Recycling and Paying Bills Online, But Not Changing Light Bulbs

While recycling is widespread in the United States and 73 percent of those polled are paying their bills online to save paper, other often-recommended ways to green your life are going largely ignored:

• 5 percent are driving less by combining errands, walking more, etc.
• 4 percent have reduced their utility use.
• 3 percent have purchased hybrid cars.
• 3 percent have changed out incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones.

Yet if every American home switched out just one incandescent light bulb for a compact fluorescent one, the United States would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for an entire year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.