How to Give Your Home Life a Green Makeover
There are so many challenges facing the earth today: more trash, more people, more pollution, less space and fewer green places. With so much going on, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and apathetic. After all, what can one person do to combat all of these different problems?
It may sound incredibly cheesy, but it’s important to realise that you really do have the power to make a difference. Think about it-if nobody does anything to help because they don’t think their actions matter, then the world and the people in it will just keep moving along the same old self-destructive path. But, if everyone does something to help, we may actually be able to start putting things right.
So, what can you do to make a difference? Start out by making some simple changes to the way you live. Our lifestyles today can be incredibly destructive and wasteful, but we often don’t realise it because we don’t see the immediate impact of our choices. Environmental action begins at home. With that in mind, here are 5 simple steps you can take that will help reduce your environmental footprint:
1) Ditch the plastic shopping bags: Yes, they’re convenient. However, disposable plastic bags are one of the most common trash items in the environment-over 500 billion plastic bags are used across the globe each year! They take forever to decompose, produce toxins when they do finally break down, and wreak havoc on wildlife. For example, sea turtles, dolphins, and other marine mammals mistake plastic bags for food items such as seaweed and jellyfish. Even plankton-eaters like whales can end up ingesting tiny pieces of them-in the North Pacific Ocean, pieces of plastic bags are 6 times more common than plankton! Unfortunately, plastic bags are not digestible. Also, plastic shopping bags are made from petroleum, so cutting down on their use will save oil and reduce CO2 emissions. In fact, in Britain, reducing the number of plastic bags consumed by merely a quarter would be the energy equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road! What can you do to help? The best action would be to invest in some cute, reusable cloth shopping bags. If you can’t afford to make that investment right now, try switching to paper and composting. Or, simply reuse your plastic bags until they are worn out, and then make sure to recycle them!
2) Just say NO to bottled water: Sure, bottled water seems like one of the most pure and healthy things you could drink. While it’s definitely better for you than soda, consider this: Although the bottle may have a picture of a pristine mountain spring on it, many brands actually come from the same sources as tap water. All you are paying for is a bottle with packaging on it-a bottle that takes petroleum to create and will be almost instantaneously disposed of. Unless you know your tap water is dangerous, and most of the time it isn’t if you live in a developed country, just buy a reusable bottle or two and fill it up at the sink. You’ll save money, guilt, and the energy, petroleum and CO2 emissions used to make those little disposable plastic bottles. If you don’t like the taste of your tap water, simply buy a filter. You’ll save money in the long run over bottled water.
3) Save energy (and money!) at home: Use compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent-they use 75% to 80% less energy. Make sure to turn off the lights when you leave the room-if you have trouble training yourself (or your spouse) to remember, you can buy a motion sensor system that will turn the lights off for you when you leave. Also, make sure to turn off appliances you aren’t using. However, be aware that some appliances, such as microwaves, DVD players and satellite TV receptors, can suck power even when they are off. To stop these vampire appliances, you may need to plug them into a power strip and then turn the power strip off. Turn your thermostat up a few degrees in the summer and down a few degrees in the winter. Saving energy means that you place less of a burden on our nonrenewable resources-and you’ll save money on bills, too!
4) Make less trash- The worst thing about landfills is that nothing really breaks down in them-even biodegradable items like paper can stay put for decades. Basically, in a landfill, the items are not exposed to the actions of soil bacteria, worms, or to the elements of sun, wind, and rain. In these conditions, even if something is technically biodegradable, the chemical changes that lead it to biodegrade are inhibited. So, try to cut down on your trash production. Remember the 3 Rs-reduce, reuse, and recycle. If something can be reused, reuse it. If it can be composted, compost it. Even if you live in an apartment, you can install a worm bin for composting. With the proper safeguards to keep it from attracting bugs and other pests, it’s a clean process. Also, kids think it’s cool. Try not to buy items you don’t need, and be aware of how much packaging comes with the items that you purchase. Recycle everything you can. You’ll produce less trash, and help save the energy and oil that would be consumed in making new items.
5) Consume wisely: We live in a consumer society. Very few people can claim to be completely self-sufficient-and most of them are crazy. Everyone else has to buy things. The important thing is to choose your purchases wisely. Again, don’t buy things you don’t need. Also, when you purchase an item, consider how environmentally friendly of a purchase it is. Is the item or its packaging recyclable? Is it made with chemicals that can be harmful to the environment? If you are shopping for a new appliance, try to choose a brand with a reputation for longevity-and make sure to choose an energy efficient model! When buying food, try to purchase organic food or locally grown food when possible.
Basically, reducing your environmental impact at home comes down to making responsible choices and being conscientious. So much of what we consume isn’t even necessary to maintain our quality of life-we just don’t think twice about it! Start making little changes today, and you can start feeling good about doing your part for the earth.
Tags: Environment, pollution
This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 10:54 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.