What comes to mind when you think of sustainability? For most, sustainability brings forth ideas of living off the grid or going vegan. In reality, it can be quite easy to live a more sustainable lifestyle.With a few small changes to your day to day life, you can make a huge impact on the environment.
What you do with your waste is one of the biggest factors in living sustainably. Simply paying attention to which bin you throw your plastic in can make a huge difference. In 2018, The Environmental Protection Agency reported that 66.5% of paper and paperboard materials were recycled, while only 4.5% of plastic materials were recycled. Getting this number higher won’t take much effort. All you have to do is recycle. However, there is a catch to recycling plastic materials. There are two different kinds of plastic and only one can be recycled. Thermoplastics can be recycled due to their ability to be made into new products. Thermoplastics include materials like polyester, acrylic, nylon and teflon. The other type of plastic is thermoset plastics and they cannot be recycled. Thermoset plastics include epoxy, silicon, polyurethane and phenolic. It is also incredibly important to look at the numbers on plastic products. The numbers range from one through seven and the only numbers that can be recycled are one, two and in some cases, five. By properly recycling your plastic products you are allowing the product to be used again, which cuts down the amount of new plastic that is being manufactured.
You might think that plastic is our biggest waste material, yet food waste is by far our biggest polluter. The Environmental Protection agency also reported in 2018 that 24.1% of food was put into a landfill. This may not seem like a big deal; however to put it into perspective, the United Nations reports that 17% of all food available at consumer levels is wasted. With that in mind, 24.1% becomes a bigger number. To help combat the waste of food, you can be conscious about how much you buy and how much you are throwing away. Oftentimes, perfectly good food is thrown away, whether it be because there were too many leftovers or because someone simply didn’t like the food. This waste can be avoided through the thoughtful use and buying of food. The next time you go to the grocery store, don’t just pick items you think you’ll use, pick items you know you will use. This way, you are generating less food waste because you know you won’t end up throwing the food away.
A person’s carbon footprint can heavily contribute to their sustainability. Your carbon footprint is a measure of the emissions of carbon compounds due to your consumption of fossil fuels. On average, the carbon footprint of a person in the United States is 16 tons. The Nature Conservancy says, “To have the best chance of avoiding a 2 degree celsius rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint needs to drop to under 2 tons by 2050.” You can make a difference by trying to reduce your carbon footprint. Most carbon emissions come from transportation. You can combat this by using a more sustainable means of transportation. For example, you could use a bike or even walk to your destination when possible. By lowering your carbon footprint, you are helping fight global warming.
It is often that people believe that one person is not able to make a difference. They think that in order to create a greener society, everyone needs to have a sustainable lifestyle and although it would be nice to have everyone think in a more sustainable way, it is not realistic. So for now we focus on what individuals can do. We are social creatures, meaning if one of us starts living more sustainably, others will follow because it is in our nature. Another way to make an individual impact is to get the word out there. Tell friends, family members, coworkers or anyone that will listen.
Sustainability doesn’t have to be hard. It can be achieved through simple choices and mindfulness about our waste. It may take a long time, but if we all start making more sustainable choices, we can combat climate change and global warming. For now, we need to get the word out about living sustainably.
