Environmental problems are booming all over the world. If we don’t start taking action real soon, we will be in an environmental disaster. Everything around us is polluted; we are breathing polluted air, drinking contaminated water and eating food saturated with chemicals and antibiotics. All this is directly affecting our health and causing so many diseases, such as asthma, hormonal and reproductive problems, damage to the nervous system, and different types of cancer.
The governments all over the world have a lot to do with the state that we are in today, but the biggest culprits are us the citizens of this earth. We are the ones burning the fuel, throwing the garbage and polluting the waters. So instead of waiting for our governments to do something about it, we should start acting, each one in his area and on his own level. This way we can make a difference in the world.
There are many great people out there working on recycling and other projects to solve the environmental issues surrounding them. However, we should do many things before we reach the recycling phase in order to be more efficient in solving our problem.
Tips for saving the environment:
- Rethink your choices:
- Buy your needs only
- Borrow or rent stuff rather than buying them
- Refuse single use plastic:
- Take your own reusable utensils to work
- Carry reusable mugs and water bottles
- When ordering delivery, ask the restaurant not to send single use plastic utensils and straws
- If you had to use single use plastics, don’t throw them away, wash them instead. They will last for a very long time.
- Reduce your consumption:
- Buy things with the least amount of packaging and wasteful material, or those packaged with recycled material.
- Bring your own reusable bag to the grocery store to reduce the amount of plastic bags used
- Save energy and water by using energy and water efficient appliances and switch all electrical appliances off when you are not using them
- Reuse and re-purpose:
- Reuse all the things that can be reused
- Get your own reusable bag with you while shopping
- Reuse glass containers and bottles to store new things in them
- Use things for decoration purposes
- Refurbish and repair before you replace:
- Try to renovate your old stuff
- This will cost you less and reduce the amount of waste released into the environment.
- If they cannot be repaired, try giving them to people who can recycle them.
- Recycle:
- Let recycling be the last option you have.
- Try to do all the above steps before you go to recycling
- Separate your wastes to different categories and send them to the proper recycling site
- Compost your food wastes:
- If you have a lot of food leftovers, try giving them to needy people or organizations, but be careful about food safety issues
- Compost your kitchen and garden wastes; Anything that will degrade can be put in the compost bi from tea bags or coffee grounds to banana peels, eggshells to paper kitchen towels as well as the leaves and trimmings from your garden. The compost will be a great source of nutrients to your plants.
Every single action counts
Our mistakes have polluted the environment we live in and it is our duty to reverse the damage. The good news is that every positive action counts. The small effort you make towards a greener environment can start a healing ripple effect. We may still save what is left of our natural resources and make the world a better place to live in for our future generation. If each one of us does his own part, we will be living in a much cleaner and healthier world.