10 Sustainability Tips

Photo of containers that will be reused to store home made food.

The forests are shrinking due to deforestation for everyday items such as crops, paper and meat. The world is being polluted from manufacturing, cars and burning of fossil fuels. Our land, sea and air are being trashed by one time use plastic bags and cheap products that are not built to last. Due to our ever increasing population, everything we do has a negative impact on the earth but we can try and make that impact less, please find 20 tips on what you can do. Your comments and ideas are also welcome.



1. Don’t use plastic bags

Don’t accept plastic bags, refuse them and use your own bag. Also remember that those thick reusable plastic bags that are sold or given away from some shops use 20 times as much energy to create and take much longer to decompose, so don’t use these to put your rubbish in, reuse them as bags or don’t accept them in the first place

2. Run or Cycle to work or the shops

Saves time, money, you get to see what happens in-between your house and work and stay fit and healthy. On top of that you are using less fossil fuels by not using a car or public transport. If you can make this a daily routine you can leave basic work clothes and shoes at work and have them washed at a laundry or dry cleaners near work. I choose the location of my house so that I can do this so I can start my day full of energy and stay away from the stresses of rush hour

3. Do not buy Cling film or ziplog bags

Firstly ziplock bags can be washed and reused but eventually they end up in the landfill, reuse the small plastic bags that your vegetables and other products you buy in the shop. I usually aim to refuse these bags at the shop and use tupperware for everything, its easier to store in fridge, isnt as messy and less likely to break in your bag.

4. Make your own food and drinks

Clearly this has a huge health benefit but you are also saving all the packaging that is used when you buy takeaways, snacks or drinks. These can all be done yourself, sign up to out newsletter to get healthy recipes. This includes making your own peanut butter, jam, tomato sauce, baked bins. There is no need to make tinned or pre made foods.

5. Upcycle

Collate all your waste and look top ways to up cycle it on google or follow us on pintrest where we have an upcycle board. The aim should be to create zero waste from your home or work place, you can collect wine bottle corks, scrap wood, bumble wrap, plastic containers, plastic bottles and turn them into something usefull.

6. Pen for life

Cheap biros cannot be recycled as they are too fiddly to be dismantled at the recycling factory for the amount of plastic they produce, 1000s of billions of bic pens are somewhere.  Buy a top quality pen (or request it for Christmas) and get your name engraved on it, it won’t go missing, you will take more care over it as it is valuable and the refills last longer than about 3 bic's. Not only are you not using disposable pens but your have better hand writing, find it easier to write and it will look Sharpe. Start keeping any disposable pens you buy and find another use for them but don’t put them in the bin as they can not be recycled.

7. Lighter for life

Like disposable pens, disposable lighters don’t get recycled. Buy a zippo and have your name engraved on it and it will not go missing. Similar to your nice pen you will look after it and a smoker won't take it from your house.

8. Get rid of your car

Use public transport, cycle, busses, walk, trains, boat, get lifts of people and taxis. You will find that you will have to take a lot of taxis to end up spending as much as you did on a car and your be in better shape and have less back issues from being more mobile (has humans should be).

9. Don’t buy bottles of drinks

Take a reusable bottle of water with you wherever you go, make your own juices, ice teas and sodas. I will post how to make nice drinks soon as well

10. Solar panels at home

If you own your home then get solar panels, the price of solar panels have come right down and this can now save you money. I will be posting a list of cool solar power gadgets. Currently I have solar lights on my rooftop but am working on some new projects which i will share with you soon.

10 more tips below

11. Grow your own food (I have herbs and vendables in singapore, your welcome to visit)
12. Choose local food and not food that has been shipped from another country (this is hard, but buying from the local deli and markets is best)
13. Only eat sustainable fish - click here for link
14. Use less water when showing, brushing teeth, etc
15. Make compost - we use worm compost inside, our worms eat our left over veg and make compost
16. Buy second hand
17. Sell or give away unwanted goods,
18. Store rainwater
19. Buy appliances that use less electircity
20. Aim for a zero waste house

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