Why toss food scraps into the garbage when you can give them a second life through composting? Compost has a number of amazing benefits: it prevents soil erosion, assists in stormwater management, promotes healthy plant growth without chemical fertilizers, conserves water, reduces waste, and combats climate change. To learn more about these benefits and more: https://www.compostingcouncil.org/page/CompostBenefits
Baking soda and vinegar are not only great cleaners, but both are non-toxic and remarkably cheap. To clean counters, simply sprinkle baking soda on a wet cloth and wipe it down. Vinegar can also be used as a disinfectant. Use a little lemon juice to help cover up the vinegar smell.
Aluminium is infinitely recyclable with any loss of purity. That’s why it is important to make sure your foil and trays are correctly sent for recycling. The first step is to wipe off any food residue from the foil or tray. You can use a sponge or just water. The second step is the scrunch test: scrunch the foil, and if it springs back to its original shape, it probably contains plastic and therefore is not recyclable. Finally, put together all the foil and make a ball with it. This will make the recycling process easier, as small items can often be missed.
Do not throw anything in the recycling bin if it is not empty or clean. Even if they are recyclable in theory (cans, boxes, bottles…), if dirty they could contaminate the rest of the bin and make the whole lot unfit for recycling. As a result the whole content will end up in landfill…what a waste!
Don’t throw away your glass containers! Instead reduce your waste by reusing them indefinitely. You can use your empty jars to store dry products (pasta, rice, etc), to grow a plant, as a food container, for decoration or to store any little objects! Of course, you might want to remove the label, but it is sometimes very sticky!
Follow this simple recipe to remove sticky labels:
Look at funds with sustainability in mind. Invest in funds that are described as ‘responsible’, ‘SRI’ (socially responsible investment), ‘ethical’ or ‘dark green’. These have the strictest criteria and avoid investing in any company that may have a poor record on environmental, human rights or other ethical grounds.
"There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." This phrase, which hails from Scandinavia where it's a common mantra repeated by parents who insist that their children spend time outdoors every day, can help you get outside more often and ditch your car even when the weather isn't perfect. Instead of hiding inside or defaulting to your car when it is cold or raining, dress accordingly: wear layers, rain protective gear, and other clothing items that will shield you from the elements.
Got something to get rid of that others might be able to use? Goodwill will take just about anything you’re willing to donate and give you a tax receipt. If you don’t want to deal with the trouble of loading, driving, etc. try Freecycle. There, you can list just about anything and people will come pick it up for free. As they say. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”
Make sure your money is going to companies that are committed to environmental stewardship and ethics. Do your research on labels and certifications. For example, Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
When you’re not using them for compost, used coffee grounds are an easy, greener alternative to poisonous pest repellents. Just sprinkle some grounds around any areas of the home that are prone to ants and you’ll get rid of a pesky problem without inhaling toxic fumes. Coffee grounds also make a great exfoliant. The grounds do not dissolve in water, which makes them good at scrubbing away dead skin cells.
According to the EPA, a typical single-family home uses about 30% of their water to keep their lawn green. In many cases, more than half of that water is being wasted due to evaporation and runoff caused by overwatering. Instead of high-maintenance lawns, consider using the natural landscaping of your region, or perhaps creating an edible garden to offset your water usage.
Recycled containers (such as yogurt cups, egg cartons, and toilet paper rolls) are great for starting your seeds indoors. Simply use a nail to poke drainage holes in the bottom, and ensure the containers are thoroughly cleaned before planting.
Most of us do not wash our sheets and towels or vacuum the floors in our home every day. So why do it when you travel? Many hotels now have options to opt out of daily sheet and towel changes to conserve water and energy. Additionally, leaving the "do not disturb" on your door can ensure that housekeeping staff won’t clean your room every day. This helps to save on cleaning supplies and the electricity used to vacuum and wash linens.
Switching to a plant-based diet, or even eating one vegan or vegetarian meal a day, can greatly reduce your ecological footprint. Animal products require significantly more land, water, and resources than produce, making them inefficient and wasteful sources of nutrients. Additionally, animal products, specifically meat, are linked to significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.
Food loss and waste at the production level is the second highest contributor to the total food loss in the United States. In fact, a significant amount of the produce grown never makes it off of the farm, primarily due to aesthetic and appearance reasons. This ugly produce is perfectly fit for consumption, but since it doesn't meet consumer and producer expectations, it never makes it to stores. Imperfect Foods, a company whose whose mission is to revolutionize the food system by finding homes for all of the “ugly” fruits and vegetables that farmers are unable to sell to grocery stores and restaurants, is a great alternative to grocery store shopping. By getting your produce through Imperfect Foods, you are actively preventing food from going to waste.
