Looking for some easy eco tips? Look no further! But before, let’s look at what it means to be eco-friendly!
Being eco-friendly means not having any damaging effects on the environment, or at least keeping the damage to a minimum. This goes for products, actions, events, services, etc. that greatly help to conserve the earth’s precious resources. These resources include water and energy.
Let’s take a look at ways that you can engage in eco-friendly habits. You will need to get used to being conscious of your daily actions…
Easy eco tip 1: use eco-cleaning products
Eco-cleaning products are definitely something to consider at home. Far better for us than strong chemicals, such as ammonia, phthalates, chlorine, etc., eco-products keep the environment much purer. This will ensure that you and your family don’t develop asthma from being so close to these chemicals. In fact, 1 in 3 chemical cleaning products contains an ingredient that can harm human health or the environment.
As for the environment, these harsh chemicals can end up in our waterways and soil which is damaging for our eco-system. Eco-cleaning products are mostly biodegradable and therefore have far less of an impact on the environment. Using eco-cleaning products is an easy eco tip because you can often use what you already have at home. These could be things like lemon, vinegar and baking soda.
Easy eco tip 2: get an environmentally-friendly car
Okay, maybe it’s not a cheap eco tip. But it’s really simple and can have a massive positive impact. So just get an electric or hybrid car. Of course, the cost of running an electric vehicle varies depending on the model and features of the vehicle. To compare the cost, in the UK you would pay about 4p per mile in an electric car and 9p per mile in a petrol car. Therefore you are saving yourself money!
Electric cars are much better for the environment as well. They have zero tailpipe emissions. But we also need to ensure we use more sustainable sources of electricity in the future so that the real advantages of electric cars can materialise.
Easy eco tip 3: recycle your household waste
Recycling is something to implement on an everyday basis. It is an easy eco tip that everyone can do. It keeps materials out of the landfill by repurposing used materials into new products.
There are many easy eco tips surrounding recycling your household waste. Let’s go through just a few. One thing to consider is to buy less food so that there isn’t as much that gets thrown away. When you do your shopping, plan what you actually need beforehand.
If you go shopping you could also try to use reusable shopping bags in order to limit the plastic in your home. Other things to avoid are straws and plastic cups as these are usually only used once before they are thrown away.
Easy eco tip 4: spend in eco-friendly local shops
Another one of our easy eco tips is to shop in local shops as opposed to larger companies. This is so good for the environment because they often have a smaller carbon footprint than bigger corporations. They usually source their goods locally too, plus you will notice the difference in taste!
Local businesses are more accountable to their local communities and donate more money to non-profit organisations. These organisations may have eco-friendly values at the heart of them. Local people own local businesses. Therefore, they care about the well-being of your community and consider the local environment.
Easy eco tip 5: buy eco-friendly second-hand clothes
Selling and buying second-hand clothes is an easy eco tip. The fashion industry is the least eco-sustainable in the world so we really need to be avoiding fast fashion that wastes so many resources during production. However, second-hand clothes limit CO2 emissions and reduce the waste of billions of litres of water that are needed to generate new clothes.
To give you an idea of the difference buying second-hand clothing makes, if 600 kilos of used clothes are bought then 3.6 billion litres of water will be saved and 144 trees will be planted. Therefore, try to work to give clothes a second life! Go to a thrift shop, flea market or online second-hand store to find clothing still in excellent condition.
We also have another article about why you should adopt slow fashion in your wardrobe for you to check out!
Put our easy eco tips into practice
If you want to live a more eco-friendly life, you now have some great tips to follow. Try at least two for now and share any other tips you have in the comments below! Good luck!
