Ways to Live More Sustainably

Sustainability is: “meeting the needs of the present population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs for energy, clean water, air, forests…”

Nature does nothing uselessly. ~Aristotle

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SAVE THE PLANET

1. REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE!
 
  • DON’T BUY PLASTIC water bottles – Re-use stainless steel water bottles.
  • Reduce is the most important way – it takes no energy to reduce the amount of things that we are using and buying!
  • Reuse shopping bags – 14 plastic bags use the same petroleum as powering a car 1 mile!! Paper uses MORE!!
  • If you forget your bags, put your groceries back into the cart and roll it out to your car: keep a cardboard box in your car for reuse.
  • DON’T BUY PLASTIC water bottles – Re-use stainless steel water bottles.
  • Give away items instead of putting them in the landfill!
  • Use cloth napkins instead of disposable paper.
  • Wash out the plastic storage bags you still have to re-use multiple times – slowly replace them with glass/ceramic containers- they’re much safer!
  • Use only biodegradable non-toxic cleaning products for yourself and your home.
  • Don’t flush unused prescription drugs down the toilet.
  • Use both sides of paper for printing & copying – tear up the paper for notes instead of post-it type notes.REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE
2. Compost your food waste to create rich soil. Plant a home or community garden.
3.  Buy organic food from local producers whenever possible. Buy from local growers and stores to keep pesticides out of the ground and water- and out of YOUR body!
4. Ride a bike when you can, organize your car trips to use the least amount of fuel. Use public transportation when possible.
5.  Hang your laundry to dry.
6. Conserve water by using low flow water devices in your showers. Don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth.
7.  Buy from local stores and merchants – Use the power of your dollars to tell manufacturers that you DON’T want unsustainable products with toxins, made of oil, excess packaging – write, call and tell them that you will buy their products when they are sustainable! Go to local government meetings and tell your elected representatives that you want them to pass legislation that will help protect our environment!
8.  Compact Fluorescent Bulbs use less electricity but CONTAIN MERCURY. Dispose of them properly in toxic waste collection sites along with batteries and other toxic substances.
9.  If you need to throw out trash in a bag, use Bioplastics – biodegradable, compostable made from corn. Use DOG-Poop bags instead of turning your dog’s doo into mummified poop!
10.  East meatless at least once a week. Cow farts are an enormous source of air pollution!
11.  Separate your recyclable material from the trash carefully.
12. Have smaller families. If 3/4 of the population died instantly today, there would still be more people alive than in the year 1930!!! There are TOO MANY Humans on the planet!!
13.  Put chargers & electrical devices on power switches: TURN THEM OFF when not in use – can save 10% of your electrical bill!
14.  Be kind and peaceful with others. Peace starts between individuals, neighbors, neighborhoods, cities, states, countries and then the globe. War destroys more than human lives. It destroys animals, environments; it uses up resources for destruction.
15. Educate yourself and others about these solutions – It’s up to us all to do our share!

 

 

What you can do at home

Tips from Laurie David – who helped write “An Inconvenient Truth”.

  • Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. They consume less energy and last 10 times longer. If every family changed five bulbs, It would be like taking 8 million cars off the road.
  • Unplug chargers. Devices that are “on” even when off waste energy and account for 10 percent of your electric bill. Put chargers on a power strip turn it off when at work.
  • Buy energy-efficient appliances. A fridge with an Energy Star label uses 40 percent less power than an older model.
  • Purchase only recycled paper products. If every household replaced one roll of virgin toilet paper with one recycled post-consumer-waste roll, 424,000 trees would be saved.
  • Cancel catalogs and shop online. Asking to be taken off a mailing list takes less time than ordering something.
  • Stop drinking individual bottles of water. The annual amount of oil expended to produce plastic bottles sold in the United States is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for an entire year.
  • Make your next car a fuel-efficient one. A car that gets 40 miles per gallon emits half the carbon dioxide of one that gets 20 mpg.
  • Conserve in other small ways Don’t prerinse dishes in the dishwasher, and run the machine only when full.

The Container Recycling Institute reports that Americans buy about 25 billion single-serve plastic water bottles each year — requiring more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 U.S. cars for a year, according to the Earth Policy Institute. More than 80 percent of these bottles are thrown away or become litter.