One of the best things that the individual person or family can do for the world right now is simply to live a greener lifestyle. The more people who do, the more the world and everyone in it benefits.
“The world does not need a few people doing it perfectly, it needs a lot of people doing it imperfectly”
But where is the best place to start an eco-friendly journey?
The good thing about going green is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. Any little change is helpful. More, of course, is better. But even if you are only able to make one small change right now, it does matter.
So the best way to start an eco friendly lifestyle overhaul is to pick one change, and start there. Then over time add in more changes until your lifestyle is right where you want it to be.
Here are some of the best eco friendly swaps you can make.
The Cloth Switch
Making the switch from paper to cloth is one of the easiest eco changes you can do in your lifestyle. The average family uses two rolls of paper towels a week. That is 104 rolls a year per family. There are around 130 million families in the USA… that’s about 13.5 billion rolls of paper towels from the United State alone every year. How many trees could we save if everyone changed their habits to use cloth towels for all expect the nastiest messes?
And cloth is such an easy switch. Hand towels are available at any home goods store, and they come in endless colors and patterns. If you haven’t already, place hand towels in all bathrooms and near kitchen sinks to use instead of paper towels.
For kitchen messes and most household cleanups, rags will work just fine. You don’t even need to go out and spend a lot of money of fancy, pretty cloth towels. Unless of course you want to. Just save all your old hand towels, wash cloths, and even cut up old bath towels to use as rags. Find a place to put a box with all of these rags that isn’t directly in sight and use these to clean up the messes that you would normally use paper towels for. Once used, simply throw them in the wash and then back in that rag box. This is an eco switch that doesn’t cost you a penny.
You can also change out your dinner paper napkins for cloth. Like hand towels, these also come in many cute patterns and colors. And most fancy restaurants use cloth napkins anyway right? So you could say that really you are just making your own dinners a little fancier.
There are some people who go so far as to switch their toilet paper for cloth too. All credit to them! But I must admit I am not at that level yet. There are some things I would prefer to not have in my washing machine. And I am sure I am not alone in that line of thought. But, we should all still make a point about not using too much toilet paper each time we go. And it is also possible to buy toilet paper made from bamboo. Bamboo is much more economical to grow. It requires less space, less water, and it grows a whole lot faster. So if possible, switch to bamboo toilet paper.
The Plastic Switch
I am sure that the majority of the worlds population is well aware that we have a plastic crisis. Plastic is the number one most wasted substance on the planet. It is created in mind blowing quantities, used for just about everything, and way too much of it ends up discarded in dumps or on the side of the road. Only 9% of plastic that could be recycled, actually gets recycled. It takes 1000 years for plastic to decompose. And even then it is simply turning into microscopic plastic particles. And to make it worse, most plastic is made from crude oil and natural gas. Commodities that we are running out of.
For all these reasons, making the plastic switch is probably the most important one you can make.
Some simple plastic switches are:
Reusable water bottles
Washable snack bags
Reusable grocery bags
Mesh produce bags (for pick your own produce sections at grocery stores)
Reusable or biodegradable straws
- Say no to plastic utensils with takeout meals
- Bamboo toothbrushes
- Toothpaste bites instead of tubes
- Bar soap instead of liquid soap in plastic bottles (biodegradable soap whenever possible)
- Glass tupperware and mason jars instead of plastic tupperware
- Wrapper free laundry detergent
- Silicone container covers instead of saran wrap
- Silicone baking trays instead of waxed paper
- And lots more
If the options seem overwhelming at first, another option is to try a starter kit. That takes the guess work out for you. Check out some great starter kits here!
Lifestyle Switches
There are also some simple lifestyle switches you can make that will add up to a big difference in the world. Especially if everyone starts to make the same switches.
Shorten your showers. Water requires a lot of energy and chemicals to clean. And taking long hot showers uses a lot of water. (I must confess this one is my biggest weakness and the one I have to work the hardest on changing, I just love the feeling of a long hot shower.) But if you start small, shorten by one minute first, then when that has become habit, shorten by another. And so one until your showers are quick and efficient. You can easily save hundreds or even thousands of gallons of water this way each year.
Efficient lighting. This is a two part switch. Part one is to simply remember to turn off the lights every time you leave a room. Lighting an empty room is pointless and wasteful. And use only the minimum amount of light needed when you are in a room. If you are sitting readying a book, only use the light next to you so you can see and turn off all others. Part two if the efficient lighting switch is to use energy efficient bulbs. Play attention to the amount of energy a bulb uses when you buy new ones. LED and energy saving bulbs are better.
