Small things you can do to become more eco-friendly

It’s something we hear about on a regular basis now, what can we do to help the environment and become more sustainable. With activists such as Greta Thunberg and Sir David Attenborough raising awareness of climate change and campaigning for world leaders to make changes within their countries, more people are becoming more willing than ever before to make changes to their daily lives. Becoming eco friendly and being more sustainable doesn’t mean you have to dramatically change your life (unless of course you want to), but there are so many small steps you can take to help protect our planet.

Ditch the car

If possible, leave the car at home and cycle, walk, or take public transport. Opting out of the car and spending time in the morning to get to work another way might seem a bit of a hassle, especially if you’re running late or the weather doesn’t seem great. However, you might just surprise yourself and prefer your new journey. The walk or cycle is a great way to get active and enjoy some fresh air to help prepare for the day or unwind, not to mention being able to appreciate the area you live in. If that hasn’t convinced you, then think of the money you could save on petrol!

Switch to a reusable water bottle

Its likely you already own this, but if not it’s a purchase you should look to do or start to use it more often. Sadly, many plastic bottles end up in the ocean due to a lot of people failing to recycle them properly. Help reduce this problem by using that reusable water bottle and get into the habit of using it in your daily life. Think of all the places it could be used – at work, for that hike, taking it on holiday, the list goes on.

Switch to metal straws

This is something that you’ll have definitely noticed in your daily life, especially since the UK confirmed a ban on single-use plastic straws as part of the 25 Year Environment Plan. Subsequently, you’ve probably noticed restaurants such as McDonald’s and TGI Fridays switching to cardboard straws. With plastic waste being one of the biggest challenges not only in the UK but the entire world, this is a small step that can make a huge difference. Plastic single-use straws can take up to 200 years to break down and decompose, which is a scary amount of time and can severely hurt wildlife such as turtles. Instead, switch to a metal or bamboo straw that you can clean and use again and again. You can get one cheaply off of Amazon, so this isn’t an investment that will also break the bank.

Use eco-friendly toilet paper

We all remember the panic buying last year that saw some people beginning to hoard toilet paper. But did you know that in order to make a tonne of paper toilet rolls it requires at least 17 trees and over 90,000 litres of water? That’s already an insane figure, especially when you think about how much toilet roll an average person will use in a year and the rate at which trees grow at. Instead, make the change to bamboo toilet paper. It could be making the change in your home, or you could encourage your office to stock this option.

There are so many ways you can become more sustainable and eco-friendlier. It ranges from the simple such as reducing plastic and food waste, using biodegradable period products, printing off fewer physical copies of paper, to the extreme such as cutting out meat altogether, or becoming vegan. Whatever steps you decide to take, no matter how small, will have a huge positive impact on the environment. Together we can all play our part in protecting our planet for future generations, but it starts right here, with us now.

For more information on climate change and how you can help visit:

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday.html

https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/our-science/three-ways-to-save-our-planet/

https://www.theccc.org.uk/

https://www.wwf.org.uk/what-we-do/climate-change-and-energy

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/

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