5 Things You Can Do to Live ECO on Lockdown
Being environmentally-friendly during a time when it’s hard to get out of your house to visit the environment can be tricky, but it’s not impossible! Most of the impact we have on the world comes from the choices that we make in the home.
So today I wanted to bring up a few things that you can do to help the environment while you’re on lockdown, mandatory or self-imposed.
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Eco-Swap to a more eco-friendly search engine: Ecosia
We’re all staying home, meaning we’re all on our computers a lot more. And if you’re like most people, you still use Google as your main search engine. Try switching your web browser’s default search engine to Ecosia – The Search Engine That Plants Trees. Basically, they use the ad revenue that they collect from your searches and donate it globally to organizations planting trees to slow climate change. About every 45 searches you make becomes 1 tree planted. 98% of the time, I don’t notice any difference in search results from what Google gets me. Don’t get me wrong, Google is great and I still use it occasionally when Ecosia doesn’t quite get me what I’m looking for, but Google hasn’t allowed me to plant 93 trees (to date, as of August 29, 2020) with my web searches!
Swap to Ecosia now by just setting your browsers default search to Ecosia.org! If you’re still a little skeptical, watch this video which gives you another take on how they make the world ECO!
Take Eco-Friendly Showers
If you read my blog post on eco-friendly showers, then you already know the drill:
- Take shorter (or fewer) showers
- Turn off the water when you’re not using it
- Turn the water temperature down (No hot water, for maximum eco-effect!)
Taking these steps ensures that the fossil fuels you burn in your hot water heater are brought down to a minimum, reducing that carbon footprint you make from using hot water!
Charge your electronics and run your dishwasher/washing machine at night
More electricity means more fossil fuels burned. But it doesn’t matter whether they burn them at night or during the day, right?? Not quite. During the day, there is generally a lot more demand for electricity, meaning that, on top of the normal power that is being generated, grid operators have to match demand spikes for electricity by adding extra power from ‘peaker plants’ to compensate for the additional demand and make sure no one gets any blackouts. These peaker plants are made to ramp up and generate electricity quickly in response to spikes in demand. To get that speed, the trade-off is efficiency; meaning peaker plants burn more fossil fuels to get the same amount of electricity. This is why electricity is cheaper at night as well! If you charge your phone (or run your dishwasher/washing machine) at night, you’ll save money on your electric bill, and reduce your impact on the environment!
As a mental-health bonus, make sure to charge it away from your bed too! They say not using your smartphone right before you sleep and right after you wake up does wonders for your productivity, mental state during the day, and your sleep quality.
Raise the air conditioner temperature 1 or 2 degrees
It’s summer. It’s hot. Climate change is making things hotter. If you live anywhere near the equator, you’re probably running your air conditioner at full blast all day (and maybe all night) long. And unfortunately, your air conditioner uses a LOT of electricity to operate. It takes a lot of power to suck heat out of the air. Even a change of 1 or 2 degrees in your air conditioner’s temperature setting can make a big difference in your electric bill and your impact on the environment!
Even better, if you can afford to get yourself a smart thermostat, get one. I can’t make this recommendation highly enough. Smart thermostats contain an AI program that gradually learns what temperatures you like at what times of day and adjusts itself accordingly. This means you never use your air conditioner more than you need! Far less power is wasted, and far more money is saved. These will reduce your home’s impact on the environment greatly. And generally, a smart thermostat will save you enough money to pay for itself within 2 years! If you keep it any longer than that, it will start to make you money!
Lastly, if you’re going to go out, wear a mask. Preferably a reusable one!
There was some debate for a while: are masks REALLY good at protecting you against sickness and disease? But since then, the science has been settled: Yes, masks protect you (not only from COVID-19, but from any airbourne virus) enough to be worth any potential other risks associated with wearing them. It’s like the seatbelt in your car: people used to say “but if you get into an accident, maybe it will trap you in the car and you won’t be able to get out!!!” It turns out, that even with that risk taken into account, a seatbelt saves MANY more lives than it puts at risk. Wear a seatbelt. Wear a mask.
Unfortunately, while the majority of people have heeded this advice, disposable masks have led to a huge surplus of disposable mask waste. Disposable facemasks are NOT biodegradable. And we have seen a huge jump in disposable masks entering the waterways and littering the streets to eventually be blown out into the ocean. These masks are generally made out of a plastic-based fiber, so when you dispose of them, it means additional plastic pollution.
And so just like any other single-use items you may have in your life, it’s best to eco-swap them out with something reusable. Many of the reusable masks can be hand- or machine-washed and also come in lots of colors and designs, for those who are a little more worried about looking like a nurse everywhere you go. And let’s be honest. A reusable mask looks and feels MUCH better than a disposable mask. For the general public, a reusable mask has been determined to be safe enough to protect from COVID-19, but be warned: make sure you make one or buy one made of a proper material that really does prevent virus transmission. Like these masks.
Above all, be safe. Then be ECO.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a trying time for everyone. We all want to get out and go back to our normal lives. The safer we are and the more we lock down and bear it now, the better will be our future. But we also have to keep in mind that once we deal with the global problem of COVID-19, we have the even bigger, deadlier, and more dangerous problem of climate change to tackle.
So that’s it! Those were some of my tips for staying eco during the pandemic. What are some that you have? Have you found that you were able to maintain an eco-lifestyle despite the restrictions on reusable bags/coffee cups/etc.? What are some eco concerns that you have? Let me know in the comments below!