5. Waste - Many of the environmental health issues today originate from toxins released into the environment by trash. Therefore it is down to us to reduce our waste (stuff that goes to landfill) as much as possible. These are some questions we can ask ourselves when we make our next purchase - How long can the item be used? Will it have more than one use? When you’re done with it, will it end up in the trash? Is there a less wasteful/more ethical alternative. Have a go at phasing out disposable items and start investing in reusable products for the items you most often throw away. Recycle as much as possible. Check in with your local council to find out what you can put in your recycle bin. Donate unwanted items to secondhand shops or give away on Freegle. Alternatively try and make some extra cash by selling them online if they are in good condition. Even if things are not in the greatest condition you can sometimes find people on Freegle who want to have a go at fixing things. I have given away faulty electricals in the past to someone who was studying electronics and wanted electricals to ‘play around with’.

6. Compost- If you don’t have one already, consider investing in a food waste bin, worm farm or Bokashi bin (uses microbes to break down scraps). Throwing food waste away with our normal garbage means that it will end up on landfill. That’s okay, you might think - it will decompose, well…….yes and no……I used to think that too until I learnt about the different ways that food waste can break down. Food waste in landfill is not exposed to oxygen and therefore produces Methane when it breaks down. On the other hand, food waste that goes through composting is exposed to Oxygen and produces CO2 as a result. Here is the big difference between these two gases regarding their contribution to climate change. Methane traps up to 20 times more heat in a year than Carbon Dioxide. Methane also dissipates more rapidly from the atmosphere than CO2. What this means is that a reduction in Methane would have a quicker and more noticeable effect in the reduction of global warming. Just an afterthought - if your local council doesn’t run a compost collection scheme and you don’t have a garden to put it in, then you find someone local with a garden or allotment who may be more than happy to take your food scraps.