WASHINGTON — Streaming video lets you watch what you want, whenever you want it, with just a few clicks of a remote.

But an expert says it’s the green way to go as well.

Alan Neuhauser, with US News and World Report, counts up the ways streaming causes less pollution than old-fashioned DVDs and tapes.

For one thing, Neuhauser says, there’s no trip in the car to the video store. For another, tablets and laptops also use less energy than most DVD players.

And of course, “you’re dealing with less packaging,” he says, as well as cutting down on the production of physical DVDs.

If everyone switched from DVDs to streaming, Neuhauser says, it would save about about the amount of energy as used in 200,000 homes — and 2 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide a year.

WTOP’s Samantha Loss contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.