Lifestyle
16 Ways to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle
How small changes in daily habits can make a huge environmental impact.
If you want to start living a sustainable lifestyle and don’t know where to start, here are some basic habit changes which will take you a step closer to your dream. I follow all of these and have learnt most of these after reading, observing and listening to many environmentalists. I have gained most of the habits from my parents who taught me to respect the resources and worship mother nature.
R1. REDUCE
1. Single use plastic
Carry your own tote bags / fabric bags when you go out for grocery shopping. Don’t take the plastic bags at the check-out counter. If you do take the thin plastic bags to pack the loose vegetables, make sure you re-use those bags for collecting organic garbage in your kitchen or even to collect the coffee ground/ tea ground. In this way, you will reuse the plastic bags and you will not buy separate garbage bags.
Same goes with water bottles. I see so many people in grocery store buying crates of drinking water bottles. I suggest invest in a good steel / glass / food grade plastic water bottle which you can carry with you everywhere. If you plan on buying water, buy 5 liter, 10 liter cans instead of 36 small 500ml bottles. If you want to avoid buying water, invest in a water filter jar or install a water filter to your tap. There are multiple ways to avoid using those small 500 ml / 1 liter water bottles.
2. Food purchase
Food waste is a big problem in North America & US. A lot of food waste is observed at household levels and maximum food waste is avoidable. You can read my article on food waste here.
Go for grocery shopping after you have had a sumptuous meal. Hungry shopping leads to impulse buying. When you go shopping on a full stomach, you will not buy extra food and won’t crave for the fast food and snacks. Make a list by planning your meals and try to shop only for the items in your list. Only buy what you know you will eat. Do not buy food just because it is on sale. Reducing excess food purchase will ultimately help in food waste.
3. Paper towel / Paper
Try reducing the use of paper towel only for certain purposes. I only use paper towel to store chillies, cilantro and leafy vegetables in a container. Paper towels soak the moisture and keep the veggies fresh for longer so they don’t go bad. For wiping surfaces and hands, I use fabric cloth and napkins which are washable and reusable. If every household reduces the consumption of paper towel, we can save many trees and gallons of water being used for its production. Read more about paper towel consumption and waste in my article here.
As we are going digital, think twice before you take a print out. With DocuSign and electronic agreements becoming a new way, we really have to adapt to going paperless. I still find many people trying to stick with paper based communication, but if we all decide to be conscious of our paper consumption, we can have a greener planet.
4. Garbage bags
We cannot totally avoid using plastic bags. So definitely we have plastic bags at home, use those to collect garbage instead of buying brand new plastic bags. Re-use the plastic bags you get at grocery stores, the packing bags which you get from Amazon or food take-out bags, clothes shopping bags etc. There are multiple occasions where we get plastic bags and we tend to throw them away, instead try keeping those plastic bags in a cabinet and reuse these and you never have to worry about buying plastic bags ever.
We Indians are so used to collecting plastic bags and reusing them, that every Indian household has a big plastic bag full of multiple plastic bags in it. We hardly shop for garbage bags.
5. Shopping clothes
Fashion industry is one of the largest waste producing industries. Clothes cost a lot of money and discarding clothes just because they are out-of-fashion is a waste of money as well as harmful for the environment. I have watched TED talks and interviews of famous successful people who tend to have few clothes and spend little on shopping . They wear only 2–3 plain color t-shirts / shirts and stick with 2–3 colors of jeans and trousers. It reduces lot of decision making time everyday in the morning and also saves an excess inventory of clothes in the closet. I understand that everyone of us can’t do that, as every profession demands different attire and lifestyle. But what we can do is make conscious decisions about our clothes shopping habits. Make sure to buy clothes which are timeless instead of trendy, which are durable rather than use and throw, which are made of natural fabric rather than synthetic ones.
Another trend which has forced us to buy more is the fashion of having matching shoes and accessories. In an effort to have matching clothes and accessories, we end up shopping tops, trousers, jackets, sweaters, coats, scarfs etc. of all possible colors and shades because we have to look picture perfect for all those Instagram photos and selfies. What I like to do is to buy clothes, accessories and shoes which are neutral colors like black, brown, white and grey. They go well with most of the colors and I don’t have to worry about finding a matching set and buying more to create a set. I believe in creating my own style and fashion because I love our planet.
R2. REUSE
6. Fabric towels
Fabric towels are a great way of substituting paper towels. In India, we always use fabric towels for various purposes. Each person has a personal napkin which we carry with us all the time in our pocket / purse. Men and women have distinct napkins with different design to differentiate it and every person in the house has a set of napkins. The napkin is washed daily so it maintains the hygiene. The napkin is used to wipe hands after we wash hands, it can also be used to wipe our face. We keep a separate napkin to wipe our nose during cold / cough.
