Do you want to live a more sustainable lifestyle but don’t know how? Listen up, this one is for you. Here are our top ten tips for living a more sustainable lifestyle so you can get started. No excuses now, if we don’t change our ways there will be no planet left to save!
Table of Contents
Ten Ways to Be Sustainable Day-to-Day
We can all live a more sustainable existence, day-to-day. Here’s how!
1 – Use more Hemp
The hemp plant isn’t anything to do with cannabis. Double bonus: it’s a carbon-negative crop. Where cattle farming is having a huge impact on the world’s carbon output – hemp farmers are soaking it all back up again. Buy hemp wherever you see it and you will be doing your bit.
2 – Switch our Materials
More and more sustainable materials are being created every day. From banana skin plates to bamboo toothbrushes – the world is changing. Get in on the trend and use more sustainable materials to do your daily shopping or brush your teeth with. It’s one thing everyone can do that will make a big difference.
3 – Buy Less Clothes
If we buy less new clothes, the environment does better. Fast fashion – that’s retailers selling clothes that will tear or stain in a few years – is responsible for toxic chemicals being released into the environment, spiraling water shortages, and bio-accumulative material wastes. We make the clothes then they are thrown away rather than used to patchwork. It’s not cool.
If you’re going to shop for clothes buy hemp or go to the thrift store and buy second hand. There is one fabric however, that is worse than all the rest…
4 – Avoid Denim (or Go Second Hand)
Denim is by far the worst fabric. The Textile Institute has actually done a study into the environmental impact of denim and how they ca\n make it more sustainable. You can read it here, courtesy of Science Direct, or you can just trust us and never buy a needless pair of frivolity jeans ever again… no? OK. But you asked for it.
It takes 1500 gallons of water and 1.5 pounds of cotton to make one pair of jeans. Not to mention the cost of the chemicals: like cellulase enzymes, sodium hypochlorite or potassium permanganate. After that you have the heat costs, the dyes used, and any other designs on the jeans. And then there’s the shelf life. When you think how many pairs of jeans you own already you realize it isn’t worth the cost.
5 – Grow, Grow, Grow!
Use your compost bin if you have one, if not, then throw your compostable food to the birds. Plant your apple seeds, unused potatoes, and uneaten fruit. Leave nuts and berries you didn’t eat in the forest and put your pumpkins out to be eaten. Grow your own food – regrow peelings and ends of vegetables…
Every tree soaks a ton of carbon out of the air as it grows. Your average human being emits 5 tons of carbon a year. We need more trees.
6 – Re-Use
Re-use what you can. Recycle your containers and think about how many waste products have before you buy them. Change your favorite brands to ones with less packaging.
It’s easy to be more sustainable on a day-to-day level. All it takes is a little extra thought.
