1. Use less water. Conserving water is a sign you see put up everywhere. But what does that mean? It means use less water not just while cleaning your hands. It is also while cleaning your lunch box, utensils, showering, cleaning your car etc. The efficient way is - Stop multitasking while using water. Put your mind and heart while using water. You could even time your shower bath if you want to take drastic measures 😊
2. Use less electricity. Another common sense. Reduce Aircon usage, try using fans instead. Fans are energy efficient alternatives to air conditioners. This is also proved to be a healthier option especially in the Covid-19 era.
3. Avoid buying plastic water bottle
cartons at home. Buy a water filter instead and
carry water in your flasks or bottles. Stop buying throw away single-use
plastic bottles. In Singapore, it is even safe to drink water directly from the
taps at home.
4. Use personal shopping carts or bags whenever
you shop. Always carry a few carry bags in your purse or
pocket. Now-a-days you can easily get nice thin stylish foldable
ones. Try to shop less when you are
aware you have forgotten to carry your own bag, maybe stick
to essentials. Plastic bags take 1000s of years to decompose and are
rarely recycled. Try to avoid being a nature troubler.
5. Use cloth masks whenever
possible for
protection against Covid-19. Avoid using single-use throw away surgical masks.
Did you know that medical waste is a major component of ocean pollution and
landfill? When easily reusable, washable double and triple layered cloth masks
are available economically, why not do our part?
6. Make your kids
the Green Ambassadors of your home for all green
actions. Teach them to remind you to take shopping carts,
reduce your food wastage etc. They will be happy correcting you 😊 and being
in-charge.
7. Switch off WIFI, TV, electric
equipment and appliances when
you are going to sleep. This should be done at the plug level as
modern machines are always on a ready mode and don't really shut down at the
remote level. Doing this saves energy and bills!
8. Do you really need a plastic bag
to throw away your dogs and cats' poo? its actually a common sight here.
You can always use waste paper. There
are compostable biodegradable plastic look-alike poo bags
available in the market. Eg. Once made with corn-starch, tapioca etc.
Visit DIY stores in Singapore, they have photo-biodegradable bags in many
sizes.
9. Avoid plastic cutlery
and straws. This
is a bit difficult to do especially if you are buying food from outside.
You can try to carry foldable steel straws, cutleries and even foldable cups.
Guess this has to be regulated by the government of Singapore as alternatives
are available, but needs to be made mandatory at a large scale commercial
level. But let's hope to do our part at our
personal level.
10. Wash
your clothes less frequently. Cloth Micro fibres
along with the heavy detergents used in the
washing machine flows out and pollute the water
bodies. Only wash clothes when you have almost a full load and use
the right quality and amount of detergent. Washing clothes less frequently reduces
cloth damage, reduces the micro fibres, reduces the water usage and
also saves energy.
11. Eat less non-veg/ red
meat. Eating only a plant-based diet and no non-veg is a very
difficult choice. But we can always reduce the intake. Keep it to 2 days
in a week. If 100% of the earth’s people reduce the non-veg intake to 2
days in a week the impact itself can save a lot of water and earth's green
resources. It’s also a healthier option. Use more colour in
your food (more vegetables). Meat, Dairy and
animal husbandry uses gallons of water and releases huge greenhouse gases
(GHGs) to the atmosphere.
12. Drive less, cycle / walk
more and use public transport whenever required. Saves energy, reduces CO2
emissions and It’s always healthier choice too.
13. Spend less time on the machines in
the Gym and
do more outdoor physical activities. Remember, Gyms run on
electricity and energy.
14. Buy less clothes and plastic toys. Yes, I know there is a Sale
now, but haven't you noticed there’s always a sale? Try to buy
clothes on occasions like your birthdays, anniversaries
etc. With Fast fashion, tonnes of Textile waste go into
landfills. Especially when you know your kid is growing up, try
to buy less clothes. Share kids' clothes within
families and friends. I remember using my sister’s hand-me-down clothes
and toys all my childhood. It’s the least of your worries when you grow
up. Less broken plastic toys you dump, less load for our finite
earth.
15. Buy less food online. Plastic food containers,
packaging materials, plastic cutlery etc. are not reusable and mostly not
recyclable and end up in landfill. Dine out and eat at a restaurant
instead. You can have a walk, enjoy the meal on the washable plates
and cutlery.
16. Try to repair
your equipment/appliances or furniture before replacing it. In the case of furniture,
repairs are easily possible. In the case of electronics, with fast
upgrades of electronics sometimes the newer choices are more energy
efficient. Replace only if you can calculate reasonable savings. Use
the e-waste bins wherever possible.
