3 Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Choices That Won’t Alter Your Life

While everyone is fully aware of the true extent of the global environmental crisis, not everyone is entirely willing to make changes that will slow the destruction of our planet simply because some are a massive inconvenience. However, affordable green living doesn’t have to be disruptive or expensive. There are a multitude of small lifestyle changes you can make that are both favourable to the environment and won’t drastically alter your daily life.

These could include practices such as composting food waste, using reusable shopping bags and water bottles, and opting for energy-efficient appliances. Cycling or walking instead of driving for short distances is another affordable green living idea that not only reduces your carbon footprint but also promotes physical health. Furthermore, installing energy-efficient light bulbs and making a conscious effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle can make a significant difference over time.

Switching to a plant-based diet, at least partially, can also contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle, as the meat and dairy industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Buying local and seasonal produce not only supports your local economy, but it also reduces the carbon emissions associated with long-distance transportation of goods.

Incorporating renewable energy sources, like solar panels, into your home might require an initial investment, but they can significantly reduce your energy bills in the long run and provide you with a clean, green source of power.

Remember, affordable green living is not about making one big change, but about making many small changes that add up. By adopting eco-friendly habits, we can all play a part in preserving our environment without making drastic changes to our lifestyles. The following eco-friendly decisions are highly recommended changes that will also save you a fortune.

1. Invest in Solar Power

Taking measures to lower your power bill will likely inconvenience your day as you try to reduce your power consumption through means that will essentially reduce your quality of life. Although, you can invest in solar power and enjoy the same power consumption as you currently are without actually harming the world around us. What’s more, you will be able to save a large amount of money as your power bill will ultimately be removed from your monthly budget completely.

The initial solar cost will be a notable investment and while many homeowners shun from the idea as installing solar panels is not entirely the cheapest decision, although, when considering that your monthly power bill will no longer be an aspect of your budget, you will be able to save in the long-run. The investment will continue to enhance your savings for years to come.

2. Switch To Glass

If you are currently making use of plastic products such as containers and other kitchenware products, you should consider the health benefits of switching to glass. Plastic has left a massive mark on our environment and by switching to glass you won’t just be reducing your own carbon footprint, but you will also be improving the health of your family as plastic products contain harmful chemicals. Therefore, the switch won’t change your daily life whatsoever, although, the environment will be thankful for the change and so will your family.

Some plastic products, such as shopping bags and drinking straws can be switched to other materials and as many retailers have noted the damage, shops are switching to paper straws and paper or material tote bags as zero waste trends are becoming more popular around the world. Once again, this effort will actually save you a small fortune over time as disposable items can become costly. Click here to learn about transition to zero-waste lifestyle. If you are a tea aficionado, you may consider switching to eco-friendly tea bags.

3. Adjust Your Transport Methods

Not everyone is prepared to walk or cycle to work simply to save the planet and this is often plausible as not everyone lives close enough to their workplace. However, there are other ways of being eco-friendly when travelling. You could consider investing in an electric or hybrid vehicle as the initial spend would also save you a fortune over time and when considering that using solar power means you won’t have to spend money to run your vehicle, your travel budget will be chopped in half.

Biogas_Bus

Alternatively, you could also consider starting a carpool to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads as this is also making a conscious eco effort to save the environment and save money in the process.

Recommended Reading: How to Level-Up Your Eco Efforts

5 Easy Ways to be Greener in Your Marine Business

Do you run a marine-oriented business? If so, then you may have a unique opportunity to practice environmental conservation. Water, as you know, plays a major role in sustaining life on Earth. Anything you can do to preserve and protect water goes a long way in helping to combat climate change. Marine work covers a wide range of fields, but we found a few tips and tricks that may be applicable to most relevant businesses. Here are a few easy ways to make your marine business greener.

1. Use Less Chemicals in Pools

Here’s a tip for those who work in pool maintenance: use less chemicals. You can use fewer chemicals and also maintain a clean and healthy pool. This may take some strategic planning on your part, but it’s possible.

There are two main chemicals that are used to kill bacteria in pools: chlorine and bromine. Chlorine is more commonly used because it’s cheaper. But bromine is a longer-lasting chemical. Chlorine requires weekly doses because it’s neutralized quickly. You don’t need to dose the pull with bromine every week because bromine is more resilient. When you use bromine, you’re using less chemicals, which is better for the environment.

The downside to bromine is that it’s much more expensive than chlorine. If you have clients who are passionate about the environment, you could explain this to them and ask if they’d be willing to pay a slightly higher fee for bromine chemicals. Remember that you might be able to reduce the number of visits to that pool if you use bromine on it, which could reduce your operational costs.

2. Use Pool Covers

Water naturally evaporates from pools, and pool owners spend a lot of money having to top-off the pool with water every month. It’s a bigger problem in warmer areas, like in Nevada or Southern California. Water is a resource that’s taken for granted, and some of those aforementioned regions experience severe water shortages in times of drought. You should try and limit how often your clients’ pools are re-filled.

Convince your clients to use pool covers during months when they don’t use the pool as frequently. Covers reduce the amount of water that evaporates from the pool. You may be able to charge clients for having your employees cover and uncover the pool. You can use pathos to argue your case; pool covers also prevent young children and small animals from drowning.

3. Practice Eco-Friendly Boating

Do you run a business that involves boating? Be careful about which chemicals you use when you’re cleaning and maintaining your boat. Some chemicals contribute to harmful emissions, while others can pollute the ocean or lakes and kill marine life.

