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.
Take back your weekends by skipping trips to the mall, which are specifically designed to suck up your time.
Find precious downtime to read, think, daydream, and sleep by taking public transportation instead of driving.
I donated my car 2.5 years ago. Travel by bike and bus. Last month I sold my fridge. A week ago I gave away my microwave. I line-dry my clothes. I vermicompost all food waste (learned about this on NoImpactMan!). Hand wash my dishes. Rarely shop - easy for me since I don’t like to. I love this lifestyle and keep looking for other ways to be more radical.
This post was submitted by Robyn.
My neighbor (we live in a duplex) is elderly. I offered to combine her recycling with mine. We started out with just (!) the newspaper she receives daily. Then I started retrieving the paper from the street and putting it on her porch for her - after adding the bag it is delivered in to a pile to bring back to the grocery store. Every so often I tell her about something else she can recycle, for example, glass bottles, or the boxes food like pasta comes in, and she begins to add that to the pile. When she is resistant I kid her along but try to add something like “Think of it as something you are doing for Sam, Michael and Julie” (her great-grandchildren). I think it put things into a different light for her!
This post was submitted by Pat.
We started using cheap fun-colored washcloths for napkins. We bought two dozen for 6 bucks and now avoid buying paper napkins, have much more absorbant napkins/paper towels, avoid waste and have added some color to the dinner table.
When I was pregnant, I realized how much money I was spending on granola bars not to mention how much waste is involved with individually wrapped snacks. Now, I make a full pan or two of my own no-bake energy bars - very tasty treats that I can throw in tupperwear and bring with me on the go! (1.5 cup PB and .5 cup honey warmed with 6 cups seeds/oatmeal/flake cereal mix)
This post was submitted by Hilary.