How To Be More Sustainable!
Over the past few years, people have started to come around to the idea of Earth preservation for future generations.
I vividly remember one of the first Australian climate protests, at the start of year 7 in 2019, where I, alongside thousands of other young Australians gathered outside of Town Hall to protest against climate change.
I remember the day Greta Thunberg went viral across all social media, and seemingly overnight, became one of the biggest faces in the world.
For Gen Z specifically, we have become so knowledgeable and motivated to change the previous generations' ways, in order to make a better world for our children, and their children to follow.
Everything we do in our day-to-day lives impacts the environment, often for worse rather than better. Today, I’ll be talking about ‘17 Ways To Be More Sustainable’ throughout our everyday lives, in order to look after and preserve our planet.
I hope you like it!
Travel Green:
Instead of driving around everywhere you go, and releasing thousands of kilos of pollution into the atmosphere every year, there are many ways to travel greener! Firstly, if possible, change your petrol-running car to one that runs on electricity! These cars emit less than half the amount of fumes! Secondly, at any opportunity, try walking or riding your bike instead of driving. Lastly, take public transport. While it may still emit fumes, moving 40+ people around on a single bus or train rather than having each of them drive individually on the roa is much more effective!
Stop Using Plastic Bags!:
Unless you were living under a rock, I think we’ve all noticed by now that since November 2019, almost all popular grocery stores and corporations have stopped handing out free plastic grocery bags. Now, to get a bag to put your groceries in, you have to pay 20 cents for a thick, reusable plastic bag. As useful as these are, they are even WORSE for the environment than those originally used! Since they are even thicker, and contain even more plastic! To decrease your carbon footprint, deny all plastic bags and start bringing your own reusable bags to the store!
Donate Old Clothes:
A great way to reuse and recycle old clothes is donation! Often, there should be clothing donation bins, a salvation army, or an op-shop in your neighbourhood. Utilise these place to hand down your old, unworn clothes, clothes from you as a kid that are too small, and other accessories that could be resold or worn be people in need.
Avoid Wasting Food:
If you ever have leftover food after dinner, try not to waste it! Place in a container in the fridge to heat up in the morning for brekkie, or for your school lunch. If some veggies or fruits are long gone and unable to be eaten, or you have leftover food scraps, compost them in the back yard!
Use Eco-Friendly Cleaning And Skincare Products:
Many cleaning and skincare products contain harmful chemicals that negatively affect the environment. Many others use packaging that is single-use and unsustainable. By dedicating yourself to using eco-friendly cleaning products, as well as skin care products, you benefit the Earth. Some examples of environmentally friendly brands include Zero Co and Simply Clean. Ideas for eco-friendly packaged products include toothpaste tablets, shampoo and conditioner bars, or packaging using glass, metal or paper!
Grow Your Own Produce:
Growing your own produce is a great way to become sustainable! Not only is it good for the environment, but it is a fun hobby and habit to get into! Dedicate some time to planting seeds for crops each season needed. Hopefully, you’ll then find yourself with a garden flourishing with delicious fruit and veg!
Save Water:
Did you know that only 0.3% of the world's water is actually usable by humans? At least 97.7% of all water is unusable by humans and other species, despite many parts of the 0.3% being unattainable. A great way to support the environment is to cut down your water use through everyday tasks. This includes collecting rainwater to water plants, only flushing the toilet when necessary, taking shorter showers, and making sure all taps have no leaks, for example.
Cut Down Your Use Of Electricity:
Like water, sources of electricity are also finite. The use of burning coal creates many gas emissions that directly contribute to global warming and climate change. Try applying some of these easy everyday tasks to cut down your use of electricity in your household. Some examples include turning off all the lights each morning and night, only using the heater or air-con when needed, only turning on a packed dishwasher or turning off the tv when not needed.
Change To Renewable Energy:
If you have the opportunity, consider changing your main form of electricity to a renewable form of energy! Rather than having your energy based on coal or oil, try finding a way to be powered by solar power, hydro power or wind power. Replacing your petrol-run car with an electric car is also another way to apply this!
