5 Easy Ways to Help your Environmental Impact as aTeenager Now
As most of us know, the race for reversing climate change is a huge global issue that everyone, from humans to animals, will face the effects of in years to come if not changed now. CNN's most recent report, released in February, shared some shocking facts including how by 2050, London's climate will be as hot as Barcelona's.
A lot of the information we see on how to reduce your Impact is mostly directed at adults who can, for example, switch to electric cars or change to solar power for some things around the home. But today's youth have smaller options on how they can help climate change, so here are some simple changes you can make to your lifestyle as a young adult to greatly reduce your environmental impact in the long run:
1. Sell/Donate your Clothes
Fast fashion is well known for brands like Boohoo, Zara, Shein and many more popular clothing companies. Not only do these companies have an extremely bad ethical prospect: “93% of brands surveyed by the Fashion Checker aren’t paying garment workers a living wage” (Fashion Checker, 2020). But fast fashion contributes more than 8% of carbon emissions. Some fast fashion is slowly improving though, with brands like H&M turning over a new leaf. Thankfully, there has been a rise in popularity in thrifting and marketplaces like depop where preloved vintage has become an extremely popular genre.
2. Rework your Clothes
As well as selling second-hand clothes on Depop, they also are a host to numerous small businesses that rework clothes into new and trendy pieces. If you have a creative flair, you can find many great tutorials on YouTube on how to rework old clothing into your new favourite closet staple!
3. Try Plant-Based
Overfarming and overfishing are well known massive factors in climate change. Meat consumption is responsible for releasing greenhouse gases such as methane, CO2, and nitrous oxide, which in turn contribute to global warming. Switching straight to veganism is a dramatic change for your body and lifestyle, especially if you have been eating meat most of your life. So my advice [as a vegetarian] would be to try a plant-based diet 3 or 4 days a week. If you think vegetarianism is just lettuce and peppers then check out my favourite website Vegetarian Society for some easy and delicious plant-based recipes!
4. No More Plastic Bags
As most of the UK would already know, in recent years, the government put a charge on plastic bags in shops across the country to try to minimize the production of the bags and get shoppers to bring in their own. This has helped; however, shoppers still find it convenient to buy them instead.
So why are they bad? Plastic bags are made from crude oil like other plastics. This is a problem because crude oil emits significant amounts of pollution and it means the product is not biodegradable.
Tote bags are an amazing alternative to plastic bags, I have recently swapped to one for my food shop and surprisingly they hold more than you would think! As well as this, you can get loads of interesting and original art on tote bags from marketplaces like Etsy.
5. Use Less Paper
After lockdowns across the globe, today's younger generation got used to schooling online for a few months, and with this came all work being online. So why switch back to paper? By keeping with Quizlet, KhanAcademy and pdf links you can reduce your impact on forests, decrease the amount of waste that is dumped into landfills, cut energy use and helps lessen the impact of climate change. Plus everything is in one place, making it less easy to lose sheets of paper!
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