Trying to reduce your carbon footprint? Perhaps you want to turn that leftover food into compost? Alexa has skills for these and other ecological tricks. Plus, there are some fun green habits to teach your children.
Alexa is the delightful artificial intelligence that comes with the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Dot Plus and other Amazon devices. The voice assistant has mini-programs called Alexa skills, which can run simple tasks and even help you go green in 2019. What follows are five sets of eco-friendly skills that Alexa users can run.
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1. Greening up your home
There are many ways to save energy, use less water and be easier on the planet. If you want to see how eco-friendly you can make your home, Green My Space is a useful skill. The app provides tips on how to make individual rooms in your home greener.
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2. Alexa’s tips on saving the Earth
For random ecology tips, there are a few skills that can help. Go Green offers random and targeted tips on pollution, recycling, deforestation and saving energy. For tips on a whole host of sustainable practices, Earth Saver can help users pick out seasonal products and buy eco-friendly detergent. The downside, as you will find with less sophisticated Alexa skills, is that you have to say the phrase “Alexa, ask Earth Saver how to save the earth” each time you use it.
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3. Alexa, can I recycle this?
If there is one small thing you can do to help keep the planet clean, it is recycling. Recycle Track can tell you recycling facts and track your reuse efforts.
Unsure what you can recycle? Ask The Recycle Game questions, take quizzes and compete with friends to see who is the greenest.
There are many other recycling assistants. Captain Planet – Your Recycling Assistant is designed to engage, educate and have an impact, but it seems difficult to use.
For industry-standard disposal information on thousands of household objects, try Waste Wizard. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is another tip skill and, for residents of San Francisco, Waste Guru can help you decide what to recycle, compost or throw away. Other area-specific skills may exist for certain municipalities.
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4. Fertilize your garden
Recycling is all about saving energy, and the energy from food and other organic matter can be composted. However, some may find this energy process mystifying. Never fear, though; The Compost Professor can help you analyze the temperature and moisture of your compost. You need to enter your email into the skill to get started. If you just need to know what household waste can go in your compost heap, you can try Compost Helper and Compost Yes or No.
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5. Raising green kids
Recycle Robot lets kids control a virtual recycling machine. It responds to voice commands and is a simple, effective way to teach children how to be eco-friendly.
Another story-based skill is Captain Earth. In this program, the titular Captain Earth can rescue the planet and teach children some important environment-saving skills along the way.
Our final green kids skill is Garbage Hero. This app, like many Alexa skills, has trouble understanding what players say, but remains an intriguing game for eco-minded young people.
Check out The GearBrain, our smart home compatibility checker, to see other products that are compatible with Amazon Alexa devices.
This article originally appeared on GearBrain and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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