Green Living, Smart Living

In a time when there is multiple advice as to what to do for the environment, one thing is clear, almost anything can be turned into an action for the good of the environment. From the very simple step of changing a light bulb to installing your self-made solar panel cooker, there are a myriad of ways to get started.

So what would be the basics that everyone should have already done, but you haven’t quite gotten around to doing at your house?

Well the first and easiest of all is to go through your house, count how many light bulbs you have, note what type they are, either twist in or baton, take a trip to your local grocery store and buy efficient replacements. All in one go. Some people say just replace them when the old light globes have run out with more efficient ones, but to those of us who like defined tasks with clear outcomes, the one-stop retrofit will satisfy your inner longing for a job well done being a job done properly. Of course this action is so easy, and we all have heard the instruction to do it, why then do we find that there are still some of us that haven’t taken this fundamental environmental step? Who knows, but one thing is for certain, you have to start somewhere, and this retrofit is the surest place to start.

The next easy thing to do is get real about your water use. Most of us are wasters. Where do we waste the most? Outside it is in our gardens, inside it is in the bathroom. Inside is the easiest to tackle as it has financial rewards in saving energy and water. It’s taking shorter showers. Now, we all like a long shower, but what constitutes a long shower these days? Well, if you are having more than an eight-minute shower every day that constitutes too long. The smart thing to do to keep your energy bills down from creating all that hot water is to keep your showers to the 4-minute mark on most days. No crazy shower Nazi is going to suddenly appear while you’re nude in the shower to say you aren’t allowed to take a little longer to wash your long hair or relax after a crazy day occasionally, but once you get into the habit you will find that it’s easy to take shorter showers.

Of course, getting over the mental reliance of a long shower can take a bit of doing, and sometimes the lament that you are doing it for the environment just doesn’t get you over the belief that just one another minute could save you from insanity. Try thinking of it as a game with your kids as to how fast you can shower, and get a shower timer to make it the official shower Olympics. You could also try being really kind to yourself and reward your short showering behavior by buying new soft towels to jump into. Your back pocket will thank you at the end of the month when you will see a 30% reduction in your electricity bill.

Another fundamental, everyone should be already doing, but you might find you are slack at, is recycling. It makes sense, reuse a product, send it for recycling, so it can be made into something else that useful or have it go into a big hole in the ground for thousands of years? Seems a simple choice in principle. But why don’t we do more of it, has recycling become all too hard in our throw away society? The usual barriers to recycling are:

1. There is no recycling bin. Easily solved, get a suitable sized container for in your kitchen, put it near your other waste bin, and you have an easy choice when trying to change your behavior. Don’t have a kerbside recycling collection bin? Easy, call your local council and have them deliver you one.
2. How to know what you can recycle. Easily solved, most council’s have information telling you exactly what you can and can’t recycle in your area, call them up, get online, ask a neighbor. If in doubt about a products’ ability to be recycled, call the product’s information hotline on the back of a product.
By reducing the amount of waste that gets to a landfill by recycling, you are preventing greenhouse gases clogging the air of the earth and are helping to fight climate change. It’s really about household action leading to global results. It’s our waste, so we should try being responsible for it.
By taking these three simple and smart steps, you too are on the way to becoming a crusader for the environment.