Family life can be, just a little unsustainable. Realistically, as a family, you aren’t going to be able to do every single ‘green’ hack and achieve that perfect eco lifestyle. But, making any small adjustments to your day that reduce your impact is a step in the right direct for the human race. Even if it is only once or twice a week, every little helps!
Transport Swaps
It is a widely known fact that the most common forms of transport are basically CO2 machines. The convenience of the car cannot be faulted, but does it really make that much difference to your day if you hop onto the bus instead? Or imagine how energized and alive you’ll feel if you use your bicycle. Swap the car school run for a cycle, or, if it’s close enough, walk. Using exercise to travel instead of relying on motor vehicles has personal benefits as well as world-wide environmental benefits, so give it a go!
Recycling Made Easy
Yes, we know, you’ve heard it all before, recycle. But that involves washing it all, sorting through it all, putting all the right bits in all the right places. What if it was as simple as putting it all in one single bin and leaving it outside your house for someone else to deal with? Waste Away Systems recycling services use a single-stream recycling system, so you can do just that! Taking away the hassle, takes away the excuses. With the amount of waste that goes to the landfill every year from each household, just imagine the positive impact this small change will have on the environment.
Food Choices
Meat is a huge part of our diets, our culture, and our environmental impact. Did you know that the meat industry supposedly produces more emissions than all the transport in the world? Asking the entire family to turn vegetarian is just not realistic, however. But even removing meat from one meal each week will make a difference. Imagine the sheer volume of emissions saved if every family did this just once a week! So much of our food has traveled across continents to get to our plates, so try using locally produced foods, meat and veggies, to cook up some healthy, low impact meals. Or even better, why not start your own family veg patch? It’s easier than you think!
Saving Energy (and Money)
Many of us leave our appliances and sockets switched on, all day and all night, all week, all month, all year. Just think about how much energy is being wasted. Not only that, imagine the numbers it’s adding on to your electricity bill. One of the simplest ways to reduce electricity usage is to add the ‘socket sweep’ into your family’s daily routine. Before you leave the house, get everyone unplugging and switching everything off. It takes only a few minutes, and will save you a staggering amount – be careful they don’t unplug the fridge though.
There are so many small changes we can make as a family to reduce our environmental impact and live more efficiently. And the more people that do it, the bigger the effect. Make some of these changes and start doing your bit for our planet today.
