On this World Environment Day, let’s rethink our environmental impact and make a few smart changes to our lifestyles, if we want to continue calling Earth our home. There are plenty of meaningful ways to start contributing to the planet. From planting a tree in your backyard to embracing a plant-based diet–here are a few things to do at home today. You can also take part in various virtual events hosted by UN Environment Programme. By Akriti Sharma
Easy ways to celebrate World Environment Day at home
Plant a tree (or hug a tree) on World Environment Day
Start by greening your home with local plants or trees. You can also virtually plant and adopt a tree by getting involved in WWF’s Adopt a Tree initiative.
Watch a documentary film
Watching a documentary is one of the best ways to learn about our environment. Here are some of the documentaries that you can line up for viewing — Seaspiracy (Netflix), Pacificum: Return to the Ocean (Netflix), Cowspiracy (Netflix), The 11th Hour (YouTube) and Before the Flood (Disney Plus) among many others.
Take a virtual garden or museum tour
With many of us staying indoors, WED is a great day to start having environment-related conversations with your kids and teaching them about the importance of preservation of natural resources. Take a fun virtual garden, zoo or museum tour available online with your family.
Shift to reusable water bottles and straws
Plastic straws have been a big menace to the oceans. Get on board to ditch them this WED and invest in cleaner and recyclable options such as paper, bamboo or metal straws and BPA-free, glass, stainless steel or copper bottles.
Start a new sustainable diet
Our meals can leave a huge carbon footprint if they are not sourced in environment-friendly ways. To combat this issue, you can start a new diet at home by switching to seasonal, sustainable and local plant-based foods. Vegan, vegetarian and eco-friendly Keto diets are examples of some carbon-cutting options that involve giving up animal-based foods entirely.
Ditch single-use plastic containers at home
Around 40 per cent of the plastic used in the world is single-use. It will be environment-friendly to phase out the containers made of single-use plastic at your home and swap them with cleaner and sustainable alternatives such as reusable glass containers, stainless steel lunch boxes and mason jars.
Purify your indoor air
Air pollution comes from a variety of sources such as dust, odours, improper ventilation, etc. On this World Environment Day, clean up your AC vents and fridge coils, replace filters on HVAC vents and declutter household cleaning supplies that contain artificial substances. Cleaning your electronic household items like the AC and fridge also ensures that they use less energy to regulate temperature.
Cook an environment-friendly meal
Cook a meal at home using environment-friendly, seasonal ingredients bought from a local farmer’s market. Try to make it a zero-waste meal as well.
Switch to energy-efficient appliances
Whenever possible, invest in energy-saving and star-rated appliances. You can start small on this World Environment Day by switching to LED light bulbs that consume less energy and significantly reduce your electricity bill in the long run.
Start your own compost bin
Composting is a great way to improve your backyard garden and reduce the amount of garbage from your house that goes to landfill. Start your first compost pile by taking almost any leftovers from your kitchen such as eggshells, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, flowers, tea bags and old newspapers. Turn your mixture every week and after a few weeks, your compost will turn into soil that acts as a natural fertiliser for plants. Here’s a video to help you start organic composting at home.
Hero and Featured Image: Courtesy of Noah Buscher/@noahbuscher/Unsplash
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