You can easily save energy, water, and time. Just run your dishwasher. Hand-washing dishes results in using more water (up to 27 gallons vs. 3 for the machine). Heating the water for those extra gallons is an unnecessary energy cost to your wallet and the environment. The dishwasher is also more hygienic because it heats the smaller amount of water to a degree your hands—and germs—can’t stand. In a year a dishwasher saves about 5,000 gallons of heated water.
Most of us buy our shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and even laundry detergents as liquids. These liquids are heavy and take up a lot of space, requiring a lot of energy and space to transport them. Additionally, at the end of their life the leave behind plastic waste. Luckily, there now exist solid forms of all of these products. These solid alternatives are smaller, lighter, and often come with minimal packaging.
Re-growing your carrot scraps is super easy! Just cut the top of the carrots, and put them in a plate with a little water. Keep them near the window so they receive light. Change the water every day to avoid bad odors. After a few days, you will see the leaf growing from the carrot top! When the tops eventually sprout shoots, plant them in soil and you will get a lovely plant
A lot of waste comes from doing big shops, putting two-for-one “bargains” in the shopping card and buying on repeat rather than planning meals. Working out what kind of cook you are is also useful, then reverse engineer how you shop. There is no point doing a weekly shop if you like to decide what you’re going to make for dinner at 6pm.
Make the most of seasonal gluts and preserve vegetables in oils, vinegars, chutneys, ketchup and marinades, or freeze them. Blitz and freeze tomatoes in containers for passata all year round; make kimchi from cauliflower stalks and leaves; use beetroot in jams, vinegars and oil, then chop stalks and leaves to top pastas, pizzas, curries and dal.
The majority of the environmental burden caused by fashion happens after we take the clothing home: 82% of the energy a garment will use is in the washing and drying we do each week. Spot-cleaning and neutralizing smells with a spritz of diluted vodka or lemon juice are great alternatives for washing your clothes in the washing machine. The sun also serves as a great smell neutralizer for denim. In addition to using less resources, these methods prevent clothes from wearing out from constant machine washing and drying.
TerraCycle rescues hard-to-recycle waste that is not processed by councils. It has free national recycling programmes and also sells zero-waste boxes, which you can fill with most non-hazardous, non-recyclable and non-organic waste, and return for recycling. Search its website for a scheme near you, or set one up. https://www.terracycle.com/en-US
Reusing furniture is the best thing to do, and so much more fun than buying new. Secondhand items come with interesting stories and force you to think creatively, and give you have something far more unique. To keep mileage down, start at your local auction houses and charity shops followed by a targeted trawl through Freecycle and Facebook Marketplace.
Shopping in person – especially if you walk there – is usually greener than online. Clothes shipped across the world have a significant carbon footprint, and often come packaged in plastic. You are also less likely to return things you have tried on.
It can help to ditch your friends. “When you ask a friend if you should buy something, you already know the answer will be yes,” writes Lauren Bravo in How To Break Up With Fast Fashion. “It’s an unwritten rule of sisterhood.” Think of it as the new version of not going supermarket shopping when you’re hungry.
Fast fashion is ethically and environmentally problematic. If you want to quit buying clothes from fast fashion brands, a good place to start is by unsubscribing from all the emails. A brand that is constantly introducing new products might be sustainable in name only. Sending emails and pressuring consumers to buy, buy, buy is not sustainability – that’s fast fashion. The same goes for influencers and brands on social platforms such as Instagram. Deleting fast-fashion shopping apps can help, too.
While 90% of us recycle our kitchen waste, we recycle only 50% of our beauty packaging – probably because our recycling bins are in the kitchen. Consider investing in a split-waste bathroom bin. You can reduce what ends up inside further by switching to bar soaps and shampoos and plastic-free handwash.
A staggering 20,000 liters of water are needed to create only 1kg of cotton – that’s enough to make just one T-shirt and a pair of jeans, so any cotton you buy should count. Replacing cotton wool is a good start. Remove the initial bulk of makeup with a reusable disc soaked in plain water. These do an astoundingly good job, even on waterproof mascara. Follow with a cleanser and a wet terry-cotton flannel; both flannel and disc should last for hundreds of washing machine cycles. For toners, exfoliants and nail polish remover, use washable bamboo pads.
