GRE GR E EN LIFESTYLE GUIDE TO SIMPLE SUSTAINABLE LIVING
25 Ways
to live more sustainably NOT SURE WHERE TO START IN BECOMING ‘GREEN’? HERE ARE 25 HABITS TO START YOU ON YOUR WAY TO A MORE ECO-FRIENDLY LIFESTYLE. COMPILED BY Lesley Lopes
This Guide was created by Green Lifestyle, part of nextmedia Pty. Ltd. It is not to be reproduced in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher. www.greenlifestylemag.com.au
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EAT LESS MEAT.
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And choose organic where possible. Meat production is waterintensive, uses land that could be given over to food crops and contributes substantially to climate change.
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Have a three-bin system in the kitchen – one each for recycling, compost and general rubbish. You can also make it easier for your housemates, family or work colleagues to recycle by making sure the bins are well labelled. Use pictures instead of words for pre-schoolers. – Tanya Ha, writer, journalist and sustainable living advocate.
DON’T SHOP FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS.
Avoiding the supermarket for a bit will allow you to take stock of what’s in your pantry and fridge and help you to get into the habit of using up all the fresh produce in the crisper before buying more. Not-for-profit action group Do Something! estimates Australians throw out about 20 per cent of the food they buy – worth $7.8 billion each year.
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At work
REFUSE THE PLASTIC BAG.
What’s the point of putting two items in a plastic bag at the supermarket checkout just to carry them 30 metres to your car? Just carry them if you’ve forgotten your reusable bag.
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MAKE RECYCLING EASY FOR THE FAMILY.
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INVEST IN A REUSABLE COFFEE CUP.
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PRINT DOUBLE-SIDED WHENEVER POSSIBLE.
Buy a takeaway coffee in a disposable cup almost every day at work and you’re sending almost 250 cups and plastic lids into landfill each year. Keep a reusable KeepCup (shown) or similar on your desk.
GET ORGANISED FOR RECYCLING.
Put a small container in the kitchen for spent batteries and make sure everyone in the household knows these chemicalfilled items don’t go in the regular bin. There are battery recycling bins in Officeworks and ALDI stores. Likewise, set up a dedicated recycling basket for soft plastic other than supermarket shopping bags: rice packets, bread bags and any other scrunchable plastic. This will substantially reduce the rubbish in your regular kerbside bin. There are drop-off points in 480 Coles supermarkets around the country.
Create a printer preset for double-sided printing so it becomes a habit.
PHOTOS: LOUISE LISTER; LESLEY LOPES; THINKSTOCK
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REFUSE THE FORK.
At lunchtime, also avoid the takeaway chopsticks, the fishy soy sauce dispensers and the café sugar sachets. Have your own stash of condiments and cutlery in your desk drawer, or use those from your office tea room. >>
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OFF-SET AIR TRAVEL WITH CARBON CREDITS.
Taking the carbon-credit option when buying air tickets doesn’t cost that much more, and it will help to mitigate the environmental impact of the flight.
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One of the biggest culprits is kids’ single-serve snacks. A large, all-in-one pack of food, such as dried fruit, can be divvied up into snack-sized portions and stored in reusable containers in the lunchbox.
GET A SCRAP BIN.
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A lidded container located on the kitchen counter or perhaps under the sink makes composting easy, by avoiding the need for multiple trips to the compost bin in the garden each day.
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INVEST IN A WATERPROOF EGG TIMER.
As well as helping you boil perfect eggs, a timer will help keep track of shower time. Turn the timer on its side and turn off taps while washing your hair to make the most of three minutes of ‘running water’ time. Grab one from www.todae.com.au. – Caitlin Howlett, Editor of Green Lifestyle
INSTALL LED LIGHTS THROUGHOUT YOUR HOUSE.
They use 75–80 per cent less energy than other lights – great for the planet and your wallet. – Jon Dee, founder of Do Something!
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AVOID OVERPACKAGED FOODS.
Learn something
PUT A BUCKET IN THE SHOWER.
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Catch warm-up water for watering plants or washing clothes.
STOP BUYING HARSH CLEANING CHEMICALS.
VISIT…
www.greenityourself. com.au for videos showing how to improve your home’s energy efficiency and sustainability.
You know the ones: those fume-producing bathroom/kitchen cleaners. Try diluting eucalyptus oil in a spray bottle of water – you can use it all over the house. A sprinkling of bicarbonate of soda on your cleaning cloth makes bathroom sinks shine. There are also plenty of eco-friendly cleaners to buy: try www.probioticsolutions.com.au, www.ecostore.com.au and www.resparkle.com.au (shown below – the lid holds a refill so you can reuse the bottle and sprayer!).
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SUBSCRIBE TO…
the weekly Green Lifestyle e-newsletter at www. greenlifestylemag.com.au, of course. Also sign up for the Ethical Consumer Group emails for your monthly dose of green knowledge at www.ethical.org.au.
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DOWNLOAD…
the Shop Ethical! and Buycott apps so you can make informed choices about what you buy.
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Top tips
FROM OUR READERS
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MAKE REUSABLE FRUIT AND VEG BAGS.
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REGULARLY MAINTAIN DRAINS.
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STOP TRYING TO BE ‘GREEN’.
Margot Busch, from Ocean Grove in Victoria, and Trishie Hanley, from places unknown, both sent us tips about making net bags for collecting fruit and vegies at the supermarket. They use old net curtains, which you can buy cheaply at op-shops. The bags are see-through, which makes it easy at the checkout. And they’re washable. You can also buy Onya Weigh produce bags online at www.onyainnovations.com.au.
SHARE EXPENSIVE TOOLS AND APPLIANCES.
Friends, family and neighbours may jump at the chance to share the cost of big-ticket items that aren’t used often, such as drills and other tools, garden shears and pressure cleaners. You can also rent tools and heaps of other stuff from Open Shed (www.openshed.com.au) instead of buying.
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AVOID HARSH PESTICIDES.
Have you wondered where all the butterflies have gone? Toxic garden pesticides are partly to blame for a drop in numbers; loss of habitat is another. Try organic pest control before reaching for something stronger, and encourage your neighbours to do the same – their spray will be your spray on windy days.
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GO SOLAR.
Join the other million Australian households using solar power. Together they are now producing 2,826,272 kilowatts of power. They are saving more than $630,000,000 on power bills and helping to save our Earth with zero carbon pollution and no toxic nuclear waste! It’s cheaper than ever to do this. If this amount of electricity was produced from our dominant coal fired power stations it would have produced an extra 3,532,840 tonnes of carbon pollution. – Don Henry, Australian Conservation Foundation’s former CEO
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Fee McDonald takes preemptive action against blocked drains by spooning some bicarb soda into the plughole and adding vinegar for a foaming clean – just like the school volcano project. That means less need for harsh chemicals.
JUST START.
Bec Pollock, from Bonython in the ACT, advises us not to get caught up in greenwashing and buy ‘green’ products that you don’t need. She says, live a lowerimpact lifestyle by reducing consumption, by doing without and by making do. Well said.
For inspiration on making the change to more sustainable living, check out the website of Gavin Webber – www.greeningofgavin.com.au. Gavin’s a self-proclaimed “ordinary bloke who had an epiphany” and now has a fantastic vegie garden and an informative website on sustainable living. In 2013, he won the Local Green Hero Green Lifestyle Award.
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