17. Use a pressure cooker for
cooking instead of
a normal lid-covered-cooking-vessel. I
know that some Pressure cookers are noisy, but they
are energy efficient solution. Especially if you are cooking non-veg,
rice etc. You may take a while to understand how many whistles for your
variety of food etc. But you save cooking gas and time. I think the Master Chef
TV show needs to incorporate and use some energy efficient utensils
too 😊.
18. Buy rechargeable batteries instead
of the cheap alkaline ones. You
may need batteries for your clock, your door, your toy cars etc. Try buying
rechargeable batteries. Each house may need 10 of them for all of your
toys that’s all. You can recharge each rechargeable batteries for
2000+ times. That should suffice for a few years at least. It's
expensive, yes, and throwing away 10 cheap batteries every week might be
easy for you but it's harmful for the world as it does end
up usually in Oceans, land-fills and are not mostly recycled.
19. Reduce buying newspapers, new story
books and go digital, if possible, for reading. You can
always borrow books from a library or friends. In
Singapore, we have beautiful,
spacious National libraries (NLB) and millions of
books and newspapers there to read.
20. If you are planning to buy a car,
try to buy an electric vehicle or hybrid options. There are subsidies
available in many countries for them.
21. Stop wasting food. Try not to order food
without knowing your stomach. Eat or buy only what you want. If you
really want to experiment, order at home. You can always improvise the
food to your taste if you are not liking the taste of it. Carry the leftovers
home and there are multiple food recipes you can try with
leftovers. Decaying food/food waste releases high GHG
emissions.
22. Identify methods to compose and
use your food scraps. Like
egg shells, vegetable peels etc. Vermi-compost ideas can be learnt easily
and tried at home, involve your kids to have some fun.
23. Try to avoid electric
blenders. Instead use hand blenders which work on mechanical muscle power 😊. Use pepper and salt
crushers that do not use throw
away batteries. Hand-grinders, String pull type, press-type,
rotational energy alternatives are cheap and are easily
available. Check out Japan Home.
24. Buy food items that have less
plastic packaging.
Biscuits, chocolates come with individual covers for each piece.
Are these really necessary? Bananas or Fruits covered in plastic
wrappers are they really necessary to buy? Use a good air-tight container
instead when you want to store cookies etc. The ones in plastic
containers are often not local products and have a large carbon footprint.
Try to buy from a local fruit/vegetable market. You will get fresh and
plastic free items. Eggs come in recycled paper packaging now, so why don't you
switch? Also check out the new and exciting zero-waste shopping options in
Singapore.
25. Use your pen longer
by replacing its refill. Throw away plastic pens are not recyclable. Buy
a good quality pen and change the refill or use ink. If you want to reuse the
paper you wrote on, there are even erasable pens available
now! Going digital is always the better choice 😊
26. Try to choose an eco-friendly
holiday. Instead
of staying in a nice luxury hotel, try to explore Air bnbs, sharing
houses, sharing taxis to travel etc. You may also try to join an
environmental event in a city when exploring your holiday option. Energy
efficient hotels can also be easily identified.
27. Do you use an energy
efficient coffee-maker? Do you use capsules for your
coffee? These capsules are often not recycled. Try making coffee
traditionally with coffee powder. Buy a hand-frother. You
can easily get one at Daiso. Try simple dip teas or
alternatives.
28. Use menstrual cups
or reusable and washable cloth sanitary pads. A shift here is not
easy for a woman, and
often is comfort or habit oriented. But a change
is possible with some effort and it’s definitely worth exploring. The
waste takes 500+ yrs to decompose and usually ends up in incinerators/
landfill. Just imagine the tonnes that’s generated daily! Check -out
reusable Lily pads.
29. Use Organic diapers. Yes, Organic diapers for kids
are available for the few who didn’t know. It's expensive I agree,
but for those who can afford it, a switch saves the environment and is
also softer & healthier for the baby/user.
30. Encourage frugal innovation. If you want a quick fix on
something, try to encourage innovation than getting
the ready-made plastic quick-fix alternatives. This Improves
lateral thinking too.
31. Keep a home garden. Do you know you can easily
grow some basic vegetables at your home easily
in Singapore climate? Basil leaves, Chillies etc. are many of
the easy ones.
32. Make a decision to at
least plant a tree every year. Be part of the Afforestation efforts by the
govt. And Find opportunities for it online.
33. Segregate and Bin your
waste correctly.
There are a lot of bins available to segregate your waste at
Singapore malls and apartments. Almost
all apartments have dry and wet waste bins. Do you know that soiled plastic
food packaging materials are not recyclable and have to go to wet-waste?
