9 Ways You Can Be More Environmentally Friendly

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My husband and I have made it our goal to be more environmentally friendly this year. My sister went to school to be an arborist (a tree specialist) and has encouraged us to do what we can to help the environment.

We actually thought it would be a lot more difficult than it was. We found a lot of really easy and simple changes to make that I’m going to share with you!

There is still a lot more that we can do in the future to continue to be more environmentally friendly, but every little change helps. Just making one of the changes on this list is worthwhile and you can continue to incorporate more and more into your life as you are comfortable.

Tips to Become More Environmentally Friendly

Choose Reusable Items

In my opinion, this can have the biggest impact on becoming more eco-friendly. When you start looking at what you can do to reduce waste, there are thousands of products that can replace one-time use products

Some of the products we’ve switched to are reusable water bottles, straws, shopping bags, and napkins/rags. These were the easiest things for us to cut out. 

Some other things we are trying to cut back usage on is aluminum foil and plastic wrap. 

Walk or Bike or Carpool

My husband and I are lucky enough to both be able to walk to work every day. If it’s possible for you to walk to work, even if you only do it once a week, you’ll be more eco-friendly. 

Other ways to reduce emissions in the air would be to bike or carpool to work. If you carpool and four people take turns driving, you’ll reduce emissions put into the air by three cars!

Every little bit helps, so if it’s possible for you to carpool, walk, bike or take public transportation to work or to run errands, give it a try. Even doing it once a week or even once a month will make you more eco-friendly.

Conserve Energy

One of the EASIEST ways we found to save energy was to switch to LED lightbulbs. Not only did switching to LEDs help the planet by reducing energy usage, it also helped reduce our electricity bill!

Another way to save energy would be to turn off and unplug appliances when not in use. I talk about all the ways we’ve reduced our energy usage and saved money on our energy bill in this post.

Go Meatless a Few Times a Week

We have been going meatless once a week for the most part. It has actually been a lot easier than I expected. Usually, our meatless dinners are some sort of pasta and we have just replaced the meat with some sort of vegetable instead (or if we are lazy we will have a no meat pizza). Pinterest has been an awesome way to find meatless meals!

Start Saving Paper

There are so many ways to reduce paper usage. I switched all my bills to electronic billing and electronic statements. 

We started using cloth napkins and rags instead of paper towels. (This has also saved us money overall.)

If you are an avid reader, invest in an e-reader. This can help save a lot of paper (and space in your house.) I love my Fire Tablet and the kindle app. If you are an amazon prime member, you have access to a ton of free books every month! 

Recently at my work, we started recycling paper as well. We make sure to print on both sides of the paper. So if we are done with a piece of paper we cross off the printed side and put it back in the printer to use the plain side. Once both sides have been used, we shred it and use it for compost.

Recycle

This is one of the most popular/mainstream campaigns when it comes to being environmentally friendly and for good reason. If you are using plastic one-time use products, recycle them when you are done. That plastic can be repurposed and used for other things. You can also recycle glass, cans, and paper as well. 

My grocery store has a place for us to recycle all of our plastic grocery bags and plastic packaging. Otherwise, we have a recycling bin at our house for all our cans and glass. Just make sure that the items you recycle, like jars and cans, are clean and rinsed out.

Use Less Water

We’ve made it a goal in our house to reduce our water usage. It has been difficult for me, but I’ve started to take less time in the shower. I don’t dilly-dally and am still able to go through my routine, I just do it faster (most of the time).

We also make sure that don’t run the dishwasher or washing machine until we have completely full loads. That was we save water and energy, by only doing one large load instead of two or three small loads. 

My favorite thing we’ve done to help save water was making a rain barrel. My husband put a spigot in a barrel for me and did all the setup. He raised it up on cinderblocks and placed it in an area that would catch the most rainwater. Now I use the water in the barrel to water my outdoor plants instead of having to use the hose each time!

Donate Items and Shop at the Thrift Store

Another way to be eco-friendly that most people don’t think about is shopping secondhand and donating the things you don’t use anymore. This is basically another form of recycling. The things that you don’t love and use anymore might be a treasure to another person. 

It also helps keep a lot of things out of landfills. Think about how much stuff is in the landfill that could have been donated and used by some else. 

I personally love thrift store shopping because you can find a lot of unique items that aren’t available in stores. Even if the items you buy are in stores, you can usually get a WAY better deal by shopping at a thrift store. 

When I have items that I don’t need anymore I ask around and see if I have any friends or family members that could use the item first. If no once I know needs the item, then we donate it to our local thrift store. I usually have a box in one of my closets that collects items until I have enough to make a trip.

Share With Others

This is a super simple thing that a lot of people don’t think about. You can encourage others to be more eco-friendly without being a nag or lecturing others. 

Try gifting eco-friendly products. When someone has a birthday or Christmas is coming up, try gifting reusable water bottles or use reusable bags or recycled Christmas bags to hold the gifts.

You can also just share you’re experience (or this article!)  with friends and see if that encourages them to also start taking baby steps toward being more environmentally friendly.

Conclusion

Slowly but surely, my household is becoming more and more environmentally friendly. I have become more conscious of the energy I use and the waste I produce. One step at a time and over the years, I will get better and better.

What have you done recently to be more eco-friendly?