If you're wondering how to live more environmentally conscious, you've come to the right place. I'll show you how to make your everyday life more sustainable with some very simple hacks.
Do you care about the environment? Very good! Because it concerns us all.
Each individual can contribute to protecting the environment with small steps. It is not even difficult to live more environmentally conscious.
If everyone picks even 5 points from the list and implements them consistently, we will all have done something for the earth.
The oceans are overfished and packed with plastic, the air is getting worse and the rainforest is being cut down. This is a disaster, to say the least, for each and every one of us.
But how can you do something about it? What can you do in everyday life? Is it difficult to live in an environmentally conscious way? Do you have to give up everything that's fun?
Again and again I experience moments in which I ask myself: What can I do as an individual to take a step in the right direction?
Do you feel the same way? I'll show you how you can live more environmentally conscious with very small and simple hacks. Are you ready?
What you need to look out for if you want to live more environmentally consciously
No one can turn their entire life upside down overnight. And that's not the point. You start with small steps and can then take more and more measures step by step.
The only important thing for a more sustainable life is that you stick to your actions. And that you take the time to be aware of what you can change.
If you are aware of the cases in which you are not acting as environmentally consciously as you could, you are already a very big step further. First and foremost, you need to recognize what is wrong.
Then it's time for implementation. If you want to live more sustainably and environmentally consciously, you have to see your plan as a process.
Start right after reading to choose 2 points that you implement today. Every contribution counts if you want to make a difference together.
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With these tricks you can make your life more sustainable
While we wait for something to move in the right direction in politics and business, we can make a big difference even with our small daily habits. What - you can find out now!
1. recycle, recycle and recycle some more
There are vast amounts of plastic and other materials that take years to centuries to decompose. This is really frightening. For example, it takes 450 years for a PET plastic bottle to decompose.
Separate paper, glass, plastic, batteries, organic waste, etc. Even if it may take longer than throwing everything in the residual waste.
But, if you recycle properly waste can be recycled.
2. reach for environmentally friendly cosmetic products
Hair soap, face soap and Co save a lot of plastic. I've been using hair soap for two years and I'm very enthusiastic about it. Per year I need only two pieces, because they are very productive.
When I think how many plastic bottles I threw away before that just from hair shampoo alone, I can only shake my head.
By the way, the same applies to shower gel and conventional soap. Both serve the same purpose. Only that the solid soap is much cheaper and better for the environment.
3. donation worn clothing
You no longer like the blouse or you just outgrew it? Many others would be happy about exactly this blouse. Or even the jeans that are still perfectly fine, but you just do not like anymore, do not have to end up in the trash.
If the clothes are still beautiful and can be worn, then they should serve their purpose. You can donate them to collection stations for the homeless or sell them via online portals if money is tight.
Take the time to collect the clothes and drop them off 1-2x per year. This makes you feel good about yourself, someone else and the environment.
If you want to live more environmentally conscious, the first thing you could do is take a look at your closet. Sort out what you no longer need and what others can still use.
By the way, you can also sew stylish hairbands from old shirts!
How to sew a hair band from an old shirt!
4. reach for sustainable fashion brands
Just because your closet now has more space doesn't mean it needs to be restocked right away.
On the contrary, do not jump on every fashion trend. Most of the time, clothing is produced under very questionable conditions. Child labor and other precarious working conditions are unfortunately still commonplace in the fashion industry.
There are more and more companies that deal with sustainable fashion. The range is growing from day to day. You have to dig a little deeper into your pocket for this, but if you want to live more sustainably, you should say goodbye to short-lived fashion anyway.
Sustainably producing companies pay their employees a fair salary and give a lot back to the environment through projects. For example, some companies plant a tree for every pair of shoes sold. We think that's good!
And let's be honest: If you combine basics cleverly, you are just as stylish on the road and do not need 10 white shirts, but only 2.
5. use sustainable monthly hygiene
Instead of conventional tampons, use organic tampons. There are a whole range of them available online or at the drugstore.
Unlike conventional tampons, they are packaged plastic-free. The panty liners and pads are made from 100 % organic cotton without plastic, chlorine, dyes or fragrances.
Some manufacturers plant a tree for every pack sold, donate a meal to a schoolchild or support other environmentally friendly, charitable projects.
6. rethink your way of moving around
You want to live more environmentally conscious? Then think very carefully about whether you have to drive to work again today, or whether public transport or the bike will do. The honest answer will ensure that you can leave the car behind most of the time.
Instead of doing XXL shopping 1x per week, you could also go shopping 2x per week and take the bike or walk for that.
Since the Corona crisis, many companies have offered the option of working from home. If you have this option, you should take advantage of it.
7. buy seasonally and regionally
It's much more environmentally friendly to shop at a farmers' market than at the supermarket. Vegetables, fruit and other produce are regional and seasonal. They have short transport routes and therefore contain many more nutrients.
At the same time, you make sure that jobs can be maintained and created in the area.
And you can really do without strawberries in February, right?
Just Google when there are farmers markets near you and go by 1x a week.
How to make a bath cleaner yourself!
