7 measures to take care of the environment
The Earth is a rich planet and offers us its resources, it is our responsibility to preserve it. Humans are part of the “problem” of the planet: consumption, industry, and pollution are our work and have a great impact on the environment. We lack the precise and necessary information, and we are frequently not aware of what affects our daily activity, in ecological terms, in the deterioration of the planet.
Whenever possible, we must change consumption patterns and integrate sustainable and environmentally friendly habits into our routine, with the aim of reducing pollution. Only in this way will we be able to redirect global warming.
From Solido, we encourage you to carry out 7 simple practices that protect the environment and fight the greenhouse effect. Surely many of us have already incorporated them into our day-to-day life.
Recycle
Without a doubt, it is one of the simplest ways to counteract how much we “mess up”. In the article where we discussed practices to reduce pollution, such as avoiding the use of plastics and saving water consumption, we said that waste management is crucial, easy to carry out, and that it is one of the main ways we have at our disposal. reach, individually to be environmentally friendly.
Recycling also means giving another use to things that we want to discard or extend the life of some objects. Do you have a broken chair? A lamp that you don’t like anymore, but it works? Give it life, give it another use. Before throwing things out, think about whether they have the option of being restored, given away, or served for different use.
The objective is common to all: to produce less garbage, reduce the consumption of polluting material and deposit each remainder according to its origin or composition in the appropriate container or place. Recycling is one of the smartest ways to take care of the planet.
Save Water In The Cistern
It is estimated that in 2050 there will be a shortage of water if we continue at the same rate of growth of the world population and do not start as soon as possible to make a rational consumption of water. It is crucial that we become aware of the misuse or waste of water as a saving measure, not only at a private level but also to contribute globally to preserve this necessary and so precious good.
Another simple practice is to get into the habit of recycling the water we use to wash: fill a shelf, jug, or bucket with water to empty the toilet instead of just wasting it. Simple, right? The water we use to wash dishes can be stored on a shelf, and the dirty water from the sink can also do the trick. The standard toilet load is about 10 liters on average. A mop bucket can be around the same. If we go back to the mathematical calculation, we are talking about immense water savings worldwide.
Support Renewable Energy
The alternative energies within our reach are respectful of the environment. Applying them in our home not only means considerable savings in economic terms, but it also shows that we are becoming environmentally aware.
On the planet we have up to seven renewable energy sources, the only thing is that not all of them are usable as it varies depending on the country. In Spain, we have three main sources of green energy: hydroelectric, wind, and solar.
At an industrial level, all three are applied and convert the movement of air or water, together with the capture of solar rays, into sustainable, clean, and indigenous energy.
In our article on how to save money on your electricity bill, we offer you five ideas or tricks that are easily adaptable to most homes.
It is in our hands to evolve towards more ecological and sustainable consumption by supporting renewable energies.
Avoid Consumerism, Especially Clothing
If you are wondering what buying clothes has to do with global warming, here are some figures: the fashion industry is huge and produces around 100,000 million garments worldwide each year. Its polluting footprint is proportional. The bad news is that, if we continue with this trend – especially in the West- of consumerism, we will buy more and more clothes, but we will give them a shorter and shorter useful life.
The predictions for the year 2030 are for an increase of up to 50% in water consumption, the global carbon footprint will increase to almost 3,000 tons, and waste, up to 150 tons. Too large and dangerous a footprint for our planet. How to stop it? Rethink the rate of consumption in countries where it has become a real problem.
Not being “fashionable” does not mean a lack of good taste in clothing, nor is austerity necessarily a mortification or synonymous with poverty or slovenliness or filth. Looking for cheap clothes in markets, whether new or second-hand, should not be linked to anything negative, it can simply respond to being more environmentally conscious.
Reduce Meat Consumption
According to a study carried out by the University of Oxford in England together with the Agroscope Institute of Switzerland, “stopping consuming cow meat or milk is one of the most effective actions that consumers can take to combat climate change.”
Livestock in general and cows, in particular, produce a large amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, when digesting their food. In addition, they cause deforestation, since large open fields are needed for pasture, especially in South America.
If you have never tried it and want to entertain yourself in discovering how each food or drink affects the environment, you can find calculators on the Internet that inform you with interesting data and comparisons, such as discovering the equivalence of 3 daily coffees in kilometers traveled by car (pollution) or how many liters of water invested are behind its production. Calculate your plastic footprint, the CO ₂ behind the food consumed or the equivalences of your diet, and the greenhouse effect.
Use The Bins And Containers
It is a responsible and simple practice that we must instill in subsequent generations. Use them and, moreover, correctly, because a trash can is not a container.
Years ago – and this is still the case in some countries – there were no bins on public roads. Now they are part of urban and rural furniture. It is enough to visit other places to observe how the awareness of the population varies in terms of road cleaning. We could talk about education and awareness, because not throwing things on the ground, picking up pet waste, and properly using bins and containers, should be integrated into our way of thinking and acting. We are responsible for our garbage, let’s take care of our environment.
The most common things that we sometimes find lying around in our path take forever to disappear. Do you know the life cycle of a simple sheet? From a chewing gum?
Paper: a sheet of white paper takes about 1 year to disappear. If it rains, maybe it will sooner.
Chewing gum: chewing gum hardens and adheres to the surface, it remains like a stone. It takes about 5 years to fully disintegrate. Observe the ground of any street and detect the black spots that are mostly gum.
Soda can: produced with aluminum and very practical due to its lightness and resistance. The problem is with the forest when it tries to eliminate it. It has to go through a very long oxidation process and rain cycles for it to end up disappearing: about 10 years.
Use Biodegradable Packaging
In our article on how to reduce pollution, we also talk about the urgent need to reduce the consumption of plastics. Plastic, like aluminum, is a material that has undoubtedly contributed to facilitating packaging and has given us practicality among other benefits, the downside is that they are flooding the planet and represent a high degree of toxicity for flora, fauna, and seas.
In addition to the tips to reduce the use of plastics, here we want to share the options for biodegradable packaging that we will find in the market. Biodegradable materials are those that are made mostly of organic products, therefore they are recycled or degraded in a “natural” way without the need for human intervention: heat from the sun, rain, bacteria, wind, moisture, and fungi are responsible for making them disappear. The residues, in addition, can be used to compost, they are perfect as fertilizer for plants.
In the market, we can find containers designed for various purposes, produced from cardboard, palm leaf, wood, vegetable fiber, bamboo, or bioplastic. Containers made with bioplastics are also, despite their name, a sustainable alternative: they come from plant resources such as sugar cane or potato starch. PHA or polyhydroxyalkanoate is obtained with the fermentation of vegetable raw material using certain strains of bacteria.
Biodegradable packaging produces less waste, typically requires less energy to manufacture, is 100% renewable, can be used as fertilizer, does not alter the taste or smell of food, and does not contain harmful chemicals. They are an excellent option to help preserve the environment.
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