Not everyone thinks about the environment when we consider changes to make to our home. Landfills get full to the brim with items that are bought, seldom used, and then thrown out carelessly. When caring about the home, at least some items should be purchased that can enjoy a long-life and/or sold on to eager recipients to slow the potential environmental impact.
Here are a few feel-good changes that limit the environmental damage.
Using a Garbage Disposal
A garbage disposal unit can fit neatly beneath the sink and act as your sentry to deal with food waste. Instead of throwing out food waste in the trash bin, processing leftover food and items that are past their sell-by date reduces environmental impact. It’s been estimated that with just 30,000 homeowners using a disposal unit, 1.9m kilograms a carbon doesn’t get released into the atmosphere. Sweet.
The feed garbage disposal is more energy and water efficient than continuous feed models because they only begin chewing through food waste when it’s been fed through the chute; continuous feed never stops unless turned off manually. This makes the feed version better with energy and water overall.
Composting
Avid gardeners will tell you that having a compost pile in your garden provides natural enrichment to the soil. It adds moisture, encourages earthworms that build soil naturally, boosts nutrients, and promotes better soil structure. Both macro-organisms and micro-organisms are well fed with an enriched compost, which is nature’s way of recycling. Whether you’re interested in growing a bumper crop of vegetables across the full vegetable patch this year or you just like the ecological benefits, composting in the garden is a natural accompaniment to using a garbage disposal unit in the kitchen.
Eco-Friendly Bulbs
Swapping out standard fluorescent light bulbs for eco-friendly energy-efficient light bulbs is an easy switch to make if it’s not been done already. The initial cost of an eco-friendly bulb does cause some surprise, but they last several times as long. Lighting the home with these types of bulbs also reduces your energy bill because they are brighter while using only a fraction of the usual wattage to create the equivalent amount of light.
Blinds & Solar
For homes that have blinds on the windows, consider opening them up every morning to let natural sunlight inside. Doing so naturally warms up the home during colder days and reduces the heating bill.
For people who wish to take this to the next logical step, installing solar panels, an inverter and a battery system harnesses the energy from the sun and drastically reduces (or eliminates) the energy bill. The costs of a solar panel system have now reduced sufficiently that it’s not only environmentally friendly but also financially beneficial the longer the system is operating.
It is possible to make your home more ecologically friendly with a few changes here and there. They don’t have to necessarily be overly expensive either. Even small steps like bringing your own shopping bag to the supermarket cut down on the “paper or plastic?” question at the cash till.