5 Little Green Steps

When we think about a cleaner and a greener environment, we often think about activities such as cleanups and planting trees. While these are undoubtedly important, it’s also important to keep in mind that little things you do continuously could make a huge impact in the long run. So here are 5 simple green habits I follow religiously and you could too. 

1) Use containers for food 
We are often used to wrapping our lunch in lunch sheets and newspaper. While this is the easiest route as you don’t have to bother about cleaning things and carrying extra weight, you’re not only adding less biodegradable materials in the form of a lunch sheets to the environment but also you are adding toxic materials to the environment in the form of ink on newspapers. 

When you have to take food, try using glass, aluminum or in the worst case, reusable plastic containers. This not only reduces the waste that you release to the environment, but it saves money as you would be making just a onetime investment and would not be spending money on lunch sheets and those newspapers you never read. 

2) Serve a little less 
No, you are not going to die if you don’t eat until you can’t breathe. Serve a little less than what you could eat. If you’re still hungry you can go for more, if you’re not you’ll be able to lose that few pounds you intended to loose and still be healthy. 

On the other hand, not only will you be creating less waste (which will help reduce the 1.3 billion tons of food waste created annually around the world), but you will also be more productive as your body can now focus less energy on digesting all that food (which often makes you sleepy after meals) and more energy on whatever the work you do.

3) Do some green walking
Exercise is something very important to all of us, and walking is one of the best exercises anyone could do irrespective of their shape, size or health condition. Here’s how you could incorporate this exercise to your day in the form of “Green walking”. 

When you have to travel a short distance from one place to another for some sort of work, leave a little early and opt for walking over taking your own vehicle or catching a bus, cab or taxi. This will not only provide your body some much needed exercise but will also save you money and most importantly will contribute to a considerable reduction in carbon emissions.

4) There’s always a use for clothes 
Stop throwing away your old clothes. If they no longer spark joy in you, it might spark some joy in someone else, so give it away and you’ll be able to feel way more joy seeing someone else enjoying wearing something you use to own. If a piece of clothing is not usable anymore find some other use for it. Tear it to pieces and use it to clean your counter-tops and floors, so that the only reason you have to throw away a piece of fabric is because it had biodegraded to a level which you no longer can use it. 

And if you are someone like me who gets hand-me-down clothes, you’re blessed, because not only will you be able to experiment wearing things that you would never buy for yourself but you will also be saving a considerably large amount of money. (Fun fact: I haven’t spent money on clothing for the last three years.) Most importantly, you will be contributing towards the reduction of fabric waste which accounts for billions of tons each year, 2/3 of it being synthetic materials which are only semi-biodegradable. 

5) Not showering – Not a sin 
We often shower every other day. While you feel clean and happy doing this, you’re also adding chemicals to the environment and creating a huge amount of plastic waste in the form of packaging as you often run out of product very quickly. 

Did you know that washing your hair once a week is more than enough? This not only reduces the waste you create but also makes your hair healthier as the products you use on your hair often damages your hair creating frizz. If you feel that your hair frequently becomes greasy, try adding a table spoon of honey to your shampoo whenever you have a bath (I swear by this hack) the natural properties of honey would help retain moisture which would make your hair less greasy. 

However, if you’re a person who can’t go for more than 3 days without having a shower, try getting your products in bulk. This would at least reduce the amount of plastic added to the environment. 

I hope you would at least incorporate one of these steps into your life and let us know what little steps you take towards a greener and cleaner environment.    

Written By :-

Rtr. Promodhya Abeysekara Co - Editor 2017/18