The beautiful sights of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

A few years ago, when I was younger and naive, I had little regard for the environment and would not respect it. When I reflect on this period of my life I often ask myself why I felt like it was okay for me to flippantly disregard the gentle balance of nature and, ultimately, life itself. After much deliberation I had to simply chalk it up to lack of education. I was not informed of the impact that I have on the environment and why I should take it upon myself to respect and care for it. I did not know the intricacies of life and its multiple feedback loops.

Then it hit me like a bomb. I caught wind of the IPCC report in late 2018 and my whole world crumbled. I read how the report warned of catastrophic impacts if the world does not curb its carbon emissions to below 2ºC or, ideally, 1.5ºC (as per the Paris Agreement). I couldn’t sleep at night because I was just so worried about everything. My future, my family, the state of the world. Everything. It didn’t help that I kept seeing news about how we’re entering the sixth mass extinction or that insect populations are being decimated and biodiversity is shrinking rapidly. It didn’t help when I read that the world has continued to invest in fossil fuels and countries like Australia are actively seeking to open new coal mines and effectively destroy the coast and further destroy the Great Barrier Reef in which the facility will reside.

So I decided to take action.

1. Sort Out Your Trash

This is probably the most obvious, but it’s surprising how overlooked this really is. I see so many people mismanaging their trash, maybe because the government hasn’t made it clear how to sort it out, maybe because people don’t care, or all of the above. It can be very frustrating when a family member nonchalantly discards a recyclable item in the general trash or vice versa. Check with your local council on what is allowed in the recycling and what is not. They should have a clear list on what is recyclable in your local facility and what is not. That’s a great start for most.

If you want to go further with this, though, there are a few more things you can do.

The Milkman Saves The Day

Instead of going to the supermarket and getting a few bottles of milk or juice in plastic bottles, sign up for local milk & juice delivery. Yes, they still exist. And yes, they come in glass bottles that just get cleaned and reused. It’s awesome! And it’s just fact that liquid that comes in glass bottles taste significantly better, right?

Recycle with Terracycle

Terracycle is truly an amazing company that is trying to revolutionize recycling. They specialize in hard-to-recycle items like cigarette butts, shampoo bottles, and things that you and I have never thought of. Check out their website and recycling schemes and see what is applicable to you. Are you a smoker? Stop throwing away your cigarette butts and contributing to the biggest consumer pollutant in the world right now, and opt in for Terracycle’s recycling program.

2. Consider Altering Your Diet

People always like to clown on vegans for some reason. I’ve never really understood why. Why would another person’s diet affect your life that much? The fact that they are doing something beneficial for the environment and for their own health is respectable, even if their life choices offend you so much. I’m not vegan myself, but I can appreciate the values they hold and I do think that we should all start to become “more vegan”, even if you don’t cut out meat completely.

Most polluting meats. Courtesy of Business Insider.

The above chart shows you which meat produces the most CO2. In terms of Kg of consumed food, lamb is far and away the highest polluter, but seeing as beef requires much more land and is consumed much more, it is a significantly bigger polluter. The amount of land that is reserved for agriculture and the amount of monoculture developed just to produce animal feed is truly shocking. Imagine if we all cut down our red meat consumption just a bit to, say, beef once a week, the amount of land that could be used for things like trees or expanding biodiversity would do wonders.

Make that change in your diet and support others that do. We need to believe that our actions can make meaningful change because if enough people believe so then it can truly happen. If we all stop giving our money to Big Agriculture and the inhumane practices they employ in these huge factory-line like farm then there will definitely be a shift for the positive.

3. Start Locally

Thinking about changing all of society is a daunting thought, and frankly, not possible. Although global issues should be important to all of us, there is realistically nothing we can do about the war crimes in Yemen, or the natural disasters happening in South East Asia. Sure, we could donate to charities, but how much is actually going to help the cause? How much is going into the pockets of the CEOs of the charities? We can’t know for sure unless we go to those countries and help ourselves. That’s why we should focus all of our efforts on helping our own local communities.

When I was younger living in the suburbs I very rarely saw trash floating around. I always remember my neighborhood as lush with green, clean and safe. Then I moved to the city and honestly thought there was not much trash floating around, considering that I was living in a huge capital city. Then only in the last few years when I’ve moved back to the suburbs have I truly noticed how absolutely disgusting the neighborhood is now. Beer cans littered everywhere, food packaging, cigarette butts… everywhere.

So I’ve started to pick it up. Gradually and timidly at first, as I was afraid of people passing me by and looking at me weirdly. Then I broke out of my shell and realized no one really cares, and in fact, they see it as a positive thing. There are activities such as plogging, communities such as r/Detrashed and a lot of trash to be picked up. When you collect your quota for the day, a great one-two combo would be to separate it into your Terracycle recycling programs.

Don’t just take my word for it, but the whole community of r/Detrashed. Once you start picking up trash regularly, you will notice a stark difference. Sure, trash will pop up here and there, but I’m sure you will swiftly deal with it. And maybe your actions have inspired others in your community to help you out. You never know, and it only serves to benefit you and your community. Try it out!

Closing Remarks

There’s so much we can do as individuals to help the environment, but of course it can be frustrating. It feels like we are fighting against the tide at times. For every good deed we do, it feels like there are a thousand bad. But if we are indeed doomed, why would anyone want to go out without a fight? Could you look yourself in the mirror knowing you did nothing to help? What about your kids? Be involved with your community, vote appropriately, petition, and have a voice. It really does matter. And your actions, although they may seem small to you, have a knock on effect that will ripple and reverberate to inspire others.