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DCL

We should all know by now that water bottles, plastic bags, aerosol cans and auto emissions are bad for the environment. Cars are polluting the sky, and we still drive them and buy gas and use plastic bags and shoot aerosol-powered deodorant into our armpits. We are trying to knock it off, but these things take time.

There are other things, insidious things that undermine our efforts. They aren't as well-known, but they cause all sorts of problems. It's a like a shadow government for wasted resources. My guess is that there are hundreds of these unheard-of problems.

Here are three tips about little-known and/or little-talked-about eco-evils.

1. Do not hoard coins. If you hoard your coins, the government has to find metal to make more coins. They are starting to have huge problems with this in India. That jar of pennies sitting on your desk is wasting energy. Take it to the bank toot sweet.

2. Perhaps you've found a way to conserve electricity. That's great, but you reward yourself with a very long shower. Guess what? You've just wasted electricity by taking that shower. Water doesn't pump itself. It takes electricity to move all that water. Conserving water conserves electricity. Think about that, bathers.

3. Uniforms and dress codes are bad for the environment. By making people wear a functionless outfit in order to enforce conformity on a workforce or a classroom, materials are being wasted. But wait. It gets worse than that. People who are uncomfortable in their clothing are less productive. An unproductive worker is bound to spend less time working. This ends up wasting everyone's time and resources. Also, business dress if fraught with unnecessary items. Who needs to wear a suit jacket in Southern California or near the equator? These are ridiculous to wear in warm climes.

4. And ties. Some scholars think ties were invented in the Middle Ages to keep illnesses out of the throat. These are functionless fashion accessories that waste our resources in the name of tradition.