It’s that time of year again. We just finished up the season of
overindulgence and we are prepared to make extraordinary alterations to our
daily routines that are going to change our lives forever! This is the year we will lose weight, save
money, eat healthy, drink less, maybe a career change or a commitment to be
nicer to everyone we encounter. The
possibilities are endless with the start of the New Year.
But we all know how this typically ends. We set unrealistic goals that are too
difficult to attain for the long haul.
So what to do? Let’s pick one and
make it simple. Simplicity is the key to
commitment. So if Joe Schmoe is making
it difficult for you to keep your intention to emulate Mother Theresa in 2018,
let’s turn our kindness efforts toward the environment.
It seems everything we do these days has an impact on the
environment. We are constantly being
bombarded on ways to do our part to create a greener future for ourselves and
the generations to follow. For example,
we are currently being told to “Eat less meat!”
Consuming meat is apparently awful for our planet. Oh, but then you have to make sure your healthy
alternatives aren’t actually harming the environment as well. This week avocados are bad. Last week it was almonds. Wait!
Just grow your own food! You know, with all that extra time on your
hands. Yeah, that’s enough right there
to make you want to throw in the towel.
It’s overwhelming to say the least. And it certainly doesn’t sound like it follows
that simplicity method mentioned above.
We may as well go forward with a plan to hit the gym at 5am and to cut
out all sugar and alcohol from our diets.
Instead of letting the stress of trying to save the world
cause you to abort the mission entirely, let’s look at some easy but effective
ways we can reduce our carbon footprint this year. Even more incentive is that most of these simple
changes should also increase our savings.
We already determined becoming a farmer isn’t in the
foreseeable future but that doesn’t mean there aren’t undemanding ways to
change our eating habits that will prosper our surroundings. Try consuming organic and local. That change alone will increase your
sustainability efforts and lesson your carbon footprint.
And nothing decreases your carbon footprint than following
the good ol’ slogan, “reduce, reuse and recycle”. We can’t repeat that enough. And it’s so easy. Only buy
what you actually need, use what you already have multiple times and
recycle. You don’t even need to separate
recyclables these days. Throw them all in one container and call it a day. Material Recover Facilities, such as
TotalRecycle in Birdsboro, Pa, accepts your products in the same load and then use
their own cutting-edge technology to do the dividing for us.
One item great for reusing is the water bottle. Instead of clenching your thirst from a plastic
bottle, indulge in a reusable container.
If you just can’t ditch your plastic, look for recyclable ones and make
sure they end up in the correct bin.
That bin being one that heads to a recycling plant rather than a
landfill.
While we are discussing plastic, did you know according to
Green Living, plastic bags are the second most prevalent form of liter after
cigarette butts? Which, by the way, would be another good habit to kick in
2018! Plastic bags are made of
petroleum-based polyethylene and require 12 million barrels of oil to produce
each year. So we’re creating more
greenhouse gases, increasing dependency on foreign oil and spending more than
$5 million to just throw something away.
Those statistics make it seem pretty ridiculous that we aren’t bringing
our own bags when we go shopping. That,
combined with the fact that plastic bags aren’t exactly the sturdiest or
easiest way to package our purchases, makes it a no brainer to start using our
own bags. Keep some in the car if you
find the primary reason they aren’t already a part of your daily routine is because
you can’t remember to grab them on your way out the door!
While you’re out shopping, one thing to eliminate from your
grocery list is paper towels. The harm
done to the environment during their production and the amount of waste they
produce after is often over looked. We are talking about millions of trees and
billions of tons of water. Not to
mention the carbon dioxide emitted into our atmosphere during the manufacturing
process and delivery. All of this just
to see 3,000 ton annually find their final resting place filling up
landfills. The good news is this a
straightforward fix. Just use less. When
you are out, run your hands under the electronic dryer. If your only option are paper towels, grab
one instead of a bundle. At home, try
reusable cloths whenever you can. You
only have to buy those once so imagine the money you can save while working
towards a greener society.
A final pretty effortless environmentally friendly task is
to be mindful of your water usage. Just
taking the step to increase your awareness will likely cause you to cut
down. Don’t keep the water running the
entire time you are scrubbing dishes or brushing your teeth. Run the dishwasher every couple of days
instead of every day. If you have little
ones, bathe them together. Now we are
saving time along with money! And the
environment still, of course.
Who knew that these minor, undemanding lifestyle changes can
have such a huge positive impact? Well
now we all do! So there really is no
good excuse not to add these unchallenging modifications to our New Year’s
Resolution goals. This is so simple we
may still have to stick to those original ideas to hit the gym before the sun
rises, reject chocolate and give up those alcoholic beverages. Well, maybe…. Better yet, we can toast this
time next year to finally fulfilling a New Year’s Resolution!