Easy Tips to Make Your Home Sustainable

For World Sustainability Day this year, we have compiled a list of simple things we can do as individuals at home to help save our environment

So as Mahatma Gandhi famously said, let’s be the change we want to see in the world – now, more than ever, we need to step up as individuals to play our part in protecting the Earth. And from a long-term perspective, everything starts at home, a place where we spend the most time shaping our life values, perspectives and lifetime habits. If we can start cultivating sustainable practices in our homes, these practices might be able to influence our decisions elsewhere as well.

Hence, for this year’s World Sustainability Day, we have researched and compiled a list of 10 easy tips for you to make your homes a more sustainable and eco- friendly place to live in:

1. Recycle

We’ve all heard this first tip for sure. One of the easiest thing we can do in our homes to make it more eco-friendly is to start recycling. By recycling, we can help conserve resources, lowers the need for raw materials, and avoid contributing to more landfill pollution.

Start by setting up a recycling bin next to your general waste bin and keep it accessible and visible to encourage usage. You can recycle items such as cans, glass, paper products, cartons and plastics (those with the numbers 1 or 2 inside the triangle recycling symbol). Just remember to empty and rinse these materials before recycling them as anything with grease or food waste are likely to be rejected as recyclable materials at recycling centres.

2. Conserve energy

The second eco-friendly home tip is to conserve energy by turning off or unplugging electronics when they’re not in use. This is inclusive of our lights, fans, television, computers, phone chargers and more. You can also conserve energy in other ways such as skipping the dryer on days where it’s sunny enough for you to air-dry your clothes and using fans as a substitute for air conditioners.

Energy conservation reduces the number of carbon emissions, which contributes significantly to climate change, in the environment since fossil fuels are commonly burnt to produce electricity.

3. Use energy-efficient appliances

Choose energy-efficient home appliances to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions too. For example, you can opt for LED or CFL lights instead of incandescent lights since LED and CFL lights consume 80% lesser energy. In Singapore, you can also buy appliances with higher tick ratings (4 or 5) since they’re deemed to be more energy-efficient.

4. Eat less meat

You might wonder how eating less meat helps in reducing climate change. The reason is because meat such as beef and lamb is particularly inefficient to produce, not only do they need lots of space to graze, which leads to the cutting down of more trees, the livestock reared for meat also contribute to carbon emissions.

If people around the world were to eat less meat, the UN climate report has shown that this could potentially free up several million square kilometers of land and reduce carbon emissions by up to 8 gigatonnes annually by 2050. So perhaps you can consider other alternatives like plant-based meat to substitute the meat in your diet.

5. Grow your own food

There are several eco-friendly benefits by growing your own food. You get to decide what goes into the soil, which allows for the reduction of harmful chemicals and pollutants that are used in some farms. There is also a reduced need for plastic packaging since the food is farm to table, and all in all, organically growing your own food is a sustainable and healthier choice if safe fertilizers and products are used.

In Singapore, National Parks has started an initiative of distributing free seed packets to households who are interested to start home gardening recently, so this might be a good time to try growing your own food.

6. Create homemade compost

Another benefit of home gardening is that you can reduce household waste by using food scraps and other materials like egg boxes and paper to make compost, which can serve as a good fertilizer for your home garden. All you need is a compost bin, which are designed to be neat, tidy and odor-free these days, and you’re good to go!

7. Reduce wastage

One-third of the 3Rs in waste management is reducing waste, including food, water, electricity, plastic, paper and all other kinds of household waste. Be more conscious of what you purchase and use daily and only buy or use something if it’s a need, not a want. You can also opt to buy items with less packaging to reduce waste disposal.

8. Buy in bulk

Buying household items in bulk can also help to reduce packaging waste. They also reduce single-use plastics and pollution, the latter of which contributes to global warming, causes harm to wildlife and spreads toxins in our environment.

9. Reuse and repurpose

The final R of the 3Rs in waste management – reusing items. Instead of buying disposables or single-use items like plastic cutlery, bags, and plates, use reusable versions of these items to reduce waste as well. For example, reusable grocery bags and water bottles are great alternatives for everyday use. You can also get creative and repurpose many items like glass jars as storage space for pantry items or vases, and plastic bottles as planter pots or soap bottles.

10. Buy second-hand

Last but not least, consider shopping for second-hand items to decrease the negative impact of manufacturing on the environment. It is a more sustainable option to go thrift shopping for clothes, or even to purchase second-hand furniture for your home. By doing so, you can save the resources and energy used to produce brand new items, as well as avoid over-supply issues which can lead to pollution and more wastage.

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