You should use marine foam and marine paint when you’re doing maintenance on the hull and exterior features. Those materials are eco-friendly. You should avoid using antifouling paint, which is very dangerous for marine life. You should also limit your use of household cleaners. You don’t want these chemicals spilling into the ocean. Try and use natural cleaners instead, like vinegar, lemon, and baking soda.

It’s illegal to dump sewage in any body of navigable water because sewage is bad for the ocean. Always properly dispose of sewage at a pumpout facility. Be proactive in fixing leaks, and always have absorbent towels on hand to clean oil off the bilge.

4. SCUBA Conservation

If you run a dive shop, be vigilant in protecting the reefs where you take divers. Educate divers—especially new divers—about not touching coral reefs, and about being careful where they kick their fins. Most scuba divers are respectful of the underwater ecosystems, but there’s a bad apple in every bunch. If you have to, threaten to end dives short if any diver knowingly disobeys your environmental rules.

5. Recycle

Last, but certainly not least, recycle! Recycling is one of the easiest and most simple ways to make your marine business more eco-friendly. Regardless of whether you’re a contractor or if you work on a boat, you should always have recycling bins where you can toss used plastics and glass. Take these materials to recycling facilities so that they can be properly re-made into new items. Some recycling facilities even pay you for bringing in materials.

If you run a marine-based business, you have the potential to protect the environment in a huge number of ways. Practice eco-friendly cleaning methods and sustainability, and educate your clients on how they can contribute.

The Benefits of Recycling as an Energy Conservation Measure

Recycling is an effective energy conservation measure that translates into avoided emissions alongside other environmental and economic benefits. It saves energy by decreasing or eliminating energy use during extraction, transportation, and processing of raw materials into finished products.

How Recycling Saves Energy

Manufacturing is a labor, waste, and energy-intensive process that is never-ending due to the increasing demand for consumer products. Manufacturing products from scratch requires raw materials to be extracted, transported, and refined. However, when recycling, you are using already refined materials that need less energy to be transformed into usable products.

Recycling also saves time, money, natural resources, conserves the environment, and shrinks landfills. Hence, the more we recycle, the more we save and gain. Because of these benefits, it is essential to sign up for a residential recycling collection service to have your recyclable trash going to the right place.

recycling-in-offices

The amount of energy saved through recycling generally depends on the material being reprocessed. Let’s take a look at the energy savings of four of the most commonly recycled materials.

1. Aluminum

Aluminum manufacturing requires huge amounts of heat and electricity. Despite constant efforts to reduce energy consumption, manufacturing aluminum still costs three times more than the theoretical minimum energy requirement.

Recycling aluminum cans and scrapes requires 6 percent of the energy needed to manufacture aluminum from bauxite ore. Repurposing aluminum saves the energy that would have been used to extract, transport, crush, and combine bauxite with caustic soda. Additionally, extracting aluminum from bauxite requires the ore to be purified and smelted.

Thus, the aluminum recycling process is fast, efficient, and achieves up to 94 percent energy savings. Even better, you can recycle aluminum infinite times without degrading, increasing energy saving in the long run. Besides, introducing new alloys and improved product design along the product chain results in more energy and environmental savings.

2. Glass

Glassmaking is an energy-intensive process that involves melting sand and other minerals at extremely high temperatures. Reprocessing glass still needs lots of energy to melt the glass and make a new product. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says reprocessing glass results in 30% energy savings. Glass, like aluminum, does not degrade when it is recycled.

Thus, tossing glass in recycling bins will help preserve natural resources, like sand and soda ash, and reduce the energy costs involved with transporting these heavy materials. It also allows glass manufacturers to cut on energy input to their furnaces. The cumulative energy costs decrease by 2 to 3 percent for every 10 percent of broken glass used in the production process.

Moreover, the durability of glass allows for recycling without reprocessing. This means that you can save 100% energy by cleaning and reusing glass around your home and eliminate the need for an energy-intensive manufacturing process.

3. Paper

An average American household throws away 13,000 pieces of paper every year. These translate into almost 1 billion trees worth of paper being thrown away yearly in the U.S. You can recycle all or most of this paper and contribute to 40% energy savings. Recycled paper can be used to make a variety of new paper products.

paper-recycling

However, this is limited by its appearance, which is not as white or smooth as new paper. Fortunately, biodegradable inks and erasable paper promise improved paper recycling efficiency. You could also reduce your paper usage or reuse paper around your home whenever possible to conserve energy and save trees.

4. Plastic

Many plastic products are single-use commodities that are only in use for a few minutes. However, these require hundreds of years to biodegrade. Sadly, approximately 4 percent of America’s total energy consumption goes to producing plastic products.

Recycling plastic requires only about 10% of the energy needed to manufacture one pound of plastic from virgin sources. The recovery process has short-term energy-saving benefits because plastics degrade every time they are recycled.

plastic waste

However, many manufactures have ways of repurposing low-grade plastics to use in less demanding applications, such as carpeting, park benches, auto parts, and insulation.

Other Materials to Recycle Around Your Home

You can recycle many other materials around your home, and you can determine their energy savings using the iWARM tool created by the EPA. Some of these materials include

You can also contribute to energy conservation by purchasing recycled household products. Some of the most common include

  • Egg cartons
  • Newspapers
  • Comic books
  • Trash bags
  • Paper towels
  • Glass containers
  • Car bumpers

Bottom Line

Reduce, reuse, recycle is a lifestyle that leads us to a greener planet. Following these guidelines for a greener planet will also save you some coins because most recycled products cost significantly less than products produced using virgin material. Keep in mind that 75 percent of all waste can be recycled, and doing this will save the planet loads of energy.