I don’t know about you, but everyday I find myself more and more attracted to a sustainable lifestyle. Whether it was David Attenborough’s hard hitting documentary A Life on Our Planet or simply just getting outside and touching grass; I want to reduce my footprint on this planet. So, what are some practical steps you can take to actually do this? A sustainable lifestyle has become a fad of sorts, a buzz word we use, but what if I actually want to implement it? Here are some achievable steps below that you can take to live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle.
Now, I’m not talking about food scraps here. By installing a composting toilet in your home you save up to 30,000 liters per year. So let’s put that in perspective. Every time you flush, you are using (wasting) 3-6 liters of water. For one flush…and that doesn’t account for those who flush twice! What’s the most precious resource on earth, the resource that will run out if we continue on our path of mass consumption? Water. So think twice before flushing, or even better, think about getting a composting toilet instead. Ok, ok I still want you to flush if you’ve got a ‘normal’ toilet. Please, please, please if it’s brown; flush it down – or get a loo that doesn’t require you to.
Food scraps! We throw away so much that we can use to feed us in the future! Composting in your kitchen, or in your garden for that matter, feeds the soil, which will in turn feed you! Now I’m not telling you to go out and start eating dirt, but putting our food waste into the ground, creates nutrient rich soil, feeding the worms that – if you so choose – will produce the perfect bed of soil for your vegetable garden. Turning what was once waste, into food!
I know, I know; it’s hard! There really is nothing better than a perfectly cooked (rare) steak, or a plate of fresh sashimi – and don’t even get me started on hotdogs. But one of the biggest dangers our planet faces is modern agriculture; specifically meat production. Even just the deforestation component alone: cutting down the Amazon for cattle, while they fart into the cosmos producing greenhouse gases. Evidently if consumers cut down on the demand, so too would the detrimental environmental impact. No pressure or anything…
While shopping ethically seems more expensive, and therefore more unattainable, it does save you in the long run. The fashion industry is one of the worst for this. Because every month something new is ‘in’ and we’re told to consume, consume, consume! Fast fashion contributes to mountains of landfill, begging the question, do you really need that new crop top from Shein? Not only does it end up in a landfill, but the labour behind the shirt also manages to exploit workers in one fowl swoop. I know it’s cheap, but is it worth your moral ambiguity?
It seems obvious by now. Even Kim Kardashain commented on the negative effects of plastic water bottles, and yet I still see them everywhere; dumped in the gutter or floating in with the tide. We know plastic has become such an undeniable part of the planet, that it’s even in the food we eat. Microplastics live in your fancy seafood lunch, and the toothbrush you use after it. We’re inadvertently consuming toxic matter daily, so before you buy a new Labubu, think about the lifecycle of a product that has no purpose.
Renewable energy is the key to a sustainable future, and yet we continue to drill baby drill! But most households can adapt in some ways to practice more sustainable methods, such as solar panels. With most Australian households receiving rebates with solar installations, it’s not only a sustainable solution, it’s an economical one. Solar also offers a diverse range of living options, making living off grid (comfortably) possible. With sunlight and wind, being both natural forces that we can covert to energy, how can we not choose to live sustainably, and on our own terms!
When we chop down trees, in favour of manicured lawns, we’re eradicating the natural habit of local species, and destroying otherwise biodiverse environments. If you consider yourself a bit of a green thumb, and love getting out into the garden on your days off, just consider planting native flora and fauna instead. It’s these little steps we can take to do our part that will increase the longevity of our beautiful planet – even if we start one step at a time, trust me, I’m not about to cut hotdogs out of my diet just yet…
