Collectively, small lifestyle changes can make a huge impact on the environment-and your life. Looking for happiness and health? What’s good for the environment is also, it turns out, great for you. Here’s a collection of tips from the No Impact community.
Do you have a video story from your No Impact Experiment? Share your story below:
We all know how much a human being polutes, so this is the BEST you can do to lower impact on a long term.
Let me tell you, life without kids is great: I have a lot of time and I retired at 38 (some money, easy/cheap lifestyle and no kids) which would not be possible with kids. The environment is actually one of the reasons we don’t want kids. We didn’t like to put a child in this already messed up world and implicitely contributing to it.
Just give it a thought before you start having kids; kids might be fun, but also a lot of work, and life without them is not actually “better” or “worse”, just different. In our case, we are very happy not having them!
This post was submitted by Frank.
I decided to stop buying the newspaper 3 times a week. Same for magazines (which I was totally addicted to).
My husband and I stopped buying coffee-to-go in paper cups and drink coffee at home.
When I go grocery shopping I take my reusable bags with me and politely decline all plastic bags.
I decided to stop eating red meat.
I decided to try to make my own toning lotion with natural fruit juices and water, instead of buying one full of chemicals (I realized that the one I recently bought at the store was giving me allergies!).
I decided to stop flushing the toilet everytime I use it, and I’m teaching my 3 year old daughter to do the same.
I decided to stop buying harmful cleaning products and use borax, bicarbonate and vinegar instead.
That’s all for now, but I’m planning to do a lot more in the near future…Which is a huge challenge here in the DR because here NOBODY lifts a finger to protect the environment. There is no recycling, no organic food, and people don’t have a clue about ecology…SCARY!
This post was submitted by MARIE SANTOS .
My family recently purchased a share in a local farm, Community Shared Agriculture (CSA). For a very reaasonable price we will be recieving local, organic produce from a farm right here in Colorado! We will be eating what is fresh and in season. The produce is brought just a few short miles to a neghborhood very close by and distrubuted to the shareholders in the area. We receive a share of fresh fruit and veggies once a week from June all the way to December. We own a share in the farm and are invited to events and to get to know our local farmers personally. We are even invited to work on the farm. I feel this is a HUGE help not only ecologically but economically. When we buy a share we are suppporting the local organic farmers, what could be better!
If you are interested go to localharvest.org to find a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) farm to participate in
This post was submitted by Stacy.
I am quitting my addiction to food wrapped in individual packages.
I found a website called reusablebags.com and have decided to start buying food in bulk at my local co-op using reusable bags, taking my lunch to work in reusable containers, and doing whatever else necessary to eliminate the number of plastic bags/containers I throw in the bin. My goal is to get down to less than 1/2 bag of trash per week.
Truthfully, I think using my own bags for food might be a healthier alternative to using the plastic. Who knows where those bags came from and how they were processed.
This post was submitted by Kristin Noelle.
I am writing on behalf of my mom, who does not own or know how to use a computer. While reading “No Impact Man” I would sometimes read portions out loud to my mom, Angela. As a result, before she even began reading the book on her own (which she just finished), she decided to start by separating her trash.She NEVER recycled anything before. Just by separating her trash she reduced the number of 13 gallon garbage bags in her trash from 7 per week (for 1-2 people mind you) to 3 and sometimes 2! She started reading the book and now she does not line her smaller plastic garbage cans with plastic bags anymore, and she has cut down on her paper towel usage, which was unbelievably high, by using reusable cloths instead.She’s probably saving about 500 paper towels a month from going into the landfill. The best part for her was knowing there is something she actually CAN do to make a difference. And she has only just begun.
This post was submitted by Christine Mondello.