Eco-friendly storage guidelines

One of the most popular topics and problems of the 21st century is saving the environment. There are many controversial opinions on this problem, but – whatever you believe – we should all try to at least make a little effort towards the place where we live. This can manifest in many ways – from controlling how much water and power we spend to the waste we live behind. However, one of the things that have been popping out recently is creating eco-friendly storage for your things. Since storages are places where we leave our things and stop thinking about them until we need them again, many professional storage facilities NJ have started giving out guidelines on making yours be ecologically friendly. You might be lost or confused about how to do it – but worry not! Read this article to find out what you can do to help!

Why should you get an eco-friendly storage

First, let’s start with the questions of why you should even be thinking about going green with your storage unit. Well, there are a number of things you will gain from it:

• First, going green will help you save money!
• Having an environmentally acceptable storage unit will help in the fight against global warming.
• We are losing resources – so we need to be smart about using them.
• Finally, we need to think about the trash we are making.

All of these are real-world problems, and going green is a solution for many of them. However, as you can notice, you may only be cutting cost on storage by paying attention to the environment. Even though these improvements might be a bit more expensive in the beginning, their life is longer so they cost less in the long run. This is why a huge number of businesses is favoring the green model too! But how do you actually turn your storage green?

Start by packing green

The first thing you can do to get environmentally-friendly storage is to do eco-packing as well. How you pack is an important factor in how you will manage your storage space. If you do it smart, you will get the most out of your storage, and you will also be gaining a huge boost by going green as well. On the other hand, clumsy, unorganized packing will turn your storage into a mess. This, in turn, leads to you wasting both space and money – which no one wants. So, how do you pack green? Well, first you want to pick a storage facility that will have good isolation. This will manage the temperature of the storage units. Then, your items will be less prone to breaking and ending in the garbage – which reduces the pollution. Take for example technology. Batteries lose life when you hold them in cold storage. Having control of the temperature will solve this problem with ease. When it comes to the packing materials, go for cardboard instead of plastic. These boxes are biodegradable, so they help you get eco-friendly storage. However, pay attention that the cardboard is sturdy! You don’t want your boxes breaking under the pressure. The only exception to this rule would be when you need to use plastic ties. Try to go for these instead of tape, because wasting plastic tape also endangers the environment. Put importance on recycling and reusing the packing supplies – even the things you tie the boxes with!

Green lighting will help a lot!

When it comes to working on the actual storage unit, the first thing you can invest in is the lighting. Think about this. One 75-watt bulb will add $11 to your electrical bill if it is on 24/7. Now, think about just how many bulbs you will need to use in a storage facility. This is a huge amount of power that you can easily turn green – and in multiple ways as well! First, you can get either CFL or LED lights. These can lower how much energy you are using by whopping 90 percent! CFLs are a bit weaker, at 75 percent, but they also cost less than the regular bulbs. The second thing you can get is photocells. These will detect how much light there is in the area, and then control the bulbs depending on that. This way, your eco-friendly storage will always be lit, but you won’t be using the lighting all the time. Finally, you can get motion sensors. These will turn the lights on when a person uses the storage, whether they are putting things in or trying to keep the storage clean and turn the lights off when there is no need for them.

Think about where you get energy from

Another great way to get green storage is by switching the way in which you get your power. One of the most popular ways (which a lot of moving companies NJ are switching too as well) is by using solar power. Storage facilities are usually huge – and so their roofs are a perfect place for solar panels. This way, storage facilities can not only get off the grid – but put some energy back into it as well! You might wonder if creating eco-friendly storage this way is even worth it. Well, the Department of Energy states that the cost of installing solar panels has been dropping down recently. This is also the best or all the renewable energy sources – since there is the most of it. Just to illustrate this, there are over 173,000 terawatts of solar energy hitting the planet every moment. This is 10,000 as much energy as you would need to power the whole planet.