Making changes to protect the environment
This week I've been making changes in our family to protect the Earth for Isaac's future. I'm writing this post to show you how easy, small changes can have a big impact, and to remind you (just like I needed reminding) how small acts can also have a huge negative impact.
Climate change is finally making the news, with peaceful protesters causing disruptions in London to encourage MPs and businesses to listen and take notice. Every year we are using more resources than the earth is producing (source), in a shorter and shorter time; the UK being one of the main culprits which uses double the resources produced. We are reducing the number of oxygen producing trees in the rainforest, raising water temperatures which is destorying the coral reef and melting icebergs, increasing air temperatures which is creating more natural disasters and creating far too much waste for landfill. The negative effects of our actions are being seen in our own lifetimes, and are only going to create more problems within our children's lifetimes unless we make a change.
What can I do?
It's easy to say businesses and governments need to tackle climate change, but individuals can do their bit too and still make a huge impact.
Plastic waste
Humans buy a million plastic bottles a minute! (source) Could you take a refillable bottle out with you? Most food vendors will refill a reuseable bottle - Northumbria water even have a free app you can use to check vendors near you who are part of their free tap water refill scheme. Other ways to reduce your plastic waste are to use bamboo rather than plastic toothbrushes, avoid buying products with unnecessary plastic packaging (like many easter eggs and individually wrapped sweets), use reusable lunchboxes instead of buying prepackaged sandwiches etc, consider switching to bottle-less beauty products like soap and shampoo bars. Another easy switch is to make the effort to make sure you are recycling plastics where you can - I've been guilty in the past of throwing shampoo bottles away because I can't be bothered to bring them down to the recycling box in the kitchen - a selfish act when you remind yourself plastic bottles take 400 - 500 years to decompose, meaning they will still be hanging around for our great-great-great grandchildren.
Food waste
We throw away 7.2 million tons of food a year (source), more than half of which is still edible. Easy changes include; composting your food waste (growing some of your own food also saves transport and packaging and could be a way to use your composted waste), planning your meals more efficiently so food doesn't go out of date, and freezing any food you don't think you will use in time. There are also online organizations where you can share food you have over purchased, or you could offer it to friends and family rather than throwing it out (say you have half a loaf of bread but you're going away for a week?). Buying "wonky veg" or mishapes is a great way to send a message to the food industry that you are against food wasting.
Nappies
Each child uses roughly between 1500 - 3000 nappies a year (depending on age etc, various sources; Isaac averages about 5 nappies a day, which quickly becomes 35 a week, 158 a month. A newborn could easily go through twice this amount. When you consider that a disposable nappy takes 500 years to degrade (source), leaking harmful chemicals into the enviornment as it does so, it's easy to see how one person can have a big impact by switching to reuseable nappies, even for single child families. The extra energy and water used by the extra washing it produces is totally negated by the huge amounts of energy and water (and waste) used in the manufacture and distrubution of disposable nappies. I've made this switch recently and have to say it's not hard work, no more disgusting that dealing with poo in a disposable, and much nicer against baby's bum than plastics and chemicals as well as saving you money (we would spend an easy £10 a week on nappies and wipes).
^They look pretty cute too.
No baby?
We've also switched to reusable baby wipes, make up wipes, and I am considering reusable sanitary products in the future (such as a moon cup) as these also create a huge amount of nonbiodegradable waste.
Car emissions
If you're buying a new car, consider a zero or very low emissions option (you'd save money on your car tax too) - they exist so we should be using them! Sadly I'm not in a financial position to do this but I am reducing my car use by walking when I can for short journeys and carpooling where possible. My husband enjoys cycling to work, so our carbon footprint as a family is probably lower than average. You can also reduce the emissions you are responsible for by considering where the items you're buying have had to travel from and trying to support more locally grown and made products.
Paper waste
Paper waste is easy to reduce, for example by using recycable brown paper instead of wrapping paper for gift wrapping (the UK's Christmas gift wrap waste alone could stretch to the moon, source), recycling birthday and Christmas cards (or avoiding giving them to begin with), or using reusable kitchen roll and beeswax sandwich wraps. A switch I made in the kitchen recently was to 'scrubbies' washable and biodegradable washing up cloths instead of throwing away sponges.
