The beginning of the new year is the perfect time to start a new eco-friendly habit! We’ve put together five ideas if you’re looking to address the not-so-sustainable areas of your life — whether it’s switching your energy provider, starting your home-composting journey, or tackling plastic waste in your home.
#1: Reduce Your Food Waste
Globally, 1/3 of all food produced is either lost or wasted. In Australia, we waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food each year — 70% is perfectly edible! This costs households around $2,000-$2,500 per year and our economy $36.6 billion.
If you want to save money and be kinder to the planet in 2022, it’s time to get serious about food waste. Luckily, food rescue organisations like OzHarvest are dedicated to fighting food waste. Their fantastic new campaign, Use It Up, is helping Aussies to break bad habits in the kitchen by encouraging the creative usage of perishable food — read more about it here!
Here at Flora & Fauna, we have a huge range of eco-friendly Kitchen & Storage alternatives to disposable containers, plastic cling wrap and disposable plastic zip locks bags.
#2: Start Composting At Home
Food rotting in landfill releases methane — a potent greenhouse gas that’s 28x stronger than CO2. In fact, if food waste was a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China!
Composting your food scraps at home is a simple way to reduce the amount of waste that you send to landfill. We love the Urban Composter Starter Kit — it contains a leak-proof 15L compost bin, a vegan citrus-based spray that’s used to accelerate the composting process, plus a refill bottle.
All you need to do is place your food scraps in the bin, spray it, and close the lid. Once the bin is full, you can bury the scraps in your garden to create nutrient-rich compost or give your food scraps to someone in your community via ShareWaste!
#3: Switch To A Green Energy Provider
Do you know how your electricity is generated? The burning of fossil fuels for energy is driving our climate crisis. Renewable energy is affordable, reliable, and generates zero carbon emissions. So, if you’ve never investigated the climate credentials of your energy provider, now is the time!
It can be overwhelming to do all this research by yourself. That’s why Greenpeace have put together the Green Electricity Guide — an unbiased ranking of all retailers selling electricity to Australian households. This guide assesses retailers and their emissions, their position on investing in fossil fuel extraction, and their efforts to decarbonise.
We highly recommend checking out the rating for your energy provider. From there, you can choose to remain or switch.
#4: Adopt A Vegan Lifestyle
People all over the world are choosing a vegan lifestyle to reduce animal suffering, improve their health, and minimise the impact of animal agriculture on the environment. In Australia, we have approximately 500,000 vegans, 2.5 million vegetarians, and 10 million people dedicated to eating less meat.
Lately, you’ve probably noticed the growing variety of plant-based options around the meat section of your supermarket. Meat-free options are growing in popularity in Australia, and for many people, health is the number one reason they’ve decided to ditch meat and dairy. Plus, there’s zero cruelty involved.
#5: Go Zero-Waste In The Bathroom
Do you ever stop and think about the amount of plastic waste that comes out of our bathrooms? Whether it’s shampoo/conditioner bottles, body wash bottles, toothbrushes, razors, or skincare… the list is endless!
Luckily, at F&F, we have eco-friendly alternatives for all these products that help to minimise plastic waste. In many cases, these products are more affordable and actually last longer than conventional bathroom products. For example, our Shampoo & Conditioner Bars can last up to 4x longer than their bottled counterparts.
Consider swapping out common throw away items item for low-waste, plastic-free options. Like swapping your disposable razor for a Safety Razor.
How are your new year's resolutions tracking? It's never too late to start and there’s no need to implement all these ideas at once. Have a think about where you’d like to be in one month, six months, or a year from now. Maybe by next month you could aim to halve your food waste, and in six months, you could switch your energy provider.
We hope you have a happy, healthy, and sustainable 2022! For more ways to lead an eco-friendly life, check out our Eco Home and Zero Waste blog categories.
