Helpful Advice and Tips To Live an Eco-Friendly Lifestyle

Almost 50 percent of Americans believe climate change is a serious threat that needs to be addressed within the next decade. More countries and businesses are starting to take note of people’s growing concerns and have started pushing more green initiatives. Even energy companies are starting to invest in renewable and low-carbon options!

While these are more macro level green initiatives, there are ways that you can lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Reducing your carbon footprint on a personal level can still make a huge impact on the planet. Plus, leading a green lifestyle means you probably will also save money in the long run! When starting any new lifestyle change, it’s important to start slowly. You want to make sure you can continue these positive habits forever, not just for a month or two. Below are some ideas on what you can do to live a more eco-conscious life.

DIY as Much as You Can

Doing it yourself is nothing new. People have been making things with their hands since time immemorial. However, with more people living in cities and the general frantic pace of today’s world, it’s all too easy to pick convenience over DIY. Many skills such as furniture painting, woodworking, and crafting were all but forgotten by a handful of people.

However, there’s a growing resurgence of people interested in DIY. One of the reasons this swing has occurred is because it makes people feel good. It also gives people a sense of pride not only because they created something, but because it makes their house unique since the decorations or furniture are handmade. Plus, the skills you often learn with DIY are indispensable and makes you less reliant on big box stores.

DIY covers a wide range of activities so choose one that makes sense for your current living situation and that you’ve always been interested in. With the plethora of instructional videos available online, you can pretty much learn everything! Plus, you don’t have to start from scratch. There are entire communities of people who practice upcycling where you transform an item into something more trendy. For example, if you’re a great seamstress, you can transform old clothes into more fashionable items. You can even turn your ‘trash’ into household items! Plastic bottles can be transformed into planters, cardboard boxes can turn into cat scratchers or mini dioramas, and more! While there’s a lot of emphasis on recycling, remember that reusing comes before recycle in the Three Rs Framework for environmental protection.

Skip The Car From Time To Time

A single car produces around 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s about 25 percent of the average carbon footprint for adults in the United States! Considering how spread out the suburbs are in the United States, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of driving everywhere even if only to go a couple of blocks.

Of course, for many people cars are essential. They need it to go to work, buy groceries, and live their lives. It’s no surprise that the average family has two cars considering nowadays most families have a dual-income. If this sounds familiar, you might be wondering how you could actually ditch the car. Well there are a couple of options:

• Carpool with friends and/or co workers instead of driving alone

• Walk or bike when possible

• Take public transportation if it’s available in your area

If none of these options exist for you, consider updating your car to one that’s more fuel-efficient. Or, better yet, invest in a hybrid or electric car to reduce your overall emissions. If you’re able to get your electricity from renewable energy, even better! Electric vehicles are becoming more capable every year with batteries able to last around 26-32 miles daily.

When you are driving, try to optimize your technique. Avoid hard acceleration and braking as it can waste fuel and lower your mileage. You should also not go above 60 miles per hour as every 5 miles per hour over you drive, you lose 7 percent fuel efficiency. If you’re driving on a highway, switch over to cruise control for additional fuel savings! Finally, make sure to consistently maintain your car as it can keep your car in good shape and improve overall gas mileage and fuel economy.

Get Into The Habit Of Recycling

While not as optimal as reducing or reusing items, recycling is still an important practice you should follow if you want to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle. In the long-term, landfills are not sustainable. Not only are they the largest source of human-caused methane, the liners also leak toxic leachate into the soil and groundwater. Even worse, due to the way trash is dumped in landfills, many items do not have the appropriate conditions to decompose properly even if they are biodegradable. Of course, landfills also contain many non-biodegradable items, which often fall off the sides of trucks and boats during transport and end up in waterways.

Although recycling isn’t perfect, it’s much better than simply throwing it out. Recycling creates a closed-loop system where unwanted products are remade into new items. By just recycling 30 percent of our waste a year, Americans can save 11.9 billion gallons of gas, which is the equivalent of taking 25 million cars off the road.

There are a few materials that you can’t recycle such as certain types of plastics and soiled paper. If you’re not sure whether you can recycle an item or not, you can always call your local recycling and/or sanitation department for more information. Some typical items you can recycle include:

• Clean paper products - this includes standard paper and cardboard. Any paper that has stains (especially from food) will not be recycled

• Plastic bottles - look for the number 1 or PET on the bottle. Alway empty the bottle of any liquids so it can be properly recycled. If the plastic container held anything that was oily or sticky, clean it thoroughly

• Glass - similar to plastic, make sure to clean glass containers properly and separate the plastic or aluminum lid from the bottle itself when recycling.

