We hear a lot in the media about living in a more sustainable way. Knowing how to go about this and where to make a start can sometimes be a bit daunting.
However, there’s lots of little things that you can do every day to help you do your bit for the environment and live a little more sustainably.
We’ve put together this guide to help you on your journey towards more environmentally sustainable living with a few hints and tips below.
Try and make a few small changes around your home where you can
Little things can add up. Like turning off light switches in un-occupied rooms to conserve energy. Which can help you to save money too. Or, filling your kettle with just the right amount of water when you’re making a hot drink – with gallons of tea drunk in Scotland every day, it’s a small step towards helping to make a difference!
Get green fingered and plant your own herb garden
Rather than making a trip to supermarket, why not try planting your own fresh herbs. It’s easy to start your own herb garden, either outside or on your kitchen windowsill. It’s a little step towards helping to reduce your food miles. Plus, it saves you a trip to the shops in your car if you run out of herbs in the middle of cooking!
Shop Local
Keep an eye out for local zero-waste shops which have started to pop up in a lot of towns and villages over the last few years. They minimise packaging by encouraging to use your own containers, so they’re a great way to start being a little more sustainable. Not only that the products they stock are typically eco-friendly products using natural ingredients.
Try to do you grocery shopping locally where you can, it can help reduce your food miles whilst supporting your local economy. If you don’t have local grocery or farm shops near to you, the next best thing is to check online for one that will deliver to your postcode. Make sure they are supplying local produce though, which means the food miles will be lower.
Recycle and upcycle
You can cut waste by repairing items, rather than replacing them.
Lots of products are designed to make them cheaper to replace when they break. Which leads to lots of land fill every year. Why not try mending clothes, shoes, or furniture where you can. Alternatively, you can take them a local repair shop. You can also donate items you no longer want or need to local community upcycling projects, vintage stores or charities who will bring them back to life for someone else to enjoy.
Choose appliances that are more eco friendly
Selecting environmentally friendly appliances is a simple way to help improve your impact on the environment. Furthermore, it could help reduce your heating bills too.
Whether it’s choosing a more energy efficient washing machine or dishwasher next time you need a new one, or upgrading an old fridge or kettle to a more environmentally friendly one. Check your current appliances as they might already have an environmentally friendly setting on them.
If you’re a heating oil user who lives off grid, oil fired boilers are good as they heat water on demand, reducing the amount of fuel required.
Efficient home heating
If you use domestic heating oil to heat your home, why not give premium kerosene a try. This is typically a cleaner burning fuel and could be kinder to your boiler – which could in turn, may help reduce your fuel usage as part as your overall boiler care routine.
Try and avoid buying single-use plastic items
Traditional plastics are non-biodegradable and may not decompose for over 500 years. Think about that mountain of food containers we’ve all got stashed away in our kitchen cupboards! When you’re ready to replace your plastic containers, choose biodegradable options that will do the same job, last longer and can be recycled at the end of their life. A great alternative to plastic containers is tempered glass ones.
There’s lots of things you can do to live more a more sustainable lifestyle. But hopefully we’ve given you taster of a few small things you can start doing to take a step in the right direction.