greener still . . .

I greened up my phone usage tonight! I set up voicemail and bought a new phone with a cord, for a whopping five bucks! Before:

(aka, "energy-sucking eyesore")
After:

(aka, "tidy, green little thing")

Why, you ask? According to the green book:

"Answering machines guzzle energy 24/7. . . . If all answering machines in U.S. homes were eventually replaced by voice mail services, the annual energy savings would total nearly two billion kilowatt-hours. The reduction in air pollution related to this decrease in energy use would be equivalent to removing 250,000 cars from the road for a year."

And,

"If you need to buy a new phone for a bedroom or home office, consider buying one with a cord. You'll save about 28 kilowatt-hours of energy per phone annually. Standard corded phones consume little energy, while cordless units draw constant power during charging and standby modes. If 5 percent of U.S. households chose one corded phone over a cordless model, the energy savings would total 140 million kilowatt-hours annually -- enough talk time to keep 130,000 teens' phone lines busy for every waking hour of the summer."

Why not!

(P.S. I'm going to take the old handsets from my cordless phone to work for the kidlets to use in the dramatic play area. Save one more thing from the landfill!)