Those pick’n’mix bars of travel-sized beauty products are so alluring, but cause a huge amount of waste for no reason and very little product. Instead, make a one-off investment in refillable travel bottles and pots and decant your favorite full sizes – or, even better, wash out and reuse any mini bottles you already have. Remember that active skincare such as vitamin C or retinol serums are best left in their original packaging to safeguard their stability, but anything else can be decanted for travel. And if you have so many minis left over from flights and hotel stays that you won’t use them all, take them to your nearest homeless shelter, where their clients need them.
We all know the saying "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" but rarely take it to heart. Reducing consumption is the most effective way to prevent waste down the line. After all, how often do you really need a new phone? A new sofa or bed frame? Chasing trends is unsustainable—not just for your wallet, but also for the supply chains that produce our goods.
Small appliances such as TVs, cable boxes, Blu-Ray players, and video game system use energy even when they’re turned off. Consider unplugging items that won’t be used regularly, or get a power strip with switches to save even more energy.
Replace any of your old appliances with Energy Star qualified appliances, including refrigerators, microwaves, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. These energy-efficient models use approximately 50% less electricity than comparable models.
For the same luminosity, a LED bulb only requires 10 Watts whereas a classic incandescent bulb will require 60 Watts. A LED bulb will last between 12 and 25 times more than a classic incandescent bulb. While the LED bulb is generally more expensive, LED prices have gone down a lot and the price of the bulb is quickly compensated by the savings you can make in electricity.
The shorter the food chain, the less waste created before it reaches your kitchen. Not only that, but the nutritional value of fruit and vegetables lasts for only a short time, so how far your food has travelled matters. Buying locally is a great way to reduce your footprint while supporting your local economy.
Regular vehicle maintenance improves fuel efficiency by as much as 10%. Before a long journey, check tyre pressures (tyres underinflated by a quarter can cause a 2% increase in fuel consumption), remove unused roof racks and boxes, and don’t overload the car (every additional 45kg reduces fuel economy by 2%). At less than 40mph, it’s more fuel-efficient to open a window than use air conditioning. Turn off engines for waits of more than one minute (5-8% of fuel is consumed while idling), and avoid sharp acceleration and heavy braking: aggressive driving can significantly raise fuel consumption.
Flying is the most carbon intensive mode of transport, and is often the largest contributor to a person’s individual carbon footprint. The average cross-country, round-trip flight emits about 4,500 pounds of carbon emissions. Short flights are the worst, emitting more CO2 per mile traveled than medium to longer flights. So, when possible, take a train or bus instead of flying. Just think of all the security and TSA headaches you’ll avoid!
Open up your blinds and use as much natural light as possible before switching on your light bulbs. Not only will you save on electricity and reduce your carbon footprint, but you'll be able to enjoy the mental and physical benefits of sunshine.
Check your filter every month, especially during heavy use months (winter and summer). If the filter looks dirty after a month, change it. At a minimum, change the filter every 3 months. A dirty filter will slow down air flow and make the system work harder to keep you warm or cool — wasting energy. A clean filter will also prevent dust and dirt from building up in the system — leading to expensive maintenance and/or early system failure.
A smart thermostat paired with insulated window treatments can stabilize your home’s internal temperature, avoiding the hot and cold swings that waste energy.
Contractors or utility companies can evaluate your home’s energy-efficiency, and the federal government runs home-energy audits through the Department of Energy’s Home Performance with Energy Star program. Some audit suggestions might include replacing insulation or switching out old appliances.
Aim for temperatures that are 7 to 10 degrees lower while you sleep. You’ll use 1 percent less energy for each degree per every eight hours. “In general, with temperature, [it’s] important to be conservative,” says William Lynn, a clean energy expert who’s consulted for major energy companies. “Don’t have things too hot or too cold.”
The nonprofit Cool Effect offers a place to both calculate and purchase your own carbon offsets for every flight you take. There’s no fixed price on carbon, but it’s generally less than $15 a flight. To make sure your money ultimately goes to worthwhile projects, look for certifications by auditors or standards groups like the Gold Standard or Green-e.
Instead, order multiple things from the same place at once with no-rush shipping. Rushed packages mean more trucks clogging roads in cities—which makes more traffic, and more pollution—and at distribution centers, where they’re destroying small towns.
