Reduce
Reducing the amount of energy we use in our day to day lives is not all that hard and if it is stuck to, can reduce both our carbon footprint and the size of our monthly bills. Using energy efficient appliances and lightbulbs, insulating our homes properly, turning off lights and turning down the heating slightly, walking instead of driving, or when you have to drive, driving sensibly, these are all things that most of us could do on a daily basis and are fairly obvious.
But there are also lots of other less obvious ways to save energy such as buying locally produced products, trying to buy your food seasonally so that we can reduce the amount of fresh food that is imported and choosing products with the least packaging. Sit down and think about ways that you waste energy, and then try to reduce that waste each day or each week. Start with the simple things such as changing to energy saving bulbs (which now cost far less than they did a year ago) and see how the savings start to add up.
Reuse
We live in a society which has increasingly seen consumer products as disposable. Buy it cheap, use it for a few months and then throw it away. This way of thinking has got to stop! There are many ways to reuse the things around us and doing just some of them will save energy and money every time.
Cut old tshirts into strips to use as cleaning cloths, reuse your normal carrier bags or, even better, buy a few Bags 4 Life and keep them in the boot of the car to be used every time you go shopping (most supermarkets will replace broken bags 4 life free of charge, so you should only need to buy ten at most), if doing some diy, keep offcuts of wood or small amounts of paint, learn how to use leftover food to make another meal. Before you throw anything away, look at the product and think to yourself "how could I reuse this?"
Recycle
Recycling has very much become a part of many of our lives over the last ten or so years, but we can still do more. Making sure you use the recycling bin and any available kerbside recycling collections, buying or making a composting bin and fitting a water butt to the downpipe of your house are all great ways to recycle.
Make good use of charity shops by taking any unwanted clothing to them or use them to buy a few books, selling unwanted items on ebay or a similar auction site is both rewarding and recycling. As technology progresses, more and more things will become recyclable. Find out where you local recycling centre is and find out what they will accept. If everyone spent a little time each month collecting and dropping off their recyclables, we would make a big difference to the currently bulging landfill sites.
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