Even though I don’t want too many or big trees in our garden, I am well aware that trees are vital to the world. The only reason that I don’t want too many of them in our garden is that they wouldn’t have room to grow.
It’s kind of a luxury decision. After all, we live at the foot of a nature park that covers the mountains in front of our house. And behind the house is a little terrain covered with trees and shrubs. Plenty of trees in my environment to enjoy.
What is eco-friendly household cleaning and why is it not a very popular subject? Greenpeace and other environmental advocates do not waste any words on eco-friendly household cleaning.
This is partly because they believe that environmental problems can only be solved by pressurizing governments to take on big multinational corporations.
Although this is a comprehensible tactic, it denies the power consumers can exercise. And actually have to exercise.
In 2020 there was worldwide 900% more plastic than in 1980. An unbelievable number, don’t you think? I think there is a huge responsibility with the companies that produce plastic objects and wrap their products in plastics. Yet we as consumers can put in an effort as well. It’s not that hard.
There are easy ways to reduce plastic waste for conscious consumers. I agree with the following quote: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly”.
Please don’t worry, I didn’t lose my sustainable dream or would promote the use of plastic. Yet, let’s be realistic: is there absolutely no plastic in our houses? We can’t avoid it, can we?
Is plastic really a problem, or is there something wrong that is way more fundamental? I think it’s the latter. As long as plastic equals the throwaway culture, not only plastic will stay a problem but all resources will become a problem.
The way materials are used makes it hard to comply with the sustainability quote “Refuse Reuse Recycle Repair Reduce Rot Rethink”. Part of the problems has to be solved by the industry and part of them can be solved by us, individuals.
My mechanical timer failed and I had to look for a replacement. And so I (finally) discovered smart power technology.
Smart power strips save energy. And because the sockets can be controlled independently of each other, I have discovered even more advantages.
At the moment I don’t have much smart power technology at home. What functions well does not have to be discarded the minute we want something else. But some devices will definitely be replaced in the future. It is both good for my long-term sustainability and my wallet since the price of electricity has risen considerably in Spain.
Sustainability at home is not just a major challenge. It is utterly impossible. Governments do not offer any serious support and the industry doesn’t care. This means that serious sustainability at home is our own responsibility and a daytime job when you take it very seriously, as we do.
To illustrate my point, I start from the 5 sustainability principles: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot. These 5 principles give us at least some guidance when deciding on what is sustainability at home and what is not. When we apply these principles consistently, they are supposed to support a more sustainable lifestyle.
If you fly to Schiphol Airport in the evenings, there is a good chance that you will pass over the horticultural area ‘t Westland. That is not to be missed because the greenhouses light up like a Christmas tree.
Horticultural greenhouses in the Netherlands consume 80% of agricultural energy consumption. So the conclusion can quickly be that a greenhouse is not eco-friendly. Certainly not, as the pesticides used in the monocultures in those greenhouses are often far from environmentally friendly either.
How slow cooking with a DIY solar cooker brought my mind back to my childhood? I have no idea.
But did you also have such fun as a child with a shoelace and a magnifying glass? It was fantastic to try to light the fire by burning the lace with the sun shining through the magnifying glass.
I never thought about that fun again until I started researching solar cookers. Not that we need a magnifying glass for a solar cooker, but the sun is definitely needed.