Hopefully I've been able to persuade you that one person can make a difference and inspire you to find one (or more) easy changes to make in your life to protect the planet for our children.
Climate change is finally making the news, with peaceful protesters causing disruptions in London to encourage MPs and businesses to listen and take notice. Every year we are using more resources than the earth is producing (source), in a shorter and shorter time; the UK being one of the main culprits which uses double the resources produced. We are reducing the number of oxygen producing trees in the rainforest, raising water temperatures which is destorying the coral reef and melting icebergs, increasing air temperatures which is creating more natural disasters and creating far too much waste for landfill. The negative effects of our actions are being seen in our own lifetimes, and are only going to create more problems within our children's lifetimes unless we make a change.
What can I do?
It's easy to say businesses and governments need to tackle climate change, but individuals can do their bit too and still make a huge impact.
Plastic waste
Humans buy a million plastic bottles a minute! (source) Could you take a refillable bottle out with you? Most food vendors will refill a reuseable bottle - Northumbria water even have a free app you can use to check vendors near you who are part of their free tap water refill scheme. Other ways to reduce your plastic waste are to use bamboo rather than plastic toothbrushes, avoid buying products with unnecessary plastic packaging (like many easter eggs and individually wrapped sweets), use reusable lunchboxes instead of buying prepackaged sandwiches etc, consider switching to bottle-less beauty products like soap and shampoo bars. Another easy switch is to make the effort to make sure you are recycling plastics where you can - I've been guilty in the past of throwing shampoo bottles away because I can't be bothered to bring them down to the recycling box in the kitchen - a selfish act when you remind yourself plastic bottles take 400 - 500 years to decompose, meaning they will still be hanging around for our great-great-great grandchildren.
Food waste
We throw away 7.2 million tons of food a year (source), more than half of which is still edible. Easy changes include; composting your food waste (growing some of your own food also saves transport and packaging and could be a way to use your composted waste), planning your meals more efficiently so food doesn't go out of date, and freezing any food you don't think you will use in time. There are also online organizations where you can share food you have over purchased, or you could offer it to friends and family rather than throwing it out (say you have half a loaf of bread but you're going away for a week?). Buying "wonky veg" or mishapes is a great way to send a message to the food industry that you are against food wasting.
Nappies
Each child uses roughly between 1500 - 3000 nappies a year (depending on age etc, various sources; Isaac averages about 5 nappies a day, which quickly becomes 35 a week, 158 a month. A newborn could easily go through twice this amount. When you consider that a disposable nappy takes 500 years to degrade (source), leaking harmful chemicals into the enviornment as it does so, it's easy to see how one person can have a big impact by switching to reuseable nappies, even for single child families. The extra energy and water used by the extra washing it produces is totally negated by the huge amounts of energy and water (and waste) used in the manufacture and distrubution of disposable nappies. I've made this switch recently and have to say it's not hard work, no more disgusting that dealing with poo in a disposable, and much nicer against baby's bum than plastics and chemicals as well as saving you money (we would spend an easy £10 a week on nappies and wipes).
No baby?
We've also switched to reusable baby wipes, make up wipes, and I am considering reusable sanitary products in the future (such as a moon cup) as these also create a huge amount of nonbiodegradable waste.
Car emissions
If you're buying a new car, consider a zero or very low emissions option (you'd save money on your car tax too) - they exist so we should be using them! Sadly I'm not in a financial position to do this but I am reducing my car use by walking when I can for short journeys and carpooling where possible. My husband enjoys cycling to work, so our carbon footprint as a family is probably lower than average. You can also reduce the emissions you are responsible for by considering where the items you're buying have had to travel from and trying to support more locally grown and made products.
Paper waste
Paper waste is easy to reduce, for example by using recycable brown paper instead of wrapping paper for gift wrapping (the UK's Christmas gift wrap waste alone could stretch to the moon, source), recycling birthday and Christmas cards (or avoiding giving them to begin with), or using reusable kitchen roll and beeswax sandwich wraps. A switch I made in the kitchen recently was to 'scrubbies' washable and biodegradable washing up cloths instead of throwing away sponges.
Hopefully I've been able to persuade you that one person can make a difference and inspire you to find one (or more) easy changes to make in your life to protect the planet for our children.
We do a lot of recycling were we can i totally believe its important now and for the future :) X
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