How To Be an Environmental Friendlier You

Climate change is real and it is happening right now. From the melting of the arctic ice, to the thinning of the ozone layers, our planet is suffering in more ways than one due to years of human ignorance. We need to act now if there is even remotely a chance to save our earth. You may be thinking that you are just one person, how will your involvement in this bring any affect? WELL HONEY, it starts with you and there are plenty of ways you can reduce your carbon footprints and help out the planet by becoming a more environmentally friendlier you and you don’t even have to be vegan. Here are 5 steps you can start with;

1. Reduce meat intake.

We know we know. We promised you that you didn’t have to convert yourself into veganism (though, what’s the harm in doing so?) but we hate to bring this up on you but supporting the meat industry means supporting the release of greenhouse gasses up into our air and according to recent reports, it is estimated that the meat and dairy companies are surpassing even the fossil fuel industry when it comes to climate change.

We are not telling to stop eating meat all together. We are just urging you to take baby steps by reducing your meat intake from daily consumption to a weekly or monthly thing and eventually cutting them all together if possible. Try different recipes or commit to a meal plan that works for you. Not only will you be saving the planet but you will be improving your health and finance as well.

2. Use less plastic.

Did you know that of the 30 million tons of plastic waste generated, that only 7 percent was recovered for recycling? Meaning that most of the plastic waste we produced are left imperishable and are just there for poor animals to choke on or to be gathered at landfills that will forever expand and take up valuable space. Sad huh?

Well, there are ways around this like say, USE LESS PLASTIC? It is as easy as being very mindful of everything you purchase, bringing your own bag, using a metal straw/food container/utensils, buying boxed goods instead of bottles, using reusable bottles, stop buying disposable plastic things like plastic lighters and disposable razors etc, and by giving up on gum. Yes, GUM!! Because most chewing gums contain synthetic rubber aka plastic.

3. Stop supporting fast fashion.

Yes, it feels great to be constantly on trend with your peers when it comes to fashion. And yes, we understand how cool it feels like to walk into some popular trendy clothing store, put on a clothing item feeling transformed and then going home with it with a sense of accomplishment only for you to dispose the clothing item come next fashion season. You’re thinking “ It’s okay, the clothing I bought is cheap”. OH HONEY, THAT IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM. Clothes that are made cheaply and in mass means they are being made by cutting environmental corners. For bulks and bulks of trendy cool clothes to be sold massively in your malls in the cheapest price possible?? Realistically speaking, there is just no way will that not do any harm to our planet or our people.

Think of all the factories that are involved, think of the resources, the third world countries and even the illogical wages that these companies are setting. I mean how else are they able to get away with producing cheap t-shirts in bulk every season? Most importantly, think about what happens to those clothing if they are not being sold. Yes, if their lucky they get a second life somewhere at a consignment store, or being reused and redesign for next season, but

most of them sadly are just being thrown as imperishable waste on some third world country not being able to decompose or reused a.k.a MORE LANDFILLS.

So next time you go to the mall, please be mindful of what you are buying.

Resist the urge of getting that cute skirt just because it’s cute. Think real hard on what you need to get. Resort to buying things second hand, thrifted or even trade unwanted clothing items. And if you are the creative type, repurposing unwanted clothing items are proven to be a fun step to reducing less clothing waste. Worse come to worse, if you cant resist trends and fast fashion, just avoid going to the mall all together or just splurge your money on a more sustainable once in a blue moon high end clothing item that you know would last you a lifetime instead.

4. Carpool or use public transport.

This goes without saying as we’re sure most of you know that the gasses that comes out of your car leads to air pollution and more greenhouse gasses. So, walk if your destination in near. Carpool if you have friends.

Have a “Public transport” day once in a while (or preferably often) where you go to your destination via your local public transport. Truly it is really that simple!! And if you are lucky you’ll be exchanging human interactions every now and then and you get to work on your people skill, WHO DOESN’T WANT THAT?

5. Turn off the air conditioner

This will be, by far, the easiest simplest step you could possibly be doing from this whole entire list. All you have to do is TURN OFF THAT AIRCOND EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. Again, it will be great if you could live off a life entirely free of aircond usage. But due to climate change, the world is hotter than usual as of lately and we know THERE IS JUST NO WAY YOU’RE GONNA TURN THE AIRCOND OFF. But think about it, the world is hot now partly because of the aircond usage so you’re kinda feeding into this loop.

USE AN ELECTRIC FAN OR AIR HUMIDIFIER OR AN ECO FRIENDLY AIR CONDITIONER INSTEAD IS WHAT WE’RE SUGGESTING. You will be saving the environment and reducing your monthly electric bill at the same time!!

There are millions of ways for us to be taking care of our planet, but we think it’s a lot practical to start with these 5 beginner’s level steps.

As we mentioned before, CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL, MAKE NO MISTAKE, IT IS HAPPENING NOW.

So do as much as you can in order to slow down the process or hopefully reverse them all together. And although, that may sound like wishful thinking, but doing a little something is better than doing nothing at all. Remember, we only got one earth.

-

Written by Eff Hakim

When she is not doing audio work or fronting her band Pastel Lite, Eff Hakim likes to write as a means to fully express herself in whatever medium she can use. She is a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk, kewpie dolls, warm tones, meta animes and retro synthesizers. Her life philosophy that she swears by is

LIFE IS SHORT, YOLO.