you will be willing to lead a greener and more sustainable lifestyle in the destination town or city.
