Last time we left you with some easy tips to start living sustainably. Today we want to challenge your eco-friendly habits a little more and give you some improved sustainable tips. Here is a new chapter to the super small guide to help make your life greener. Enjoy!
- Save your leftovers
Quite often when we produce leftovers we just throw them away. Since food is naturally organic and compostable we think of it as a non-waste, at least not as bad as plastics! Well, throwing food away actually is a waste and you should stop doing that! Instead, start saving your leftovers for the next day, freeze them, or even, start creating compost for your garden if you have one. By managing food waste, you can save money by buying less food, you will reduce methane emissions from landfills and lower your carbon footprint. Moreover, you will conserve energy and resources, while preventing pollution involved in the growing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling of food.
- Check your meat-eating habits
Being careful with what you are consuming is the heart of an eco-friendly way of living. The amount and the quality of meat you eat can have a huge impact on the whole planet. The production of meat is one of the biggest contributors to climate change and the pollution of landscapes and waterways. By consuming meat consciously, you can reduce the impact the meat industry has on the Earth. Eating meat consciously means reducing its consumption, buying it at your local butcher shop, checking for its freshness, and of course, knowing where it comes from.
- Make your cleaning greener
When it comes to hygiene products there are several things you need to avoid and carefully be aware of. The most damaging of these is microbeads, which are small bits of solid non-biodegradable plastic. These make their way from your house into watercourses, ending up damaging the environment by entering the food chain even. By choosing green and eco-friendly cleaning products you can reduce the amount of polluting plastics and the level of harmful VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), such as formaldehyde, that most of the normal ones release.
- Encourage bees
Honeybees visit flowers to collect nectar and pollen, which they use as food for themselves and to produce delicious honey. Fact is, by moving from flower to flower, they are vital pollinators of many garden and wilder ecosystems, and, by doing this they help billions of plants and flowers all over the world to produce the oxygen we breathe. You can help them by growing in your own garden a range of plants that will provide a continuous flowering period, especially from March to September. Here is a list of some bee-friendly plants: lavender, Agastache, foxgloves, cardoon, dahlias, Verbena Bonariensis, Japanese Anemones, flowering cherry, crab apple, daffodils, pulmonaria, sea thrift, alliums, and grape hyacinth.
- Practise eco-driving
Now that the pandemic is getting better, of course, we all want to travel again. Well, there is even an eco-friendly way of driving that can minimize fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Here are some good habits when considering long journeys: check tire pressures, underinflated tires can cause a 2% increase in fuel consumption; do not overload the car because every additional 45kg reduces fuel economy by 2%; avoid sharp acceleration and heavy braking, aggressive driving can significantly raise fuel consumption. Eco-driving leads to safer, cleaner, and more affordable journeys. Summer is coming, enjoy the sun and, now that you know it, travel sustainably!
