Zero action equals Zero change
Growing up, my mom always told me that the effort I put in the things I do is gonna be reflected in the things I get back. I’m a total believer of that.
We constantly talk about the need to take action. We constantly remind our elders and leaders about the growing need for taking action towards our environment. But how many of us are doing what we so desperately want all these people to do?
Listen, I know Sharpay taught us that “Bigger is better and Better is Bigger” but, sometimes, doing small things can have an even bigger impact.
Just so you can get an idea of the bigger picture, if every single person in the United States of America recycled just one water bottle, it would be enough to make 54 million T-shirts and 6.5 million fleece jackets.
Can you imagine the huge impact on our planet if all of us decided to do something as small as recycling?
I know we have been constantly talking about how you can take action. We taught you about decluttering, we’ve taught you how to manage your energy intake, and even how to be more aware of your food wasting. But maybe we were not teaching you about all the small daily things you can add to your routine — read more here on how to break and introduce habits — and make a huge impact with smaller actions.
Number 1: Waste Less Food.
As we talked before, food waste is a really big contributor to unsustainability. We produce more food than what we consume, and most of it ends up in dumpsters or landfills.
To help reduce this problem, you can start by not wasting food yourself, meaning that you should try and only buy what you will consume. Always eat your leftover foods before cooking new ones. Use apps that allow you to appreciate take-out food that would be trashed, like To Good To Go, and always ask to take home your leftover foods at restaurants so you don’t waste any of your food.
I know this last thing might be a weird thing to do, especially if you are on a date with someone, but you can always use it as a way to teach other people about this problem and, who knows, maybe they will be even more attracted to you when they find out how much you care for our planet.
Number 2: Eat more veggies and beans
Not only does eating veggies and beans make your diet a lot healthier, but it also helps you help our planet.
The truth is, having a diet that is based on a high intake of meat is bad for our planet for two reasons: one, the energy necessary to farm all the livestock is enormous; and, at the same time, livestock is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases emissions.
Overall, just adding a little bit more veggies and pulses to your diet and reducing your meat intake little by little will make a huge difference for our planet.
Number 3: Save energy
As you know, most of the energy we consume is produced from carbon products. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if carbon emissions didn’t contribute to the greenhouse effect. You can learn more about this here.
Of course, the ideal solution to this problem would be switching out all your energy sources for sustainable and recyclable energy sources like solar energy but that’s not always possible.
The point is, there’s smaller things you can do like always turning off the lights in your house when you don’t need them, always turning off your plugin chargers when you no longer need them, or even washing your clothes and dishes during the night and in the eco programs to save not only more water, but also more energy.
Number 4: Recycle and dispose of your items wisely
Well, recycling is in the base of our ‘’small actions’’ list. If you are doing it, then you’re already one step ahead in the sustainability game.
Recycling is one of the easiest ways to help. It’s simple and all you have to do is try to find if your city has a place where you can recycle.
Like I said above, recycling is a small action with really big benefits. So go on and add this to your list of things to add on to your routine.
Number 5: Limit your plastic use
At this point, I feel like this is a classic. We need to reduce our plastic usage to as low as we possibly can. A great way to do this is using reusable substitutes for our daily plastic items such as reusable water bottles, reusable coffee mugs, and even reusable aluminum straws.
Also, don’t be shy about using these items at places that serve drinks or have free refills. Recently I went to Burger King and asked if I could use my reusable water bottle instead of their small paper cup and they said yes. So all you gotta do is ask if you can make these switches at your regular places.
In the end, it all comes down to one thing, sometimes several small actions together are better than one big one. Change needs to come from everyone and not just the big people with the power to do big things. If you can’t make something big alone, then you can always do something small and make your friends join in on your quest. After all, my mom always said that when everyone helps everything gets easier.
