3 Easy Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Changes You Need To Make
Living an eco-friendly lifestyle means a lot to me – I’m sure it does to you as well. Writing about this topic is dear to my heart because, in the past several years, I’ve made a concerted effort to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Not only does it make me feel like I’m doing my part, but I am doing my part!
3 Easy Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Changes
I started living a more eco-friendly lifestyle with 3 easy changes. I also made sure my family followed them as well. We all do the best we can.
Quick story, I live in a rural area and recycling stations are far and few between. Recently, they closed the station closest to my home and that meant we had to drive a lot further to get there (probably a 40 min drive and not very gas efficient!). We do have a pick-up service too but that’s another story for another time. We prefer bagging our recycle items up and driving them to the drop-off station.
The reason I’m telling you about this they shut the station because folks were dumping their garbage there too! Imagine that? A handful of careless folks ruined it for the rest of us! I guess it breaks my heart knowing there are folks out there who just don’t care about living eco-friendly or what it does to our planet. Here’s a link to the article if you care to read.
Below, it a picture of how the station looked after folks continued to dump their garbage instead of using it properly. And you are not seeing the worst of it! It breaks my heart! It’s an example of some people ruining a good thing for everyone.
Virtually all of us, whether we intended to or not, have become much more environmentally conscious in recent years. Even those who generally had little interest in the environment can’t but help feel a little uneasy about some of the effects of climate change that are beginning to manifest. If you are concerned about the air quality in your home, you’ll want to read 7 Reasons Why It’s Important to Change Your Air Filters Regularly too!
Of course, there are plenty of good reasons to be eco-friendlier besides the threat of climate change. For one thing, living a more ecologically conscious life often means leading a more ethical life. The products you end up buying are more likely to be responsibly sourced from companies that avoid exploitative business practices.
Being eco-friendlier is also a great way of saving money. It encourages you to recycle and reuse, rather than throwing things away. That’s why I love upcycling too! I have so much fun creating beautiful crafting projects from items I would have ended up recycling or throwing away. Check out all of my upcycled crafting projects by clicking here and there’s more here too!
Here are three small changes to your lifestyle that anyone can make to make their lives much more ecologically friendly.
Don’t Waste Energy
It’s far too easy for us to forget that when we have a light on or other electronic appliances running, that means drawing power from the power grid. That power must come from somewhere, and while it may be provided from renewable, environmentally friendly sources, there is no guarantee of this (unless you generate your own power, of course). It is all but impossible, and almost certainly impractical, for any of us to live without using electricity. However, we can make sure that we use as little electricity as possible.
Saving energy in this way is really simple; you just need to get into a few good habits. It is also a great way of saving some money by reducing your electricity bill each month. Whenever you leave a room, make sure to turn off the lights and any other electrical appliances that aren’t in use.
Shutting off lights might seem like a simple thing to do, but you would be surprised to see how many times a day we forget to do it. It’s really a habit you have to make sure you get into doing.
It isn’t just electricity either. You can save a lot of money on your heating bill by adopting a few simple habits. When the weather is cold, you can save money on heating by investing in some additional insulation. Some people can even save money by simply putting another layer of clothing on. Wasted energy isn’t just wasted money; it is needlessly damaging to the environment.
Dispose of Waste Correctly
When we are buying products in the shop, most of us give little, if any, thought to what will happen to the product or packaging when we’re done with it. Once you start to consider this, however, you will quickly realize that many of the products we buy come with a lot of excess packaging. Try and stick to items that you can recycle, so items that have mostly cardboard packaging. Minimising your plastic usage is a great general tip for boosting your eco credentials.
Whenever you need to dispose of larger, or more unusual and specialized, items, make sure to check whether there are any special precautions to be taken if you are at all uncertain about the preferred method of disposal. You can hire specialist companies to take some things away.
For example, Envirowaste operates a sofa removal service where they do all the labor. Other items, such as old fridges, must be disposed of at a local household recycling center.
Start a Compost Heap
Compost heaps have long been popular globally and for good reasons. A compost bin allows you to reduce the amount of waste you create by allowing you to repurpose some of that waste and live a better eco-friendly lifestyle too. They are also an excellent way of saving money, and if you are a keen gardener, it will provide excellent nutrients for your plants. Starting a compost heap is easy and it can be as small or as large as you like.
This is a target goal for me this year. I have plans on starting one this summer and, I’m so excited! Did you know you can buy a Compost Accelerator too? I guess it’s a great way to speed up the decomposition of raw organic materials. It’s a learning curve for sure but so very worth it.
If you want to go further, try to make organic compost. You can find out more at Organic Daily Post.
Living a more ecologically friendly lifestyle is an excellent way of both saving money, and of giving yourself something positive to focus on. Many people find that once they start living an eco-friendlier lifestyle, they can’t help but take it further and further. Who knows? Perhaps the eco-warrior life is a perfect one for you?
Be sure to read 16 Creative Ideas for Recycling Common Household Items too!
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Fantastic post! Well written and all things to be mindful of in our daily lives. So sad that your recycling services are so difficult. Hopefully things will change for the better soon. Luckily where I live they have an excellent recycling program in place. They take just about everything! Just today they had a free shredding service – 5 bankers boxes for free per household – and an E waste drop off. I gave them a 30+ year old monitor – it was in perfect condition and still worked! Tried to give it away, but no one wanted it. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. I taped a note to it stating it still worked. They had a bunch of others and I was told that they will check the still functioning items and distribute to needy families that are unable to afford such luxuries. Living alone, I do not have that much trash since so much of my “waste” is recyclable. Every municipality, Township, village should be so lucky. But, what we do not have, that I wish we did, is a “put and take” where people drop off unwanted items instead of going into the dump. Not every system is perfect. Thanks for sharing your story.
This is so close to my heart too. Sadly we don’t have any recycling centers close by so we have the same problem as you do. What we do have though is street walkers. They’re really poor, mostly immigrants from other war torn African countries who go through our trash once a week and salvage a whole bunch of things. A lot of people get really cross with them, but I think they’re amazing. We always try to separate our trash into piles so it makes it easier for them to pick what they can use. Oh how I wish people would realize how incredibly precious our planet is and how we hurt her even while she sustains us. Loved reading this Carolann, thank you
Hi Naomie! thank you so much! Your comments always make my day :) Sounds like you have an awesome system wow. It’s so upsetting. That recycling station we had was so awesome and everyone loved it. Everyone was so pissed when they closed it. My biggest problem are water bottles. We go through so many and having to drive a long distance is so frustrating. We started using our community pickup service but they only come one a month. That’s why we end up driving to have it recycled. I hope you had a relaxing weekend and a great upcoming week. I always look forward to hearing from you!
Carolann