Going Green

I have been equally guilty of ranting incessantly of how polluted our environment is but doing nothing about it.  After all, talk is cheap but making the change is another thing altogether. When I started taking a closer look at people who are indeed walking the talk, I was inspired to hop on the go-green-bandwagon. But as usual, the voice within tend to query “What difference can a single household make to change the global warming phenomenon”. But, I’ve since stuck to a new motto “A journey of a thousand miles begins with  a single step”. The best place to start is home. So, our household has made a pledge to factor in the impact of all our acts and choices on the environment.

In our bid to contribute in making the world a cleaner and healthier place to live in, we’ve incorporated the following changes in our daily life:

• Vegetarian diet
• A large portion of our meals are vegetarian. We have embraced a vegetarian diet mainly for ethical reasons. Though we still consume seafood now and then, we have eliminated meat from our diet.
• And now after hearing the huge detrimental effects of livestock farming on the environment, we sure are glad of our food choices.
• Save electricity – switch off all electrical outlets when not in use.
• Bring shopping bag
• We bought the big Ikea shopping bag and it’s so handy! I always make sure that the shopping bag is placed back in the car boot after unloading the groceries, so there’s no excuse of forgetting to bring our own bag for the next grocery shopping.
• Recycling
• We bought Ikea’s DIMPA waste sorting bag that comes with three compartments to segregate the recycled items into PAPER, PLASTIC & GLASS/ALUMINUM.
• Homemade cleaners
• Lemon juice & baking soda mixture are fantastic natural air-freshener.
• Vinegar and baking soda are excellent natural cleaners!
• Reduce food wastage
• A day before grocery shopping, I normally jot down the menu plan for the week which helps in buying groceries that I plan to use for the week; hence, reduce the possibility of wastage.
• I do a stock-take of the fridge and write down all the perishables. In that way, I can use up the perishables as soon as I can – it is really effective in minimizing wastes.
• Diligently practice the first-in-first-out method of storing food items so that it’s easier to identify food items that are close to its expiry date.
• Compartmentalize the fridge and the freezer sections – I use hamper baskets to segregate the food items – easier to see the leftovers and food that should be cleared up soon. And it makes it so much easier to look for foodstuffs!

All of us wish for our future generation to live in a clean place and breathe in fresh clean air. Why not take the first step towards that and be eco-conscious.