There are distinct fabric towels for kitchen use. Fabric towels to dust the furniture, wipe the tables, kitchen counters and also to wipe doors and windows. Towels are stacked and stored in a cabinets in the house and are washed after every cleaning activity to be reused again. In India, we don’t use kitchen towel rolls. Until recently we didn’t even have tissue papers, we always have used cotton fabric towels and napkins.
7. Clothes
Only buy clothes when the ones you have are worn out and beyond usable. What I do is, when the top fades out or starts looking old, I use it as a daily garment for household chores, going out for grocery stores or running errands. The office outfits get reused as a day trip outfit and outfit for casual meetings / parties.
If your clothes are in good condition which can have a second life, you can find multiple donation centers, organizations or non-profits who accept clothes and give them to underprivileged, refugees or homeless people. Giving your clothes a second life and putting them to re-use is a good step towards sustainability.
In India, we regularly donate our clothes to our housemaids, helpers and also non-profit organizations.
8. Electronics
Electronic disposal is a big problem in western countries. Read about E-waste problem in my previous article here. However, there are many people in the society who will benefit from using a second hand laptop or second hand mobile phone. People cannot always afford to buy new electronic devices. If you could donate or re-sell your electronics at lower price you will help the product to be used for its entire product life cycle and reduce the demand for more goods.
There are various websites where you can sell electronics such as Facebook marketplace, Kijiji, Karrot etc. Every country has its own online marketplace to sell and buy second hand electronics. Some companies also accept your your old device as a buy back during purchase of new one. Giving your electronic devices a second life can help solve the e-waste problem of the world to some extent.
If you want to go a step further in sustainability, is to find shops which dismantle and separate the parts of electronic devices to further recycle them.
9. Paper
I love trees and hence I am very particular in controlling paper waste. I have seen offices here use paper like crazy. Everyone has access to printers and people are fond of printing papers and shredding them in shredders. In India, printing paper is quite costly so people are conscious of using prints. We print on both sides of the paper, we print only when its necessary and we use printed paper as rough papers to sketch or as packaging material.
Find ways to reuse the paper and try to use both sides of the paper to print documents. If you can save half the number of papers by printing both sides, you have saved 50% of paper.
There are organizations which make paper bags out of waste paper. Paper factories, collect paper waste and process it into recycle paper notebooks. If we could donate to such organizations we can help reduce paper waste and save some trees being cut down.
10. Packaging
All the grocery stores in western countries have tons of packaging used for transporting and selling produce, meat and grocery items. Most of the packing material is so good that it can be repurposed into organizers and storage containers. It will not only save you tons of money, but also help you take your first step towards being environmentally conscious citizen.
Think of those nice plastic containers which come with mushrooms, or those big wide plastic boxes of salads. You can use those as storage containers in your kitchen cabinets or even as refrigerator shelf organizers.
11. Plastic containers & Mason jars
Everyone of us orders take-out. Take-out containers are thick plastic boxes which can be reused beautifully. I use those containers to store leafy veggies like cilantro, basil, spinach etc. I use them to store chopped fruits in the refrigerator. I know those plastic containers are not good for reheating the food in microwave for health reasons. But if used as cold storage boxes, they work perfectly without any health hazard. I have never purchased any plastic containers from stores as I keep collecting these boxes and reuse them. Think of other plastic containers you get, I buy coconut oil which comes in a huge tub. Some ice creams come in plastic containers which are great storage boxes too.
R3. RECYCLE
12. Kitchen waste
Segregating kitchen waste is the first step to recycling. Leftover food which is cooked food needs to be kept separately and discarded as wet waste. The organic waste which is the fruit skins, stems and leaves of leafy greens, onion skins etc. can be turned into organic manure for your garden.
13. Paper waste
Paper if collected separately can be donated to paper factories and recycling units which make beautiful recycled paper products.
14. Plastic waste
Plastic waste should be segregated separately so that when the city collects the garbage it goes to the right recycling unit.
15. Electronics
Electronics should be disposed off carefully as e-waste if thrown in the landfills pollute the soil and end up getting into the food chain. Every city has electronic waste disposal rules which can be found on the city’s website.
16. Beer cans / alcohol bottles
Did you know for every beer can you purchase and for certain alcohol bottles, you are eligible to get back a few cents if you return the empty cans and bottles. Check your receipt to see if you have paid a refundable deposit. This is a good incentive to encourage people to return the cans and bottles which helps these reach the right recycling unit and keeps our plant green.
Copyright © 2022, Tanmaya Rao. All rights are reserved.
Hope you have gained some ideas and inspiration to start a sustainable life. Which of these habits do you plan to adapt in your daily routine? If you enjoyed reading my blog, follow me and share it with your friends and family.
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