It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the environmental issues and thinking our involvement is so small that our decisions and habits don’t really matter. But they do. As zero waste chef Anne Marie Bonneau said: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” We all have the power to contribute and make a step towards more sustainable future. If you are not sure where to start, here is our guide on how to make impact through small lifestyle changes and easy to implement habits.
1. Think twice before buying anything new
Let’s be honest… The disparity between the amount of things that we all have and those that we actually need is enormous. But the resources on this planet are limited and we are already consuming two earth’s worth of them each year. If there is only one habit you adopt this year, it should be this one: start asking yourself “Do I really need this?” for every little purchase you make and get super conscious about the new things you bring into your life.
2. Minimize waste in your kitchen or bathroom
It’s pretty hard to implement big lifestyle changes overnight, so focus on one area of your home and think how you can reduce the unnecessary items or slowly replace them with eco-friendly alternatives.
Some suggestions to get you started:
In the kitchen: – replace your cleaning products with your own all-purpose cleaner. In a spray bottle, put one part distilled white vinegar and one part warm water. Give it a good shake, spray down the counter and your kitchen table and follow up with the cleaning cloth for a squeaky clean surface. – switch to washable dish cloths, natural fiber brushes, or biodegradable sponges for less-wasteful cleaning and an aesthetic upgrade, – replace the aluminium tin foil with beeswax food wraps, – skip the plastic straws or replace them with a bamboo, glass, or metal straw, – make your own reusable produce bags and use them instead of plastic bags every time you buy fruit and vegetables, – bring your own empty containers to the package-free grocery store or your favourite take out place.
In the bathroom: – when it’s time for a toothbrush change, switch to a compostable bamboo toothbrush, – bar soap is old-school, but it just makes sense: no plastic, no water weight, less waste, – replace your shampoo and conditioner in the plastic bottle with the shampoo and conditioner bars – they result in way less plastic waste, they don’t clutter up your shower and they’re smaller and lighter which makes them awesome for travel (when we will be able to), – get a metal safety razor – the blades cost very little and they’re totally plastic-free, – when it comes to cleaning the bathroom: baking soda, vinegar and essential oils make a great cleanser.
3. Try a plant-based diet
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the most important way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the Joseph Poore (University of Oxford, UK), who led the biggest analysis to date published in Science magazine. While meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, they use the vast majority (83%) of farmland and produce 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Huge lifestyle changes are hard to implement so try small steps instead: do the Meatless Monday, only eat meat on the weekends, or start by being more conscious where your meat comes from and only purchase meat and dairy that is sustainably produced.
4. Shop locally and in-season
Food today (especially fruit and vegetables) can travel a long way before it reaches our plates. To reduce carbon emission and help your local economy, shop at the farmers market or directly from your local farms, choose organic produce and try to stock up only on the goods that are in-season.
5. Say no to single-use plastic
Plastic has a very low recycling rate – only 8.5% of it actually gets recycled, the rest is accumulating in landfills or in the nature as litter. This year avoid producing even more waste by saying no to single-use plastic. Get a reusable water bottle and fill it with tap water, bring your own coffee mug to your favourite take-away coffee place, skip the plastic straw with your drink, invest in a lunch box and always use your own reusable shopping bag.
6. Save water
It’s pretty obvious: don’t leave the water running when you don’t actually need it. Close the taps when you brush your teeth, use the razor, lather up or scrub in the shower and make sure the taps are always closed properly to avoid dripping. Extra points if you can stay away from the bottled water.
“Small acts, when multiplied by millons of people, can transform the world.” – Howard Zinn
7. Avoid fast fashion & create a capsule wardrobe
Curating a capsule wardrobe — clothes that you can wear often, and which will always work together — saves time, money and reduces waste. Buying only clothes that are well-made of high-quality materials is more eco-friendly because they last longer and do not need to be replaced so often. Stay reasonable, resist buying things with impossibly low pricetags and avoid the buy-and-toss behaviour. Those clothes you bought impulsly might have been cheap to you, but once you add to them their real cost someone else had to pay, you see that cheap in fashion simply doesn’t exist.
Ditch the car as often as you can and walk or use your bike instead. This will reduce the harmful carbon dioxide emissions and other global-warming gasses generated by the traffic. For longer distances public transportation is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint.
9. Reuse and repair
Huge part of sustainable living is extending the life of items you already own. Just because something is broken, ripped or out of fashion, doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced. Repair a rip or missing button, take the stained piece to the dry cleaners, repurpose the things you don’t use anymore or give an old furniture new life with small adjustments and a coat of fresh paint. The list is endless…
10. Recycle
Although recycling is great and seems a logical choice, it should be seen more as the last option in the product’s life cycle than a fast solution to fix your consumption habits. First avoid producing waste by saying no to single-use packaging, use everything you buy, find a way to reuse what is possible and only then think of recycling what is left.
