50 easy ways to save the planet.
- Wrap gifts in fabric and tie with ribbon;
both are reusable and prettier than paper
and sticky-tape.
- Start a compost heap to reduce the
waste you send to landfill sites.
- Buy your own hive: without bees
the planet would last for only 60 years
(and honey is good for your health).
- Use a nappy washing service:
they use 32% less energy and 41% less
water than home washing.
- Slowdown. Driving at 50mph uses
25% less fuel than 70mph.
- Wash your clothes with your flatmates'
instead of wasting water on half-empty
loads.
- Turn down your central heating
and put on a jumper.
- Take a brisk shower, not a leisurely
bath, to save water.
- Hold a Tupperware party.
Airtight food containers can be reused;
sandwich bags and plastic wrap cannot.
- Choose energy-efficient appliances
when you replace old ones.
- Buy compact fluorescent light bulbs.
They last eight times as long and use a
fraction of the energy.
- Join a library instead of buying books.
- Get to know your neighbours;
they are more likely to keep your home
safe than energy-guzzling security lamps.
- Recycle your car oil at a recycling depot or petrol station; it contains lead,
nickel and cadmium.
- Get on your bike instead of driving.
- Let them carry you off in a
biodegradable cardboard coffin,
saving trees.
- Use low-phosphate washing-up liquid
and washing powder. Phosphates
stimulate algal growth when discharged
into the water supply, lowering oxygen
levels and killing plants and fish.
- Buy local, or better still, grow
your own food, so energy is not wasted
on transportation.
- Raise your glass to organic beer;
conventionally grown hops are sprayed
up to a dozen times a year.
- Use recycling facilities. If there aren't
any, ask your council for them.
- Ditch the air-conditioner and buy an
aspidistra; plants help cut pollution.
- Take the plunge and move in with
your partner so you light and heat one
home rather than two.
- Give a colleague a lift to work;
if no one is going your way, join a carshare
scheme to find a passenger.
- Cook for friends. Large quantities
of food use less packaging than the
same quantity in individual portions
( and take less energy to cook).
- Copy ministers by holidaying
in Britain (but unlike them, skip the
follow-up trip to Tuscany).
- Give your garden a good breakfast;
coffee grounds and eggshells are ideal
for composting.
- Refuse plastic carrier bags, or at least
reuse them. Cloth bags are better.
- Donate your leftover paint to a
community project; Britons fail to use
6.2m litres of the paint they buy each year.
- Drink tap or filtered water, not bottled.
- Invest in a washing line;
tumble dryers devour electricity.
- Buy chocolates from proper
chocolate stores, so they are not
individually wrapped.
- Turn off TVs and stereos instead of
switching them to standby.
- Lighten up: paint your walls a pale
colour, so you need less artificial light.
- Only flush toilets if really needed ;
follow the Australian maxim: "If it's yellow
that's mellow, if it's brown flush it down."
- Improve the ambience and dine by
candlelight, saving electricity.
- Insulate your home. Cavity wall
insulation can cut heat loss through the
wall by up to 60%.
- Buy from companies with eco-friendly
policies; boycott those without.
- Soak up the sun; even in Britain, solar panels can produce a surprising amount of energy.
- Clean the back of your fridge. Dusty coils can increase energy consumption by 30%.
- Avoid air travel; it produces three times more carbon dioxide per passenger than rail.
- Pretend Christmas has come early; turkey is more likely than chicken to be produced in the UK, while British-grown brussel sprouts require less transport than Kenyan mangetout.
- Grow plants to give to friends instead of cut flowers.
- Choose a car with a 3-way catalytic converter, to reduce nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons emissions by 90%.
- Ban blinds. Heavy curtains keep in more heat in winter.
- Change materials as well as rooms; MDF and chipboard release formaldehyde, a carcinogen. Buy sustainably produced wood instead.
- Cut up the plastic rings from packs of beer; they are invisible in water so wildlife can choke on them or trap themselves.
- Bring a mug to the office instead of using polystyrene cups.
- Snap up a 36-exposure film instead of 24, reducing waste from packaging and processing.
- Cancel that expensive gym membership and walk to work instead.
- Buy less. Save time and money as well as the planet.
From The Guardian 'Earth' section, August 2002.
