Write your own GREEN JOURNAL!

It is available at the British Library in Kasturba road. Try out some of these tips:

1.Wonderful baking soda: Avoid costly cleaning products. Use cheap and useful baking soda as a cleaner for cleaning everything! It is good as a scouring powder, polish and fungicide. Clean your drains by pouring boiling water in them. Add half cup of baking soda, half cup white vinegar and one eighth cup of salt. Keep for a while then wash it all out with a plunger. Give your sink drain a regular dose of baking soda and vinegar which will keep it clear. Stop buying special toilet cleaners. Sprinkle a little baking soda on your toilet brush, swish it around the bowl. That is all you need to wash it out!

2.Clean sinks and appliances with baking soda too. Even kids can do this.

Pour half cup vinegar in your sink, with the plug in, swish it all around the bottom and the sides, and then sprinkle on some ordinary baking soda. You will enjoy the fizz that results! Let it sit for a minute or two, then wipe it off with a clean rag. Later you can throw a little salt and hot water down the sink drain to keep it free running. You can also use vinegar and baking soda on countertops, appliances and for general cleaning of everything.

3.Don't use chemical air fresheners. Make your own lovely aromas with fresh bread and hot coffee!

4.Recycle your newspapers. When you recycle a pile of papers a metre high, you save a tree from the chop!

5.Don't buy exotic birds as pets: colourful parrots, macaws and other birds will prefer to stay in their natural forests instead of in cages in your house.

6.Plant some butterfly friendly flowers in your garden such as the zinnia, marigolds, scented roses, bachelor's buttons and ixora: all available in Lal Bagh and other nurseries.

7.A place of your own: make a 'secret magic spot' in the garden, or in the quiet corner in the house, where you can read, write in your journal or listen to music and just think!

8.Water your plants in the early morning instead of in the evening to keep snails and slugs away.

9.Keep a green journal: write in it when you and your family do something that helps the planet to keep breathing! Buying a solar water heater, and other solar appliances, should be something to be proud of.

10.Only use compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Each bulb uses only about a quarter the electricity of a normal one and they last upto ten times longer, saving loads of money and energy.

11.Clean without chlorine: make your mum look for chlorine free detergents, toilet cleaners, disinfectants and bleach.

12.Egg your plants on! If your mom has boiled eggs, the water in which they were boiled will be rich with calcium. Pour it into the garden when it is cooled. It will enrich your plants.

13.Dry cleaning is a big enemy of the environment. Try washing your silks and woolen clothes by hand in cold water.

From: 1001 ways you can save the planet: Joanna Yarrow.

This book is available at the British Library on Kasturba Road.