We can’t escape the fact that our impact on the planet is having a detrimental effect. Some people have taken huge steps to reduce their carbon footprint and their use of unnecessary packaging and materials. All with the aim of reducing their environmental impact.

Yet most people could probably do more. But for whatever reason, don’t. Often it’s down to the convenience of not having the time or money to devote to different products and ways of doing things. 

Here are four things you can do to reduce your environmental impact. Each of which you don’t really have to think about. 

Change Your Lightbulbs

How many bulbs do you have in your home right now? Every room in the home usually has multiple ones. If you’re using old-style bulbs or halogen-type lights, chances are you’re burning a lot of unnecessary electricity and ramping up your energy bills too. Swap to LED light fittings or switch your bulbs to energy-saving LED ones. These bulbs last for years too. So you can just replace them and forget about them. 

Turn Your Thermostat Down 

Most central heating systems are thermostatically controlled. This means they will switch themselves on and off depending on the temperatures set by you. Research has shown that if you were to reduce your thermostat levels by just 1 degree, you would save a significant amount of energy. Plus you could save approximately £80 on your annual energy bill. You shouldn’t really notice a change so small in your heating. 

By Reusable Bags

Every year, there are over 500 billion plastic bags manufactured. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to reduce this number, with shops now charging money for bags or offering bags for life. 

Having reusable fabric (not plastic) bags to use for your shopping is a great way to cut down n the numbers you have to use. There are lots of stylish designs to choose from, and many fold up so small, that you can always keep one or two in your bag, to use when you need them. You’ll also recoup your money back relatively quickly by not having to buy more disposable plastic bags. 

Donate Unwanted Items

As a society, we’re extremely wasteful, preferring to throw things away rather than repair them. Yet a lot of the things we throw out are perfectly usable and could be given another home, rather than ending up in a landfill. Items such as furniture, clothing, books, and toys could be given to people who need them through a charity. Simply keep a box somewhere in your home that you can drop in anything that can be reused. When it’s full, simply drop it at a charity shop. When it comes to larger items such as furniture, there are some charities that will come and collect it from you. 

Conclusion

Making significant changes to our way of life in order to be more ecological is difficult, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Sometimes, people need to start off small, so that they can build up to more significant actions to reduce their impact on the planet.