• Metals - you can recycle soup cans, soda cans, and even aluminum foil! Clean off any food particles before recycling.

• Batteries - yes, you can absolutely recycle batteries. In fact, car batteries are the most recycled product in America! Unfortunately you cannot recycle single use batteries.

• Electronics - with laptops and smartphones more accessible than ever, there’s more and more e-waste. These products often contain toxic substances, so it’s important to dispose of them properly rather than just chucking them in the trash. Many cities offer an e-waste program where you can either drop-off your electronics.

Grow Veggies At Home

Being part of the global market means you can get every fruit and vegetable at your grocery store regardless of the season. While this is certainly convenient, it also comes at the cost of the environment. That kiwi at the store might have come all the way from New Zealand and those onions from Mexico. While supply chains and shipping lines have become more efficient over the years, there’s no denying that these store-bought vegetables contribute a lot to overall pollution. Not only do you have to worry about the pollution from transport, but altogether grocery stores in the United States generate about 16 billion pounds of food waste a year.

Growing your own vegetables might not be feasible for everyone, but if you have the space and time, it can be a rewarding experience. You don’t even have to have outdoor space! There are plenty of indoor hydroponic setups that allow you to grow leafy greens, herbs, and more. Even if you don’t have a green thumb, there are plenty of vegetables that are easy to manage. Plus, home grown vegetables always taste better than the ones you buy at the store. There are a few reasons for this:

• The hybridization of vegetables and fruits leads to better longevity but compromises on flavor

• Store-bought produce are generally harvested before their peak ripeness and sometimes ripened artificially whereas you can pick your vegetables exactly when they are ready

• Most commercial farms don’t have as much nutrients in the soil, which can lead to less flavor whereas you can add nutrient dense compost to your garden

Cook More Meals From Scratch

The average adult works around 40.5 hours a week. Of course, there are many people who work well above those hours! Even if you do manage to only work 40 hours a week, you then have to factor in commuting to and from work. Considering the average commute time is around 30 minutes, that means you’re out of the house for a total of 9 hours a day! More often than not, most people are too tired from work that the siren’s call of takeout is too strong to resist.

However, cooking your own meals from scratch doesn’t have to take hours. In fact, there are plenty of meals that can take 30 minutes or less! These are great options, especially for busy households. Not only are these meals delicious, you also know exactly what you’re putting in them so you can avoid potential allergens and cross-contamination. Plus, it’s good for the environment. You’re reducing your waste since you aren’t throwing out takeout containers. More importantly, you control where your ingredients are from so you can choose produce that is locally-sourced and organic. When eating out, you have no idea where each ingredient is sourced!

Of course, there might be some days you don’t want to cook so it’s okay to eat out occasionally. However, many people eat out simply because they don’t know what to cook despite having plenty of ingredients in the fridge. This often leads to food waste. So instead of just buying a bunch of ingredients, create a weekly meal plan to go through all the produce you buy. Plan a few large meals that can be spread over the course of the week, that way you don’t have to cook every night and can instead eat leftovers. If you want to reduce your workload further, consider getting a slow cooker. There are hundreds of recipes online where you just put all the ingredients in the pot and let it cook for eight hours. When you get home, you’ll have a finished meal!

If you want to go a step further in your eco-friendly lifestyle, be mindful of the produce you buy. Buy locally sourced as much as possible. Not only are you supporting local businesses, you are also reducing overall transportation emissions. As a consequence of buying local, chances are you will only be able to purchase seasonal items. Not only do these taste better, they also tend to be cheaper since they are in season. One of the best ways to learn what items are in season is to subscribe to a local CSA box.

Set An Example and Live An Eco-Friendly Lifestyle

Leading an eco-friendly lifestyle means you need to be more aware of your own habits. Before you jump on the bandwagon, it’s a good idea to get a broader sense of your current lifestyle and habits. If you’re working 60+ hours a week, you might not be able to get into DIY or if you live in a tiny apartment with no backyard, you might not be able to grow your own vegetables. Everyone has their own challenges, so you need to find the activities that suit your life the best.

As with all habits, it’s important to start building up to leading a fully eco-friendly lifestyle. You don’t have to immediately jump into becoming zero waste or making all your food. In fact, little changes done consistently over a long period of time have a much bigger impact than the occasional large gesture. So even changing one small thing in your life can help reduce your carbon footprint.

Rebekah Pierce is a professional social blogger and has worked on several online publications including Citrus Sleep. Rebekah is an experienced content writer and copyeditor. You will find many of her works throughout CitrusSleep.com that cover a wide array of subjects including sleep education, natural, sleep products, electronics, fashion and many more. She is passionate about her work and family.

Follow Lisa at Rebekah Pierce

More Articles You May Enjoy