Environmental awareness and corporate social responsibility have been focal points in the business world for years now. Companies great and small have striven to make a difference by incorporating concepts such as making a “profit with a purpose” as they attempt to marry their normal, profit-driven activities with the long-term-oriented goal of creating a sustainable business model.
While businesses are finding success (albeit to varying degrees) in the crusade to be sustainable, often it’s the homefront where the eco-friendly cause stumbles. Whether it’s due to fast fashion, excessive waste, over-consumption, or a variety of other behaviors, individual consumers often have a plethora of different ways that they can rein things in in the name of living more sustainably.
The Many Benefits of Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling
Before outlining specific ways that individuals can contribute to the cause of eco-friendly sustainability, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the benefits that such behavior can create. These aren’t purely related to the Earth (although some of them are). There are also tangible ways that being thoughtful about your behavior can directly impact yourself, too, such as through:
- Saving money: Sure, things like solar panels are expensive, but many sustainable efforts actually encourage you to spend less, reduce waste, get more out of an item, and ultimately save money in the process.
- Reducing clutter: When you’re careful about how you consume, it can often lead to fewer possessions. This can come through avoiding making an unnecessary purchase or even simply getting more life out of an item that you already possess.
- Reducing your carbon footprint: While this is important for the Earth, it does also directly affect yourself. By avoiding behaviors that are unnecessarily harmful to the environment, you are directly impacting your own health.
With that said, there are typically three different ways that you can live more sustainably: reducing, reusing, and recycling — each of which is broken down in further detail below.
Ways to Reduce
While reusing and recycling can avoid unnecessary waste, one of the most important initiatives that should come before everything else is reducing your overall consumption.
Reducing focuses on avoiding a materialistic mindset that revolves around consuming. Instead, look for ways to reduce your overall impact on the environment. There are many ways to do this, such as:
- Making eco-conscious shopping choices.
- Adopting minimalism in order to minimize your dependence on the material.
- Working from home to reduce pollution caused by commuting to work.
If you can find meaningful ways to reduce your overall consumption, it can immediately have a positive effect on both the environment and your bank account. This takes place as you create less waste and spend less money, respectively.
Ways to Reuse
It’s a common habit to get rid of something when it has ceased to serve its original purpose. If a jar is empty, it’s thrown away. If a shirt rips, it’s tossed in the garbage. If a tire wears out, it’s disposed of. However, if you can begin to shift your perspective to a “reuse” mindset, it can help breathe new life into seemingly useless items.
For instance, an old shirt can be cut up and turned into cleaning rags — eliminating the need for paper towels in the process. An old tire can become a swing or be used for seating. A jar can be cleaned and reused as a cup or a storage container. There’s no shortage of ways to reuse “waste.” Employees at GE have even developed a technology known as ORegen or Organic Regenerator that literally reuses trapped heat that is created during burning, using it to create clean energy.
Another way to implement a “reuse” mindset is through your shopping philosophy. If you need new clothes, consider visiting a Goodwill or Salvation Army store in order to purchase clothing that has already been used and would have normally been disposed of.
Another option is to purchase used cars instead of always buying new ones. Keeping used cars on the road can reduce waste, and if you get an eco-friendly model, it can still keep your carbon footprint low. A used car can even save you money — as long as you take the time to research what to look for so that you don’t accidentally buy a lemon.
Ways to Recycle
Finally, when an item has truly come to the end of the line, always strive to recycle it rather than throwing it away.
Take, for instance, the above referenced used car. While you can demonstrate proper “reuse” principles by purchasing a used vehicle, eventually it’s going to break in a way that isn’t worth repairing. When that happens, make sure to have the vehicle properly removed and recycled rather than leaving it sitting around your yard.
The same thing goes for recyclables in your kitchen, bottles and cans that you drink out of, and the mountain of cardboard boxes that you receive in the mail.
Finding Thoughtful Sustainability
Living a sustainable lifestyle doesn’t have to hinge on dramatic self-sacrifice. In fact, there are many ways to integrate sustainable practices into your everyday life.
By simply reducing excessive consumption, reusing existing items, and properly recycling when something has reached the end of its life, you can have a significant impact on the environment that you live in. And the best part is, you can also reduce clutter and save money in the process.