Perhaps you are thinking, "I would like to be able to help make the world a better place, but I don't have enough time/money." Well, this page was made just for you! All of the things listed below can fit into any normal lifestyle with minimal upset to your normal daily routine:
Clean-ups: a lot of people take walks to get exercise or to unwind. While you're out, take a shopping bag (paper or plastic will do) with you and pick up random bits of trash you come across.
Take your own bag: If you have a canvas bag or two around, take them with you grocery shopping and use them instead of the store bags. If you look around you may even be able to find grocery stores that give you a discount or 5 cents per bag (I know that Wild Oats used to). Save money AND create less waste who could ask for more?
Shop at the Farmers' Market: I know that here in California ther are Certified Farmers' Markets and they are much stricker than regular farmers' markets. When you shop at them you are not only helping to support the local economy, you are also helping the environment. Local farmers are more likely to be Organic and even if they aren't they use less pesticides and manufactured fertilizers than corporate farms, if only for the fact that they can't afford them.
Recycling: If you live in a house and have a trash pic up service, give them a call about getting a recycling bin if you don't already have one. Then you just put items that are recylable (metals, glass, cardboard, most paper, and plastics with that little recycle symbol). Or, if you don't have that luxury of a trash pick up service with a recycle bin, get a couple of extra trash cans that you separate recyclables into. Throw the trash out where you normally do, but the recyclables you can probably take to the dump (if they do recycling) or to a recycling center. Some places may even pay you for some of the things you bring in. Once again, money and good deeds CAN go hand-in-hand!
Reusable eating utensils: If you are like me and work in an office, you probably also brown bag your lunch and use the paper plates and plastic forks in the break room. Well, why don't you bring a fork, spoon, coffee mug, and a microwaveable plate or bowl to keep in your cubicle? This way, you create less trash and look like a conscientious employee at the same time! Not to mention no more soggy plates after you reheat your leftovers for lunch.
Garden Green!: Do you have a lawn/garden/house plant? If so, you probably use fertilizers and pesticides. Try using natural fertilizers like mulch or manure, rather than that chemical stuff that can burn your plant's roots. Also, try less harsh pesticide such as surrounding the bases of your plants with copper to keep out slugs and snails (it reacts with their slime and I am not sure if it shocks them or makes them slide off) or little tilted pots with beer, snails/slugs slide in and get drunk and never slide back out (because they drown in the beer). Our you can let Mother Natures assassins do their work and pick up a box of lady bugs at your local garden nursery, or if you really want some fun, pick up praying mantis egg sacks from the nursery. You place the egg sacks in knooks around your plants (away from spider webs) and a couple of hours (though more likely a couple of weeks) and the little guys hatch! All around your lawn are little tiny praying mantises and you have to have the eyes of an eagle to see them, but they are so cute! Eeee! I have done this one and it was fun!
Be an absentee voter: Even if you are a super lazy bastard you can set it up so that you can vote and never leave your house (excpet to check your mail and buy stamps). You can go to your local post-office, DMV, and sometimes library and pick up a voter registration form. On the form it will have a box to check if you would like to be an permanent absentee voter, check it. From then on (until you move and you will have to fill out a new one with your new address) the government will mail you a ballot every November (yes, there is a ballot every year, not just every four to select a president) and you check what you want to vote for and mail it back at your leisure (just make sure you send it in about a week before the deadline to ensure that your vote counts).
Shop at locally owned businesses: once again, like the farmers' market, you are helping the local economy. When you make a purchase at one of those big chain corporate stores the money that they make from you goes to their headquarters, a lot of times it is even in a different state, and the money gets taxed by THEIR local government (city, state) and those taxes go to helping their neighborhoods, not yours (sometimes, not even theirs, as the reason that they have a headquarters in a particular area is because they can get away with paying less taxes, sneaky, huh?) So, when you make a purchase at a locally owned business, that money gets taxed by YOUR local government (city, state) and those taxes go back to helping your neck of the woods.
Read!: Read the newspaper. Read a non-fiction book. Learn something new about the world around you. The more you know the more likely you are to make a truly educated decision about how you interact with the world and people in it. in fact, some ethnic groups get giddy when they come across someone of another group that knows about their culture and treats them accordingly. (I had that experiance at work, they thought I was just some anglo and I was able to tell them where to have a good vegetarian lunch. It's al about dispelling negative and incorrect stereotypes.)