How to make sustainability an easy part of your life
Support the planet with minimal cost and effort
Text: Shannon T
Contrary to popular living, sustainable living does not need to be expensive or time consuming to execute on the daily. Besides sustainable eating, adopting plant-based diets, opting for clean beauty and supporting ethical fashion (even workout gear!), we have rounded up a bunch of ways you can weave sustainability into your daily routine without having to spend big bucks to show your care for our environment.
1. The fourth “R” – Refuse
We’re more than familiar with the 3 “R’s” — reuse, reduce and recycle — but it’s time to add “REFUSE” to our agendas if we want to truly reduce our impact on the environment. Politely say no when the cashier offers to bag your items and restaurants offer a straw. Single-use plastic bags take anywhere from 15 to 1,000 years to break down. Bring your own eco-friendly bag or two when heading out, stock a pile near your back door to grab and go when you are heading out.
If you’ve been to the IKEA furniture store, you’re likely familiar with the cue to bring your own bag. Channel that same energy into your other shopping and you’ll find yourself picking up a good habit sooner than you realise.
Credit: Bamboo Straw Girl
2. Eco-friendly alternatives
Tapau nation, there’s no better time than now to invest in some aesthetic reusable containers for your takeaway meals. Take your pick from the wide variety of reusable food containers on the market, from bamboo to stainless steel bento boxes, to collapsible silicone containers, the old-school tingkat, and the humble but trustworthy Tupperware. Now you can do good for the environment in style, while continuing to #supportlocal hawkers and F&B outlets.
It’s harder to avoid consumption when it comes to daily necessities like food wrappers, tooth brushes and makeup wipes. Replace these with eco-friendly alternatives like beeswax wraps, bamboo or electronic tooth brushes and reusable cotton facial rounds. For ladies, you can reduce waste and save some money on your monthly period needs by ditching sanitary pads or tampons for menstrual cups, reusable menstrual pads or pants.
3. Buying local produce
While eating plant-based is a great way to start lowering your carbon emissions from food, you can take it to the next level by getting your greens from local farms. This greatly reduces the amount of carbon produced at every step of the supply chain, from processing and transport to retail and packaging. Check out our round-up of 11 urban farms in Singapore where you can get the freshest greens at a low carbon price tag.
While the fishing industry has some shocking practices that poses a serious threat to our oceans, pescatarian or meat-eaters can still get their fish from sustainable seafood sources that are committed to ethical guidelines for catching and farming.
4. Plogging
If you’re a runner, here’s how you can give your jogs extra meaning. Plogging — the combination of jogging and plocka upp, Swedish for “picking up” — is a rising fitness trend that gets participants to pick up trash as they go. Litter is unhygienic and pollutes our air, soil and water. Non-biodegradable litter exacerbates the problem, making the damage long-term and harder to eliminate. While the best solution is to stop littering, plogging helps in nipping the problem in the bud before it gets out of hand. Starting is simple — all you need are some gloves, a trash bag and an area to start plogging!
5. Composting and recycling your waste
Despite our best efforts, it’s highly likely we’ll still have some waste generated from our day-to-day activities. Mindful waste disposal is another way to foster eco-friendly living without having to make major changes.
Food waste is one of the biggest waste streams in Singapore, making up half of the 1.5kg of waste discarded by Singaporean households every day. Besides purchasing food more mindfully, you can also compost your food scraps into organic, nutrient-rich fertilisers for your plant babies. Here’s an easy guide by NParks to get you started on your composting journey.
Recycling can be a breeze if you make a habit of sorting your waste regularly. Set up an area in your house for this, with isolated bins for glass, plastic, paper and other recyclable trash. You can take them out to the community recycling bins when they are filled, or pass them on to your friendly neighbourhood karung guni (rag-and-bone man) when they pass by for collections.
