The New Year is here! It’s time to make resolutions for living a greener, cleaner life in 2015. It doesn’t have to be hard – choosing even one resolution and sticking to it until it becomes a habit will make all the difference.
Here’s our top tips on how to live clean and green in 2015:
1. Plant a tree
Or flowers. Or herbs. Or veggies. Anything that you plant will help clean the air and green the planet. Plant anything that you can, or you can even bring some plants inside to help detoxify your indoor air.
2. Clean up for the New Year
What better way to start the year than to clean up your stash and find a better use for all that stuff. Do a kitchen pantry raid, a bathroom cabinet raid, or a wardrobe raid. Separate everthing into piles of what’s still useful and what should go. Reuse old things, recycle or up-cycle stuff and free up space in your place. You can have a garage sale or donate your “still in good condition” stuff to charity.
3. Green Your Ride
Taking care of your car equals taking care of the environment. Get into the habit of checking your car once a month; check tire pressure, change oil and filters if necessary. These simple changes can improve the mileage of your car. Slow down and you can save on petrol; lesser petrol consumption means cleaner air. The next time you travel try to open up your car windows, forget the air-conditioning and enjoy the fresh air.
4. Ride a bike or walk more often
Avoid unnecessary trips in the car, which all add to air pollution and your carbon footprint. Walk down to the shops to grab some milk, or perhaps even commit to riding to work once or twice a week. If you children are old enough, why not ride with them to school occasionally? You’ll get fit and you’ll be setting a great example to your kids.
5. BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) When Shopping
Ditch the plastic! Make a habit of bringing your own reusable eco bags when shopping or doing your grocery. With millions of plastic bags being used every minute and ending up in landfill, using reusable eco bags is one of the easiest ways to lower your carbon footprint. If you’re not great at remembering to grab bags on your way out the door, get hold of some foldable bags that fit into your handbag or the dash of your car.
6. Introduce Meatless Mondays
Go veggie once a week! Not only are veggies are good for you and your family’s health but a recent study shows that eating less meat or cutting it off our diet once every week can significantly reduce our carbon footprint.
7. Stop buying bottled water
Yes, you need to drink lots of water to stay hydrated. But you don’t need to be buying that water from multinational soft drink companies who bottle it in single use plastic bottles! Grab yourself a reusable water bottle and take it everywhere with you. More and more public spaces in Australia are bringing back water fountains, so you can even refill on the go.
8. Go Organic
Organic farming and manufacturing are better for you and the environment. Buying and using organic products means you are removing harmful chemicals from your system and you are helping in reducing environmental pollutants. If you are not yet ready for completely going organic, you can start by ditching your chemically loaded cleaners and choose organic. Same thing with your skincare products and baby products.
9. Go Paperless
The paper industry is one of the largest global warming contributors. So if you lessen your paper consumption, you can help lessen global warming. Go paperless by choosing not to print your emails, bills or notes. And if printing is necessary, set up your printers so that it will print on both side of the paper.
Think about visiting your local library to borrow books, rather than buying them. Many libraries also lend books online, too. You can buy books to read on a tablet, and you can even read the newspaper online!
13. Reduce food waste
Reducing the amount of food you throw away is good for you and the environment. Less waste means you can save money, plus you can also help conserve energy and reduce methane gas emission from landfills, reducing your carbon footprint. Plan meals ahead, cook in batches and freeze, learn to use leftovers, and use older vegetables for soup.
These are just a few ideas on how you can live clean and green. You may already be doing some of these, but we hope we’ve given you some food for thought.
Happy New Year!
Get the latest posts straight to your inbox every week!