Instead of cranking the AC all the time, try using nature's AC when possible. Crack open a few windows to get some cross ventilation going and let in the natural air when outdoor temps are cool. Your house will be cooled naturally, not only saving you money and reducing your carbon footprint, but also allowing you to enjoy the many health benefits of fresh air. This is especially great to do in the spring.
Choose native plants with brightly colored red, purple and yellow flowers if you want to attract birds and provide shelter. Providing a source of water, whether via natural springs, birdbaths, or ponds, will also help to attract birds and other wildlife.
Repeated application of road salt can be detrimental to the surrounding environmental. Chloride and other chemicals included in road salt and other de-icers eventually make their way from the roads into nearby lakes, streams, and groundwater, where they can cause extensive environmental damage due to their toxicity to fish and other aquatic organisms. Chloride, in particular, ends up being the biggest problem due to the fact that it is very difficult to remove once it gets into the water. When attempting to melt ice on your sidewalk or driveway, clear as much snow from the surface as possible. The fact that snow is white causes much of the radiation from the sun that could be used to melt the underlying ice to be reflected away from the ground; clearing snow reveals the darker ice or pavement underneath that can more easily absorb the sun’s radiation and thus promote melting. Adding a little sand or coffee grounds to the icy parts of your sidewalk or driveway after removing the snow will also make the area appear darker and thus have the same effect, though you should remember to sweep it up later to avoid the issues mentioned above.
Much of our clothing is made from polyester, which is a synthetic fiber typically derived from petroleum. The reason that polyester is so popular (accounts for about 50% of the overall fiber market and 80% of the synthetic fiber market; see Preferred Fiber & Materials Market Report 2017) is that it is very durable, low cost, versatile, lightweight, and is resistant to stains, fading due to sunlight, and wrinkles. However, these materials take significantly more energy to produce than their natural counterparts and cause pollution every time they are washed. Each time you use a washing machine to wash clothing made from polyester, the clothing will shed a myriad of small pieces of plastic, or microplastics, that will make their way into our water bodies and air. So what’s the solution? The main thing that we can do is to focus on purchasing fabric products that are made primarily from natural as opposed to synthetic fibers. This would include linen, cotton, hemp, silk, cashmere, and wool. Additionally, buying secondhand is a great way to refresh your wardrobe without requiring the production of my clothes.
It might not seem like a stormwater problem, but animal waste is one of the many seemingly small sources of pollution that can add up to big problems for water quality, and even human health. Animal waste contains two main types of pollutants that harm local waters: nutrients and pathogens. When this waste ends up in water bodies, it decomposes, releasing nutrients that cause excessive growth of algae and weeds. This makes the water murky, green, smelly, and even unusable for swimming, boating, or fishing. The pathogens, disease causing bacteria and viruses, can also make local waters unswimmable and unfishable, and have caused severe illness in humans. The easiest way to avoid these problems is to clean up after your pet each and every time, and dispose of the waste properly!
Honeybees visit only one type of flower in any one foraging trip. This is called ‘flower fidelity’ and is what makes them such effective pollinators. So plant large clumps or ‘drifts’ of single species and optimize each of the bees’ trips. Think swathes of catmint, field scabious and hyssop. March to September are the key months for honeybees – they will fly whenever the temperature is above 50º F, even in winter, so early- and late-flowering plants are especially valuable.
Letting your grass grow longer between cuts not only saves gas or electricity, and therefore reduces carbon dioxide emissions, but also encourages more wildlife into your garden. Longer grass is more drought-resistant, too. Try cutting every three or four weeks and let dandelions, daisies and violets bloom in spring, followed by buttercups, clovers and selfheal in summer.
Tree-planting cools cities two ways: by swapping hot hardscape surfaces for shaded permeable areas, and by lowering surrounding air temperatures due to water evaporation from leaves. Trees also soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide and can filter deadly air pollution, protecting people from chronic respiratory illness.
Inefficient outdoor lighting wastes energy and contributes to light pollution. Form a local dark-sky group to lobby your city for widespread changes, like shields on streetlights. If there’s an offending light near your home, request a lighting change.
Up to 14 percent of the land in some U.S. cities is dedicated to parking motionless vehicles. That’s not just incentivizing driving; it’s also taking up precious land. Attend hearings for new developments and encourage planners to reduce or nix the construction of required parking spaces.
From batteries and electronics to lightbulbs and mattresses, most municipalities have programs to help you properly get rid of your stuff. Use the FDA’s guide to figure out how to properly dispose of medicines: Hormones and other chemicals can get into the water supply and affect marine life.