1. Give up bottled water. Seriously, it’s so expensive and so unnecessary
2. Request your bills to be emailed to you to instead of posted to cut down on paper waste
3. Cold wash your clothes (unless you wore a white shirt to a pizza party)
4. Cycle to work! Even if you don’t own one yet, a bike pays for itself faster than you might think
5.Rechargeable batteries make economical sense as well as environmental
6. Wash your recyclables before putting them out – contaminated items take a lot more energy to recycle
7. On that note, make sure you know what you can put in the recycling. Councils vary wildly, so check your local council website
8. Go veggie! Meat production puts a huge strain on the environment, and the veggie food is much cheaper too
9. You know those fruit sellers at the market that yell ‘two for a paaaand, sweetheart’? Their produce tends to be local, fresh, and much cheaper than the supermarkets
10. Drying racks not tumble dryers! Try the over-the-radiator drying racks like this one
11. BYOB – that’s bag, not booze. Sorry. Although, if you are buying booze, put it in a reusable bag
12. Replace your bulbs! If you’ve got the old style bulbs, don’t wait until they break to replace them, you’ll save money by doing it now!
13. Get rid of paper towels, they’re a huge waste of our trees and your money
14. Same goes for makeup wipes – try a reusable microfibre cloth like this one, which clean off your makeup with just water. Saves on wipes as well as makeup remover!
15. Imagine Netflix, but for books. Gasp! Visit your local library and read for free instead of buying all your books
16. Alternatively, download the kindle app and use your phone to go entirely paperless
17. Grow your own food where possible. It’s cheaper, better for the environment, and makes for excellent instagram posts
18. Fix the leaky tap. A leaky tap can waste as much as 140 gallons of water a week, which is a lot of wasted resources and lot of wasted money
19. Skip the fancy high street labels and go for a charity shop outing. Listen to Macklemore while you do.
20. If you’ve got junk in the trunk, it’s time to shift it. Empty your car of any heavy, unnecessary items and you’ll be surprised how much your miles per gallon improve
Think we missed something? Do you have a different opinion?
Comment below to get your voice heard…
This is typical of an armchair environmentalist! It’s a lot of good ideas but without any real thought going into them. Let me elucidate:
Point 2 is (a) used by many Companies to hide price rises from you; Its easy to file an electronic invoice away without close examination and then when you wonder why you’re paying so muxh, you find that they’ve been quietly raising the prices. Yes they have to, or should tell you this is happening, but it’s usually hidden in the small test somewhere in the bill. (b) If you need to have a paper copy of the bill for any reason, It’s you who then has top pay for all the printing!
Point 6 Is great for people who don’t have to pay for their water. I get billed twice a year for the water I use. It’s a beautiful ploy to get you to waste your water, and don’t forget that water is a diminishing resource as well – so who’s really benefiting here?
Point 8. It’s in the name of the vegetarians and the vegans that so much of the rain forests are being burnt or otherwise diminished so that more soya can be grown for… vegetarians and vegans.
Point 10. Sounds rather stupid; I do want my clothes!
Point 16. If you’re going to be that environmentally friendly, why not lose the phone as well?
Etc., etc.
If you don’t like my principles, don’t worry, I have more…
lol, i don’t think anyone wants you to go naked, working man….
Hi there, thanks for the comment! Interesting points!
2. Most statements can be viewed online in PDF format, identical to the paper copies but without the wasted paper. The number of people combing over their paper bills every month compared to the number throwing them out without thought, is extremely low. If these people were to switch to a paperless system, it would save a great deal of resources.
6. It takes very little water to wash recyclable items, if done correctly. Between 2011 and 2016 the amount of household rubbish reject for recycling in England raised by 84%, meanwhile willingness from foreign countries to accept our recycled waste has diminished significantly. It’s a huge problem and one that needs to be addressed.
8. We’ll be covering a lot more about food in the coming weeks, so watch this space!
10. Oh dear! We have no desire to take anyone’s clothes away, thanks for pointing out the typo.
16. If you’d like to give up your phone in the name of environmentalism, please do! Every little helps! we think that’s a little impractical for most people though, so smaller lifestyle changes like switching from paper books to apps are more realistic. E-books are more environmentally friendly and tend to be a lot cheaper.
We’d love to hear more of your principles! Discussions like this helps us all think more carefully about our actions. Your input is very much appreciated.
Point 1 = so unnecessary to buy bottled water? So you enjoy your disgusting chlorinated tap water!
Stopped reading there. Pretentious idiot obviously wrote this.
Thanks for your input, Matt!
The UK uses 13 billion plastic bottles every year. Only 7.5 billion are recycled. The remaining 5.5 billion are landfilled, littered, or incinerated. If avoiding buying bottled water and contributing to the incredible damage of plastics on the environment makes us pretentious, then we’re happy to be pretentious 🙂
Many thanks,
Harriet
Some great suggestions, thank you 🙂