8. use Zero Waste stores and buy Fair Trade
You can now find packaging-free stores in every major city. They do without plastic and packaging of all kinds. You can fill beans, flour, coffee, vinegar, oil, detergent and much more in packaging that you bring yourself. It's worth keeping large jars and reusing them for just that.
A bit of a rethink has already taken place in supermarkets, too. Fortunately, you can now buy many fruits and vegetables individually. So rather 3 pieces of peppers individually than the plastic-packed variant.
To find out where the nearest Zero Waste store is in your area, just Google it.
Whether clothing or food - the offer to live more simply and environmentally conscious is growing. When shopping, make sure that food bears the "Fair Trade" logo. You can find it on many chocolates, coffee and so on.
You can be sure that the farmers get a fair price for coffee, pineapple, cocoa and other products. It should be worth it to you to spend a little more and be sure that you enjoy fair products.
This is what you need to know when you wash your hair with soap!
9. save food
You can save money and fight food waste by saving food from the trash can. There are initiatives in many cities that try to solve exactly this problem.
Near me, volunteers collect food from supermarkets that can no longer be sold because of the best-before date. In the 1 kg of apricots, one piece is mushy and the lettuce is wilted.
These foods are given away.
I use this offer myself regularly. The lettuce just goes into cold water for an hour and looks like new. And the apricot is sorted out. The rest becomes a compote, a cake or if there is time jam.
You can also pick up yogurts, bread and many other food items for free at such points.
Did you know that you can grow lettuce from a stalk?
10. use a razor plane
Have you ever thought about how much waste is created when you dispose of your razor blades and buy repackaged ones?
With a razor, instead of changing the entire razor head, you only change the blade and do the environment a big favor. The blades are sharper, which prevents skin irritation.
The razor itself is made of wood and metal and the steel blades do not use plastic.
If you are interested, I can give you the Shaving razor from WLDOHO* recommend. I use the razor myself and am very happy with it because razor bumps and itchy armpits occur much less frequently.
What I particularly like is that for every model sold, a tree is planted. WLDOHO is committed to environmental protection and wants to help avoid plastic, which is always produced with a conventional razor.
By the way, you can choose from four different designs. From rose gold with sandalwood, to maple wood with gold, and also for those who like it classic black or white, there is something.
You have nothing to lose. If you are not completely convinced after 100 days, you can return your money. I love my razor and would not want to miss it!
You can grab a razor here at WLDOHO!
11. do not fall for offers
Oh yes, the dear supermarkets do not make it easy to live more environmentally conscious. Buy 3 packs of carrots and get one pack free. Sounds wonderful at first. But when you get home, you wonder what to do with 4 kg of carrots.
That's why it's worth writing a very precise shopping list and following it. Don't be misled by offers and super bargains. Especially not if it is the case with fresh products.
Of course you can buy pasta, flour, toilet paper and other long-lasting goods. But when it comes to fruit, vegetables, dairy products and the like, you should ask yourself whether you would buy them in such quantity if they were not on sale.
12. food preservation
If you like to cook, you can start canning food. That is, to turn into jams and sauces. I like to do this with the saved food. So last week I got 10 cucumbers as a gift.
No one can eat 10 cucumbers. So I pickled them with herbs and onion in vinegar. Tastes mega delicious and was free. The only thing you have to factor in is time. But it's worth it - the taste is incomparable.
This is how you pickle sour cucumbers!
If you shop at the market, you can get many foods very cheap. In August it is tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. In autumn apples and beets.
How about a delicious homemade tomato sauce from with 3 kg of tomatoes, herbs and onions? You have 1x work but the whole winter home-cooked sauce.
It saves money, packaging waste and you know what's in your sauce. Give it a try. It's not as hard as you think!
Preserving tomatoes has never been so easy!
13. become a gardener
Living more environmentally conscious can also mean planting your own garden, renting a green space in the city or planting your balcony. Herbs, strawberries, tomatoes and peppers succeed almost everyone and do not require much care.
Basil, chives and co make every dish much better. And if you do not harvest them, they begin to bloom and are food for bees and other insects.
Speaking of insects: If you have a little space in your garden, you can plant a small bee pasture. The flowers are very undemanding and at the same time provide a pretty splash of color in the garden.
You can also grow these herbs indoors!
14. sustainable giving
It's your best friend's birthday. But what to get her? If you're looking for inspiration, you should think about giving environmentally conscious gifts. There are plenty of gifts that you can easily make yourself.
From herbal salts, to scrubs, to homemade teas or bath bombs. There are many DIY option that save the environment and do your girlfriend a favor without polluting the environment.
22 wonderful DIY gift ideas for the best friend!
15. eat less meat
We women are already a huge step ahead of the men. Many women eat more vegetables and are more experimental when it comes to food. It doesn't always have to be meat.
You can even do without it altogether. I haven't eaten meat for three years. If the demand for meat decreases, factory farming will also improve. Living more environmentally conscious has a great influence on how animals are treated.
Eating more plant-based foods means not only less CO2 emissions, but also fewer diseases of civilization such as rheumatism, obesity and more.