34. Use E-waste deposit boxes that have been introduced in
multiple locations. Nobody will judge you, go ahead and
bin it appropriately.
35. Try to
avoid multiple plastic bags at bakeries and patisseries to put
each food item into separate small plastic bags. Ask them to put
all of it into one single bag.
36. Use Solar lamps. For your balcony, for our terrace
etc. Especially in places which receive nice sunlight during the day.
At night use these lamps. This saves energy. Beautiful solar
lights / lamps are now available online.
37. Use LED/incandescent lights which are energy efficient
at home and offices. Candescent lights use high energy.
38. Soak before washing. Soak your plates,
vessels and cutlery in soap water for better cleaning and less water
usage. The dry food particles stuck on the plates and vessels come off
while soaking and reduces the flowing water that we use to rip off the
particles from the vessels otherwise.
39. Learn to donate
time and money to charities. Research studies show
that such behaviours are to stay if they are taught as habits in
children. Research for authentic and genuine charities to give away
money and service. It is universally understood that it is
always the poor who get first affected in any disasters, pandemic etc. The
poor become poorer without help from the rich affecting every
economy. A simple example is- when you are
buying a cheaper toy, it's not always because the
toy uses cheap or less materials but it mostly uses cheaper
labour to create it.
40. Try to buy things in bigger
quantities if
you are sure to use more. Example if you like coconut water, buy a big tetra
pack instead of 4 small ones. There will be more plastic packaging & lids
with a greater number of tetra packets.
41. Try to have a two-hour complete
break from your phone and devices daily. This is really difficult but
possible. You will see that your concentration has improved, you will learn to
be more creative, have better relationships with your family and friends who
are close to you and have enough rest. These 2 hours, should not be
from your sleeping time 😛.
42. Go paperless on your bills. E-bills are easily available
at a click with Singtel, Starhub etc., so why wait? Do your
part.
43. Try not
to kill insects like – bees, spiders, cockroaches etc. Yeh, this must be a little
difficult for all to understand. But all these insects play their
part in the environment and ecosystem.
Yes, cockroaches too! Let's take a middle path here,
so. If you see one outside your home, please do not kill it 😊. Bees are responsible for
the pollination of all nutrient rich foods like nuts, fruits and almost all
vegetables in the world. “No bees, no healthy food”.
44. Try to open your refrigerator less. Do you know that many people have
an obsession/habit to open the refrigerator multiple times
even when they know there is nothing new in the
fridge? Though this is harmless, it wastes energy. An electrician friend
says that a fan in the highest speed mode and an open
refrigerator makes the electricity meter run faster!
45. Try to Refashion or Restyle
your old clothes. Haven't
you noticed that fashion repeats itself ? You could ask your local tailor
on how to modify your expensive clothes...thus reusing the clothes and reducing
the dependence on fast fashion. Do you know that tons of textile wastes
are generated every year? With most of it ending in landfills and
oceans.
46. Try to promote and consume organic
or sustainably produced food items. My suggestion is, for those who can afford,
try to buy more organic vegetables/fruits. These are easily available in
almost all outlets but are expensive compared to the
alternatives. But a switch at least once in a while is always a
healthier and a greener choice. Remember whenever you choose, that much
less pesticides end up in your body and
the environment.
47. At home, do you really need a
driller, a Saw etc.? Yes, you may use it once
in a year, but do you really need to buy these
for every household? Try lending
from your friends, try sharing etc. Sharing,
lending, renting are all Sustainable virtues that need
to be promoted.
48. Calculate your
carbon footprint. There
are carbon footprint calculators online to check
approximate estimation of your carbon footprint. Find
out what's yours....This can help to achieve your
appropriate goal. There is also something called an Earth Overshoot
Day....Check that out for your Country. You can also calculate
your personal ecological overshoot day -Home - Global Footprint Network
49. Go to the website Singapore Green Plan 2030 and Share
Your Ideas (greenplan.gov.sg) on
how to be more sustainable. You may have better Ideas to share than
these...so put them up and make the world a better place.
50. Finally, thank and congratulate the people
who are putting efforts to reduce their personal carbon footprint. Do
not ridicule / look down on the people who are trying their
best to reduce their impact.
Tip:
With unprecedented climate changes and disasters, try to keep an emergency
kit ready at home. If you find this idea as truly delusional, try to learn
more about what's going on about in the world. Learn more about the experiences
of the people who have experienced disasters.
As per UNEP and the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030, Collective
Ambition must increase five folds over current levels to deliver the cuts
needed over the next decade for a sustainable future for our coming
generation.... We need to catch up with the years we procrastinated...