Buy And Wear Sustainable Clothing:
The fashion and clothing industry is one of the biggest contributors to pollution that there is. Nowadays, almost all clothing from Kmart or Target contains some sort of plastic or plastic fibres woven into the garment. To improve your carbon footprint, invest in buying natural and sustainable clothing, as well as 2nd hand clothes from op-shops.
Compost Your Food And Garden Waste:
As hard as it may sound, composting your food and vege scraps is super easy and great for the environment! Rather than sending all your leftover food, meat off-cuts and fruit and vege peels to the tip, compost them in your own compost bin or garden! This will create fresh soil for growing produce, and some delicious meals for the worms and the plants!
Eat Less Meat:
The production of meat all across the world is one of the biggest contributors to climate change that there is. It is one of the core causes of air pollution, water pollution, and extreme water use, taking approximately 7000 litres of water to produce ½ a kilo of beef. Jeez…
By eating less meat (as much as I, and most others love it!), you help reduce the impact the meat agricultural industry has on our planet.
Switch To Reusable Water Bottles:
This year, it is expected that more than 580 billion single-use plastic bottles are expected to be bought and used by people all around the world. As this number continues to rise, our oceans fill up to the brim with plastic and cause water pollution, helping kill our sacred wildlife. As much as recycling has become a modern lifestyle habit of many, it is unsettling to know that 91% of plastic is still NOT recycled! While recycling is beneficial, cutting down on plastic water bottles and switching them for metal, glass or hard plastic reusable water bottles whenever you can is the best way to go!
Stop Using Plastic Straws:
Plastic straws, like all plastic, are extremely bad for the environment! Not only do plastic straws never go away, but they are also responsible for the deaths of thousands of ocean-life every year! Straws take up to 200 years to decompose, and more than 182.5 billion are thrown out each year in the USA alone!
Invest in a metal or bamboo or straw that you can take with you everywhere you go and use as a replacement!
Find Alternatives For Plastic Packaging:
As a school student, I completely understand how annoying it can be packing my lunch each morning before school, especially in a rush. And how easy and tempting it can be to wrap all your fruits and vegetables in cling wrap, and throw any snacks into a plastic zip-lock bag or piece of foil.
Now, when my mum noticed this a few years ago, we tried as hard as we could to go plastic free when it comes to mine and my brother's lunch box. Nowadays, we almost never have cling-wrap in the house, don’t buy single use plastic bags, and instead use metal compartmented lunch boxes, metal containers and silicone reusable plastic bags!
Invest in some environmentally friendly packaging! I promise it is a great investment and will benefit the environment in so many ways!
Change Your Light Bulbs To LED Lightbulbs:
As anyone who knows me personally knows, we in Science, have just recently been looking at energy and energy efficiency in our everyday lives. This course dramatically changed my perspective on energy, and made me realise how much energy is wasted when using regular filament light bulbs.
Did you know that Filament light bulbs are only 10% energy efficient?! Meaning that 90% of the energy placed into the lightbulb is used for creating heat or sound other than light?
By changing to LED lightbulbs, you upgrade this efficiency from 10%, to 75%! This means that 75% of the electricity goes to light, and the other 25% goes towards making heat or sound!
The Bottom Line:
By applying these small daily tips to your everyday life, you reduce your carbon footprint and make Earth a more sustainable and eco-friendly place. While it’s practically impossible nowadays to have a clean carbon footprint, these little things eventually add up!
Now more than ever, it is so important to help change Earth's future before it is too late.
We can do it! Have a great day!
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO BECOME A MORE SUSTAINABLE PERSON?! SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND COMMENT BELOW!
Don’t forget to comment, share, and like this post!
Hi, I’m Mia!
Teen dream celebrates, supports and connects young women of all shapes, sizes, ages, races and beliefs. Our website is dedicated to helping young women find balance in life, become organised, stay…
CHECK OUT MY INSTAGRAM!!!
@miasteendream