There are tons of vegan recipes that are mega delicious. Give them a chance and try to eat vegan 2x a week. You will get to know so many new recipes and ingredients.
Check out my favorite vegan recipes!
16. use cloth shopping bags
Whether jute, cotton or any other fabric - it does not matter. The main thing is that you can wear the bag again and again. There are lots of bags with funny motifs in all sizes and colors. Also those with which you can make a statement.
Take a look around. There are also special fair trade shopping bags made from organic cotton, which are really pretty and particularly tear-resistant.
Or if you are talented, you can sew or crochet your own bag. It does not get more individual and environmentally friendly.
17. use menstrual cups and reusable pads
If you buy a menstrual cup, you can use it for 10 years before it needs to be replaced. If you need 4 tampons per day of the period and that for 5 days, then you have a consumption of 240 pieces per year.
The waste mountain is even larger for panty liners and sanitary towels.
If you switch to the menstrual cup, you do the environment a big favor. It also saves money. And it's even said to prevent vaginal fungus, because you're not putting bleach and fragrances on your most sensitive area.
If you want, you can make a Order menstrual cup online* or at the drugstore. I am very happy with my Lunette menstrual cup*.
But menstrual cups are not suitable for everyone, sometimes they just don't work. Then you can look around for organic tampons. If you order from the Happy Mona online store, you don't just get organic products. A tree is planted for every order! I think that's wonderful!
Washable panty liners and pads can be easily cleaned in the washing machine.
By the way, there are also reusable cosmetic pads that work quite wonderfully.
Up with the cups: My experience with the menstrual cup!
18. save energy whenever possible
If you want to live more environmentally conscious and save money at the same time, you should look into the topic of energy efficiency.
You can do mega much in this area like.
- Turn off the lights when you don't need them,
- Turn off the wireless router when you leave the house,
- Use power strips with switches and do not leave devices on standby,
- Put a lid on the pot when cooking. This saves 2/3 energy,
- Pay attention to the energy efficiency of electrical appliances,
- Switch to a green energy provider.
19. use recycled toilet paper
It makes absolutely no sense to cut down trees en masse for toilet paper. And to bleach the paper afterwards, to dye it, to make it fragrant. Because toilet paper can also be made from recycled paper. It makes no difference to the bottom line whether the paper is colorful and contains slogans or motifs.
For the environment, however, it is. And not only with toilet paper, but also with kitchen paper. To dry plates, pots, glasses, etc., use a dishtowel instead of kitchen paper, which ends up in the trash after only one use.
By the way, kitchen paper is another invention that you don't really need, if you're honest. Try to do without it as often as possible.
5 ways to recycle soap scraps sustainably!
20. use environmentally friendly cleaning products
While we're on the subject of cleaning and household: There are quite a few eco-friendly cleaning products making their way into supermarkets. Use these instead of the conventional ones.
If you want to go one step further, you can use products that you mix yourself. I recently saw an advertisement for cleaning tabs. You dissolve them in water and put the mix in a bottle that you can reuse. This eliminates plastic waste.
Throwing away the empty cleaning agent bottle every time is anything but environmentally friendly and generates vast amounts of plastic waste.
21. live and do laundry more environmentally friendly
Doing laundry sucks. So at least it's not one of my favorite tasks. But you can still optimize a lot here, too.
This begins with the fact that you can wear a T-shirt twice before it has to be washed. If you have not spilled or sweated, often a third time is possible.
If you do have to wash the good piece, you can do the environment a favor when it comes to detergent. Use powder detergent instead of liquid detergent. This saves plastic, and powder is usually sold in larger quantities.
If you like it especially environmentally friendly: You can refill detergent in Zero Waste stores.
Only wash the clothes when the washing machine is really full. It makes no difference in water consumption whether you dump the machine for 5 shirts or really fill it with 25 shirts.
Dry the laundry in the sun if possible.
How to make your own detergent!
22. install a solar or photovoltaic system
If you have your own house, you should think about it. With solar energy you can produce hot water. But also electricity. If you do not use the electricity yourself, you can feed it into the grid and even get money for it.
The investment is higher at first, but your electricity bill will thank you. In the long run, this investment pays off.
23. away with the plastic bottle and the coffee to go cup
Yes, it's practical. But does it really have to be? Not really. Get into the habit of always having a glass bottle with you or a reusable coffee to go cup without plastic. The environment will be really happy.
There are now such pretty environmentally friendly coffee to go cups and also reusable bottles, so no one has to resort to plastic. Also from the aspect that the effects of microplastic on our body are still unknown.
I carry a bottle of water with me every time I leave the house. I fill this at home with tap water. It can be that simple :)
If you want sparkling water, you should buy a Buy Soda Stream* and thus saves a lot of plastic.
My conclusion
Actually, I wanted to present you only 10 points that make environmentally conscious living easy to implement. But then I thought of far too many :) I could probably continue the list for quite some time. There are an infinite number of ways to live sustainably. If you now choose 3 points and implement them today, you have set a huge step in the right direction!
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