Green up your wardrobe. Fashion is a big deal in this world. But fashion is also one of the most wasteful things there is. A whole new wardrobe every year is not good for the world. These days many fabrics cannot be recycled even if they are made from natural fibers because of the dyes used to color them. Landfills are overloaded with perfectly good clothing that simply isn’t in style any more. If you must keep up with fashion, donate your old cloths when you are done with them. But better yet, choose longer term fashions so that you do not need a new wardrobe every year. And look for clothing that is made from sustainable or recyclable materials. In the case of clothing, less is better, but if that doesn’t work for you, then look for sustainable options instead.
Dietary Switches
Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to go vegan to have a positive impact on the world. You certainly can, eating vegan is good for the world, but it isn’t the only way.
Agriculture produces about 14% of the worlds greenhouse emissions. And there are a couple of causes for this. The pollution from running all that farm equipment is one. The toxic run off from all the chemicals used is another. The methane produced by livestock is a big one. But the biggest source of emissions is tilling the ground. The short version: tilling exposes the soil microbes which are made of (and store) carbon. The UV rays of the sun kills those microbes and their carbon is released into the air. Without the microbes the crops don’t do as well and farmers end up spraying more chemicals to make up for it. It is a viscous, and very dirty, cycle.
But there are things you can do to help change this. Agriculture is very much a consumer driven industry. And if the consumers start to demand different food, agriculture will have to change to meet the demand.
Choose grassfed/pasture raised. It is the way most livestock is raised that produces so much of the agricultural emissions. Meat-lots are both inhumane and produce a lot of greenhouse gasses. Whereas grassfed and pasture raised livestock actually help store greenhouse gasses. So when you buy meat, be sure to choose only grassfed and pasture raised because it is far better for the world. (Read more about the benefits of grassfed on the environment here.)
Support Regenerative Farming. Regenerative farming is a relatively new idea. Humans have been farming the land for thousands of years. But, as it turns out, we have been doing it wrong since the late 1700’s. And since that time we have been slowly degrading our soils and increasing greenhouse gasses. Regenerative farming is a method of farming that reverses this damage. It doesn’t just not-hurt the earth, it helps to heal it. So when possible, buy foods that have been grown on regenerative farms. (Read more about regenerative farming here)
Buy organic. This one is hardly new news. Everyone is aware that organic is better both for the consumer and for the world. And the demand for organic is starting to show. 10 years ago an organic apple cost at least double what a conventional apple cost. Today they usually only cost a few cents to a dollar more. If the majority of people continue to buy organic, eventually organic will cost the same, or even less, than conventional.
Grow your own. You don’t need a big garden to help offset food costs and supply. Even just a single window sill can make a difference. Trying growing herbs in a window box. Or a container with tomatoes and basil. If you have more space include peppers and cucumbers. And so on. Every little bit helps. (Read more about fighting climate change with home gardens here.)
Buy To Last. Then Fix It, Don't Ditch It
We live in a throw away culture. These days many things aren’t even made to last because the manufacturers know that people will be tossing them out quickly anyways. The world needs to move away from that mentality. Once upon a time it was considered lucky to be the child who inherited your parents solid oak furniture set. The one that they had inherited from their parents. Back then, things were made to last for decades. Today things are made to last for a few months or at most a few years. Entire furniture sets get thrown out simply because they aren’t the latest trend. This type of waste has to stop.
When you buy new furniture and fixings for your house, look for things that are going to last for a long time. And look for things that are made from sustainable resources too. Fashion isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, so instead look for things that can be updated instead of replaced. High quality furniture can have pillow sets which simply get new coverings from time to time. Or a new paint job to change it up instead of being replaced with a whole new furniture set. Change can be superficial.
And if something in your house breaks, first try to fix it instead of simply tossing it and getting a new one. Sew that tear in the pillow. Glue the handle back on the coffee cup. Fill in and repaint those dents in your wooden table. Fixing instead of tossing does a lot of good for the environment. And not to mention the good it does for your wallet.
Moral of the Story
Ultimately you do not need to completely overhaul your entire life to do your part in fighting climate change and waste. Choosing to go zero waste or carbon neutral is great, but it is not an all-or-nothing kind of thing. Making big changes all at once isn’t easy, and most people fail when they try it. Just look at fitness. Every January all the gyms are packed with people who want to start off the new year right. They completely change their diets and buy a gym membership. But, by March, those gyms are mostly back to the regular people. That rush of new-year-new-me people is gone. But those who make the changes slowly and in ways they can actually maintain tend to do a lot better.
Choose one small switch you can stick with. And keep doing it until it is habit. Then make one more switch and do that until it is habit too. And so on. Overtime your entire lifestyle can change, but more often than not, it wont last if you try to do too much too fast. So take it one step at a time.
Being sustainable for the world has to be sustainable for you too.
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We’ve been working on a lot of these changes lately in our home. Thanks for the helpful list for reference!!!
I am so glad you found it helpful!
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