Going green always sounds like this expensive, horrible thing, that requires constant sacrifice. You’re supposed to ditch straws, buy a car worth half a million dollars to use electric instead of fuel, slap a bunch of expensive panels on your house just to hear your HOA complain, etc.
When you look at it like that, going green is a hassle.
However, it doesn’t have to be this expensive mess that causes nothing but headaches. If you’re already struggling, there are plenty of cheap, wholesome, things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint and make a meaningful difference.
Here are three of them that anyone can do, right now.
1: Reuse
So, you bought a 24-pack of bottled water. It’s convenient, tastes good, and doesn’t cost too much. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong about it is what happens to the bottles.
Instead of tossing the bottles in the bin when you’re done drinking them, attach a water filter to your faucet, and refill the bottles. The water will taste just as great, you’ll save money in the long run, and you’ll be reusing plastic instead of adding it to landfills.
This concept can be applied to most things. If there’s a use for it, use it to do that. You don’t need to throw everything away and get something new.
Reusing items is much more effective than recycling them.
2: Switch to Paper
When you go to the grocery store, you’re either going to have to use self-checkout and load up on tons of plastic bags or bring your own bags in.
We recommend buying your own paper bags.
Modern paper bags aren’t in any way what they were decades ago. They’re not even made out of trees, anymore.
Instead, eco-friendly paper bags are made out of seaweed that actively destroys coastal regions. By switching to them, you help remove that harmful seaweed to allow coasts to flourish; as well as the communities that depend on them.
3: Minimize Consumption
This is one that makes most people start to get a bit hesitant. Yeah, switching to paper bags or reusing bottles is easy and requires zero sacrifices, but when you start talking about minimizing consumption of natural resources, they think of all the things they believe they will have to give up.
That’s not entirely true.
This is less about sacrificing, and more about understanding how much we waste compared to what we actually enjoy.
Do you leave a room without turning off the lights? What about leaving the faucet on while you shave instead of turning it on to rinse? How long do you hold the fridge open pretending you don’t know what food you have available?
All those things waste natural resources, and cutting them out is more about taking an extra step to do the right thing rather than actually sacrificing something you actively enjoy.
Go Green Without Going Broke
These are all very small things, and they don’t impact your wallet at all. In fact, they save you money. So, you can help the environment without buying a Tesla, changing to some $50 organic shampoo, etc. There are no excuses, anymore. Get to it.