Written by Sandra Gubenšek Photos by Prophsee Journals and Thom Bradley for Unsplash
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10 easy steps towards more sustainable lifestyle
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the environmental issues and thinking our involvement is so small that our decisions and habits don’t really matter. But they do. As zero waste chef Anne Marie Bonneau said: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” We all have the power to contribute and make a step towards more sustainable future. If you are not sure where to start, here is our guide on how to make impact through small lifestyle changes and easy to implement habits.
1. Think twice before buying anything new
Let’s be honest… The disparity between the amount of things that we all have and those that we actually need is enormous. But the resources on this planet are limited and we are already consuming two earth’s worth of them each year. If there is only one habit you adopt this year, it should be this one: start asking yourself “Do I really need this?” for every little purchase you make and get super conscious about the new things you bring into your life.
2. Minimize waste in your kitchen or bathroom
It’s pretty hard to implement big lifestyle changes overnight, so focus on one area of your home and think how you can reduce the unnecessary items or slowly replace them with eco-friendly alternatives.
Some suggestions to get you started:
In the kitchen:
– replace your cleaning products with your own all-purpose cleaner.
In a spray bottle, put one part distilled white vinegar and one part warm water. Give it a good shake, spray down the counter and your kitchen table and follow up with the cleaning cloth for a squeaky clean surface.
– switch to washable dish cloths, natural fiber brushes, or biodegradable sponges for less-wasteful cleaning and an aesthetic upgrade,
– replace the aluminium tin foil with beeswax food wraps,
– skip the plastic straws or replace them with a bamboo, glass, or metal straw,
– make your own reusable produce bags and use them instead of plastic bags every time you buy fruit and vegetables,
– bring your own empty containers to the package-free grocery store or your favourite take out place.
In the bathroom:
– when it’s time for a toothbrush change, switch to a compostable bamboo toothbrush,
– bar soap is old-school, but it just makes sense: no plastic, no water weight, less waste,
– replace your shampoo and conditioner in the plastic bottle with the shampoo and conditioner bars – they result in way less plastic waste, they don’t clutter up your shower and they’re smaller and lighter which makes them awesome for travel (when we will be able to),
– get a metal safety razor – the blades cost very little and they’re totally plastic-free,
– when it comes to cleaning the bathroom: baking soda, vinegar and essential oils make a great cleanser.
3. Try a plant-based diet
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the most important way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the Joseph Poore (University of Oxford, UK), who led the biggest analysis to date published in Science magazine. While meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, they use the vast majority (83%) of farmland and produce 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Huge lifestyle changes are hard to implement so try small steps instead: do the Meatless Monday, only eat meat on the weekends, or start by being more conscious where your meat comes from and only purchase meat and dairy that is sustainably produced.
4. Shop locally and in-season
Food today (especially fruit and vegetables) can travel a long way before it reaches our plates. To reduce carbon emission and help your local economy, shop at the farmers market or directly from your local farms, choose organic produce and try to stock up only on the goods that are in-season.
5. Say no to single-use plastic
Plastic has a very low recycling rate – only 8.5% of it actually gets recycled, the rest is accumulating in landfills or in the nature as litter. This year avoid producing even more waste by saying no to single-use plastic. Get a reusable water bottle and fill it with tap water, bring your own coffee mug to your favourite take-away coffee place, skip the plastic straw with your drink, invest in a lunch box and always use your own reusable shopping bag.
6. Save water
It’s pretty obvious: don’t leave the water running when you don’t actually need it. Close the taps when you brush your teeth, use the razor, lather up or scrub in the shower and make sure the taps are always closed properly to avoid dripping. Extra points if you can stay away from the bottled water.
“Small acts, when multiplied by millons of people, can transform the world.” – Howard Zinn
7. Avoid fast fashion & create a capsule wardrobe
Curating a capsule wardrobe — clothes that you can wear often, and which will always work together — saves time, money and reduces waste. Buying only clothes that are well-made of high-quality materials is more eco-friendly because they last longer and do not need to be replaced so often. Stay reasonable, resist buying things with impossibly low pricetags and avoid the buy-and-toss behaviour. Those clothes you bought impulsly might have been cheap to you, but once you add to them their real cost someone else had to pay, you see that cheap in fashion simply doesn’t exist.
Read more tips how to become responsible fashion consumer.
8. Walk or bike
Ditch the car as often as you can and walk or use your bike instead. This will reduce the harmful carbon dioxide emissions and other global-warming gasses generated by the traffic. For longer distances public transportation is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint.
9. Reuse and repair
Huge part of sustainable living is extending the life of items you already own. Just because something is broken, ripped or out of fashion, doesn’t mean it needs to be replaced. Repair a rip or missing button, take the stained piece to the dry cleaners, repurpose the things you don’t use anymore or give an old furniture new life with small adjustments and a coat of fresh paint. The list is endless…
10. Recycle
Although recycling is great and seems a logical choice, it should be seen more as the last option in the product’s life cycle than a fast solution to fix your consumption habits. First avoid producing waste by saying no to single-use packaging, use everything you buy, find a way to reuse what is possible and only then think of recycling what is left.
Written by Sandra Gubenšek
Photos by Prophsee Journals and Thom Bradley for Unsplash
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