The act of being eco-conscious is living in a way that protects the environment. With man-made damage-causing havoc on the earth through different types of pollution, the only way to reverse its effects is if everyone takes matters into their own hands and lives responsibly. Here are ten eco-friendly practices to add to your everyday life. You can help make the change.
Switch to Renewable Energy
A simple way for households to be more eco-conscious is by switching to renewable energy as the primary source of electricity. With the most widely used energy sources being unsustainable, using solar providers and solar panels to replace oil and gas is a cleaner, more environmentally friendly option.
This switch will minimise the use of other sources such as oil and gas, and scaling back on meaningless mining is done, resulting in minor disturbance of the ecosystem. Switching heating sources to solar thermal options will be more environmentally friendly than standard electricity and wood options.
Solar thermal energy is available without combustion. Which means that there’s less heat coming into the environment. It’s one of the eco-friendly practices you can adopt that has the most impact.
Photo, Jana Sabeth.
Water Route
There’s a lot of water wastage every day, occurring unconsciously by people. An eco-conscious action to incorporate in daily life is taking shorter shows or using a shower head with low flow. It helps in lowering monthly bills and energy demands, which reduces air pollution. Investing in a reusable water bottle ensures that you drink from a tap instead of purchasing non-recyclable bottles that end up in landfills, destroying the environment.
However, water filters are necessary to ensure that the water is free of contaminants. Invest in a Berkey water filter system to ensure that you drink clean water free of toxins every time to reduce the chances of falling sick due to contamination. With sickness, the need to use medical equipment will increase, leading to more waste in landfills.
Photo, Precious Plastic Melbourne.
Cleaning Products
Around the home, many cleaning supplies clean the house but harm the environment. Check on the various ingredients used to make the cleaning agents, and ensure that no harmful chemicals can damage the planet’s biodiversity.
Switch Toilet Paper
The average human uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper in a year. It translates to 17 trees and over 90,000 litres of water. Switching to a more conscious option such as bamboo toilet paper will help preserve the environment as bamboo grows extremely fast.
Gift Consciously
Wrapping papers use almost as many trees as toilet paper does. Investing in recyclable paper is ideal if you’re a people person who loves gifting family and friends to ensure the environment is safe. With no purchase of wrapping papers, manufacturing companies will have to close shop on those harmful products.
Photo, Ernest Ojeh.
Change Cars
Sustainable cars have been around for some time now, but the switch to electric and hybrid vehicles has been slow. As cars have a major impact on the environment, opting for sustainability is one of the most critical eco-friendly practices you can adopt.
Vehicles are one of the leading causes of global warming as they pollute the earth with combusted gases, using environmentally friendly vehicles will reduce CO2 emissions. Moving to electric is especially ideal if you commute every day for work.
Clothing Options
The dark reality of fast fashion is that some fibres in some materials make clothes tough to break down, such as polyester. In addition to the billions of clothes rid by consumers to make room for new fashion trends, the old up end filling up landfills.
One of the most important eco-friendly practices you can adopt is ensuring that you wear environmentally friendly clothes. Ones that are recyclable or can completely break down in short times, such as cotton. Also consider shopping in thrift stores and buying classic stapes such as leather jackets that can be worn regardless of current trends.
Photo, Maria Ilves.
Forgo Plastic Use
Most plastics are single-use plastic products, such as straws, milk packets, or even wrappings. The problem is that they cause some of the most significant environmental challenges around. That’s because it takes 1,000 years to break plastic down completely. Invest in bamboo straws and cloth bags for shopping.
Switch Shampoos
When cleaning yourself in your home daily, water usually ends up in the ocean again. Marketing shampoo companies don’t say that the ingredients are primarily toxic to the environment and hurt sea biodiversity. Opt for natural, biodegradable ingredients.
Always Unplug
Electronic devices use a lot of energy when idle. Unplugging saves electricity and, in the long run, saves energy, which ensures that there’s no unnecessary production of heat into the environment. Still, unplugging will go a long way to help with your mental health.
It’s unlikely that you can control every aspect of life to become truly eco-friendly. Consider incorporating the rule that if it’s not recyclable, it’s not worth purchasing. Take a closer look at all products coming into your possession and strive to learn how they’ll eventually impact the environment.
Also, food choices impact the environment. You might want to aim to eat less meat as it uses a lot of water and helps in reducing greenhouse emissions. Lastly, when the opportunity arises, offer environmentally safe products to friends and family and a simple explanation of why you are using the unpopular method.
