10 Essential Tips For Sustainable Living
Sustainable living may seem like an impossible thing to attain at times, however we believe it isn’t as hard as you may think. Sustainable living isn’t an instant thing, it is a journey with many steps you can take to become more sustainable. Here are 10 essential tips for sustainable living!
1. Eat and Shop Locally
Eating and shopping locally is an important step to sustainable living. Buying food from local farmers markets reduces the impact on the environment as it doesn’t have to travel as far from the farm to your table and local farmers often use more environmentally-friendly pesticides.
Buying local also means that you will have to make more plant-based purchases reducing the amount of artificial foods and will force you to eat more seasonally rather than eating all fruits and vegetables all year round.
2. Say no to single use
Removing disposable and single use items from your life is essential for sustainable living. This step is easy and takes just a few personal rules.
For example, if you don’t have a keep cup you can’t get a takeaway coffee, ask for your drink without a straw and if you really need one bring a metal or bamboo straw, and carry around a cutlery set with you so you don’t have to ask for plastic, disposable cutlery.
3. Know how to recycle
Knowing how to recycle is another step towards sustainable living. Learning what products are general waste, recycling, and green waste is extremely important in leading a sustainable lifestyle as it ensures less rubbish is unnecessarily ending up in landfill.
It is also important to find different ways to recycle – or reuse. Reusing old jars or re-purposing other materials into useful items around the house is a good way to improve the way you recycle. If you’re ever unsure about what to put in your recycling bin, here is an easy to follow guide!
4. Grow your own food
Sustainable living also means being able to grow your own food. If you have the space to planting veggie patch with a range of your favourite vegetables is a perfect way to do this. However, if you aren’t able to do this, a space-friendly alternative is to place a small herb garden in pots that can be kept inside.
5. Donate your old clothes
To ensure you are moving towards sustainable living it is important to evaluate your possessions and decide what you need to keep and what you should let go of. Doing a wardrobe clear out at the end of every season is a good way to do this.
However, make sure you aren’t just throwing your old clothes away. Invite your friends over let them go through what you want to get rid of, organise a clothes swap, and anything that is left over take to a donation bin.
6. Take shorter showers
Sustainable living is all about using less and not wasting anything unnecessarily. One way to do this is to take shorter showers. Doing this saves water, energy, time and money! Some tips to be able to effectively take shorter showers includes being prepared and having everything you need, timing yourself, turning the water off while you lather up, and reconsider your shower routine.
7. Ditch the car
Reduce carbon emissions with this essential tip for sustainable living. Instead of driving, switch to walking, ride a bike, take public transport or carpool. Walking and riding a bike are the most beneficial for your health and the environment but public transport and carpooling is still a good way of being more environmentally friendly.
8. Purchase fair trade
Purchasing fair trade is another effective tip for sustainable living. Fair trade is a concept that makes sure fair wages and prices, and community benefits are provided to the workers in developing countries. Purchasing fair trade ensures that these developing communities are able to stay in operation. It also ensures quality and supports sustainable farming and production practices.
9. Buy clothes secondhand
Buying clothes secondhand at op shops is an important tip to sustainable living. Giving clothes a new life and a new home rather than buying brand new fast fashion that doesn’t last reduces waste and reuses clothes that are still of good quality.
10. Wrap presents with fabric
Our finally essential tip for sustainable living is ditching normal wrapping paper and wrapping gifts in different coloured and patterned fabrics instead. Not only does this save paper and reduce environmental costs, it gives scrap fabric a new home. Additionally, the fabric can become a part of the present – it can be used as a hair ribbon, a scarf, or even a wrap top.
