10 Daily Habits That Accidentally Harm The Environment
Source: Grace Cary / Getty
Research has found that the majority of Americans not only want to buy more sustainable products but are even willing to pay a bit more for them – they just don’t know where to find them. Additional studies found that 77 percent of people want to learn how to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, and the majority are concerned about issues like pollution and climate change. Ultimately, it’s on us to fix things. Human beings are the ones causing the ozone layer to deteriorate and landfills to overflow. It isn’t some unknown entity – it’s us with our habits. It’s about the ways we consume and the way we get rid of the things we’re done consuming. The environmental issues we face are the result of hundreds of habits, big and small, perpetuated every day by millions of people. Because of that, they’re somehow very simple, but also very complex.
“One person cannot do everything but everyone can do one thing.” I don’t remember where I heard that quote, but it very much applies here. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things we do every single day that we don’t realize harm the environment. If you’re a millennial or older, you likely weren’t raised in a climate of environmental consciousness. You just did things the way everybody else did, and unlearning old, bad habits isn’t easy. But it’s not impossible, either. In honor of Earth Day, let’s review some ways we accidentally harm the environment, so we can put a stop to it.
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Recycling wrong
While your intentions may be good every time you toss something with those little arrows into the recycling bin, you might be compromising everything else in there. Waste Management breaks down the golden rules to recycling here. You may be surprised to find you’re doing it wrong. It also goes over some myths, like the myth that you can put the wrong thing in recycling and it will get sorted out. One inappropriate item in a batch of recycling can contaminate the entire batch, and make it so none of it gets recycled. Even items that are generally recyclable can get rejected if they’re soiled with food or liquids.
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Source: Grace Cary / Getty
Throwing away ink cartridges
It’s always a little confusing when your printer runs out of ink. It’s a hectic time. You usually only realize it when you desperately need to print something, that you need to bring to a meeting, that started 10 minutes ago. So, in a hurry, you may just toss out the old one while replacing the new one. But not so fast. The actual ink in these cartridges contain volatile organic compounds that can be very damaging to our soil. Furthermore, their plastic can take ages to decompose. There are several ways to safely dispose of finished ink cartridges, including taking them to an office supply store, where you may even get rewards points for being a responsible recycler. Often, the ink manufacturer has a cartridge recycling program, so you can call them directly.
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Making dinner at the normal hour
The “normal” hour for dinner may vary slightly for everybody, but it likely falls somewhere in a small range for most Americans. And during that short period of time, many people are firing up their appliances. Those are “peak hours.” It’s not only when utilities cost more, but it’s also when they’re worse for the environment because of a sort of turbo mode they must go in, to keep up with demand. Utility companies actually increase prices during those hours to encourage you to not turn on your oven or power on that slow cooker then. It’s their incentive program to get power consumers to rearrange their schedules a bit. Consider becoming an early bird diner, or moving your dinner later into the evening. Hopefully, one day, there won’t even be peak hours.
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Ordering from a-far
When you see campaigns encouraging you to “shop local,” “shop small,” or “support small businesses,” it’s not just about supporting your local community (though that’s also important); it’s also about saving the environment. Somehow, flying a cute sweater over from China costs you less than getting a limited edition, handmade one from a local boutique…even though that cheaper sweater required a plane ticket to get to you. And that’s the problem: when we import goods to capitalize on the affordable labor and materials found overseas, we make the environment pay the highest cost. In fact, some environmentalists report that, while the United States has been able to reduce local greenhouse emissions in recent years, that was a direct result of us importing more goods i.e. relocating the pollution caused by our consumption. We just made the pollution somebody else’s problem…for now.
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Source: Etienne Jeanneret / Getty
Stocking up on food
An estimated 30 to 40 percent of food goes to waste in the United States. That is, of course, tragic for our wallets, but it’s also part of a butterfly effect that harms the environment in many ways. First, when food goes in the trashcan instead of your body (or a compost), it winds up in landfills. If you’re throwing away packaged foods, you have to account for the additional trash created by that packaging. Next, there’s the fact that, far down the line, grocery stores order product based on the rate at which consumers buy it. Food manufacturers and farms produce that product at the rate at which it’s ordered. American’s habits of overstocking on food they throw away means more food is ordered, and produced, than necessary, which means more energy is used and a larger carbon footprint is created. Buy only what you need – including food.
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Using pads and tampons
Will it be on women to save the world – literally? Maybe. As if dealing with periods isn’t enough of a hassle, the products we use to handle menstruation are harming the environment. National Geographic reports that, since the plastic waste from pads and tampons is considered “medical waste,” it isn’t counted in the same way other waste is, so identifying just how bad the damage is can be tough. But the rough estimate is scary. Even if you aren’t ready to quit pads and tampons cold turkey, consider turning to reusable items like menstrual cups and period panties at least some of the time.
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Source: ondacaracola photography / Getty
Still receiving paper statements
From health insurance to credit card bills to updates to your Internet and cable plan, nearly everything has a paperless option now. But you have to take the time to opt into it. It would be nice if companies simply made the choice for you, to stop sending out the piles and piles of documents that, sadly, came from trees. But they don’t have the authority to do that. Pay attention to your mail. You may not even know with what companies you are and aren’t paperless. For each physical piece of correspondence that shows up from companies you regularly do business with, take a moment to sit down, and either go online or make a call to switch to electronic statements.
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Using paper towels
As environmental issues have become a bigger part of societal conversations in recent years, you might think consumption of paper goods like paper towels may have gone down. In reality, people have been using more paper towels, and are projected to continue to use even higher volumes of the stuff. Everyone likes the feeling of a fresh, clean paper towel, and the satisfying act of cleaning up a mess before tossing out that little wet wad. But, try to get more accustomed to reaching for a reusable rag over a paper towel. When it comes to mopping up spills on counters or drying off sink areas, there’s no reason to go with a disposable paper towel.
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Bagging your lunch
If you’re in the habit of making and packing lunch for work, you’re probably saving a lot of money, and potentially even making healthier choices than if you were ordering takeout or hitting the building vending machine. However, you might also be creating a lot of waste. Between wrapping sandwiches in saran wrap, putting pretzels in little ziplock baggies, and tossing it all in a paper bag, you use a lot of disposable items to pack a lunch. Make the switch to glass Tupperware. It’s dishwasher and microwave friendly, making it easier to heat up leftovers at the office, and reusable.
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Overdoing laundry
If you’re in the habit of taking clothes off your body and immediately tossing them into the hamper, hold on a minute. Pause. Look. Sniff. Are those clothes really dirty? Undergarments like panties and bras obviously need to be cleaned somewhat often. And perhaps camisoles and undershirts that come in contact with skin and sweat. But what about outerwear like jackets and sweaters? What about jeans? Jeans shrink and lose elasticity when over-washed as it is. Every time you do laundry, you use up water, and you use electricity. Break the cycle of putting something in the hamper after one-time use. The Cleaning Institute informs us that some items can be worn several times before going in the wash.
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