Easy ways to make your lifestyle more eco-friendly

November 1st, 2024 by varsha in Lifestyle

New Zealand, as well as the rest of the world, has recognized the importance of eco-friendly choices. People are going green all over the planet and it’s the best thing we could do right now. If you are one of the people who have understood why it is so important to make our lifestyle more eco-friendly and make them better for the environment, but you don’t know how to do it, don’t worry. All you need to is to keep reading and you’ll found out exactly what and how to do to save our planet.

Table of Contents

Use renewable energy for electricity

When it comes to the household level, you are wasting more energy if you get it from non-sustainable sources. Such sources are oil and gas. On the other hand, you can invest in a renewable energy source and solve this issue.

Namely, investing in a solar panel allows you to use the sun as the source of energy. If anything is a sustainable source, the sun is. The solar panel, based on a photovoltaic system uses the sun’s energy to transform it into electricity.

Use eco-cleaning products

Speaking of eco-friendly household options, there is a couple of other ways to go green as well. For instance, using eco-cleaning products is one of them. Namely, some of the mainstream cleaning products tend to contain very harmful ingredients for the environment. The chemicals you use on your clothes or dishes may be detrimental to the planet.

Get recyclable clothes

Producing clothes is famous for having a bad effect on the environment. If you think about the number of clothes produced by year, you’ll understand why this is such a huge issue. However, there is a way to fix the problem.

What you should do is buy recyclable clothes. If the clothes are made of synthetic fibres such as polyester, it might take up to 200 years to decompose. To make sure that none of this material ends up ingested by animals, the next time you go shopping, look for recyclable options only.

Don’t use the plastic straws

Single-use plastic straws are the worst. Plastic is bad for the environment in any case, but these are really the worst when it comes to environmental issues. There are over 8 billion tonnes of plastic in the world, which is already pretty bad.

If people continue using things like single-use plastic straws, who knows how the planet will look in just a couple of years. Instead of this, you can use metal or bamboo straws. These are reusable; hence, they make a lifestyle more eco-friendly choice.

Turn to electronic cigarettes

If you smoke cigarettes, you must know that they aren’t very good for you or the planet. As we already stated, single-use things are bad for the environment. On the other hand, e-cigarettes are made to be used more than once. The only thing that is changes is the cartridge.

Once you start vaping in NZ, you’ll stop damaging both your health and your environment. It seems that people get more conscious and you can agree that you don’t often see e-cigarette cartridges on the ground. What’s most important, with e-cigarettes, you don’t pollute the air, no matter if you’re indoors or outdoors.

Eat less meat

When it comes to food, meat and dairy are the ones most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions are present in every possible stage – production, processing, packaging, and serving. Methane and Nitrous Oxide are the most powerful greenhouse gases released by farming.

The safest way to minimize these emissions is to cut on meat and dairy intake. It seems like that is the only way to do so and it is definitely the most effective. Even if you don’t turn to a vegan diet immediately, you’ll do a lot of you just reduce your intake of both meat and dairy. This is great lifestyle change that a lot of people should start right now.

Get an environmentally friendly shampoo

As it was already mentioned, the ingredients of the products you buy are very important. They can have a serious impact both on your body and health and on the environment. You wouldn’t expect it, but many of the not-so-great ingredients can be found in shampoos and conditioners.

Toxic chemicals can be found literally anywhere. It’s up to you to recognise them and avoid them. You should know what sulphates, parabens, and phthalates you shouldn’t put on your head. Even the plastic bottles you get shampoo in are problematic. To avoid them, you can simply get soap bars made for hair. Thanks to the biodegradable ingredients these bars are made of, they’re amazing replacements for the regular shampoos.

Get an environmentally friendly car

A lot of gas emissions come from cars. If you drive to work, you probably contribute to the pollution more than you would like to. It’s good to know that diesel and petrol are the most common reasons for CO2 emissions. If you could switch to electric and hybrid cars, you’d significantly reduce the said emissions. That all happens because these cars are run on batteries.

If you can opt for any other commuting method, you’ll do even more for the environment. For instance, if your office is near enough, you can walk to it. If it’s not close enough to walk, you could maybe get on a bike from time to time and do some exercise while saving the planet. However, if it isn’t even enough for a bike, you could use public transport. All of these are great ways to reduce gas emissions and help save the planet by making our lifestyle more eco-friendly.

Conclusion

New Zealand is one of the most charming places on earth. Saving our environment should be our priority. With these tips, you could, not only save the beauties of New Zealand for the generations to come but the whole planet Earth.