Green Thought Thursdays: Greener Laundry

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to help reduce waste, use less materials and energy, help conserve species or habitats, and/or generally work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

So, this week the green thought is about how we do our laundry. Water requires a lot of energy to heat up in a washing machine. It also takes a lot of energy to run a dryer to get the water out of our cloths. This energy means burning fossil fuels which are the cause of global climate change. By finding way to use less energy we can all help reduce some of the impacts of climate change. We can also save some money since paying for all that energy can be expensive!

Clean laundry hang-drying (photo courtesy of Lowe’s).

Several solutions are pretty easy on this one! We can wash clothes in cold water. This removes all the energy needed to heat up the water. We can hang-dry our clothes, when we can. This removes all the energy needed to heat up the air and run the dryer. And when we can’t hang-dry our laundry, we can use dryer balls. This reduces the amount of time that a dryer has to run and so reduces the amount of energy needed in the drying process. So, by using less energy on laundry days we can all help address climate change and reduce our household expenses at the same time!

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Green Thought Thursdays: Vegetarian Once a Week

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to help reduce waste, use less materials and energy, help conserve species or habitats, and/or generally work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

Fruit and vegetables to eat instead of meat (photo courtesy of Times Now News).

So, this week the green thought is about eating less meat. Raising animals as food sources is very costly from the amount of land that is needed to the food and water that the animals require to the pollution that the animals produce (not to mention the pollution from growing the food for the animals) to the energy and materials used to transport and package the meat from those animals. All of those costs make extensive meat eating very impactful on the ecosystems of the world.

A solution is to eat less meat! Even reducing meat consumption by going one full day without meat would make a big difference to the environment. Pick a day (Meatless Mondays have become rather popular) and be a vegetarian for that one day each week (or go vegan if you really want to maximize your impact). Lets all reduce the amount of meat we consume and help to save the planet!

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please check back in next week for another Green Thought Thursday!

If you are interested in other ways to connect with me, here are a few options:

Begin following this blog!

View and subscribe to my YouTube channel – A Birding Naturalist

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Green Thought Thursdays: Plastic Water Bottles

Once a week, I am offering up a tip or action or idea that we can all engage with to help reduce waste, use less materials and energy, help conserve species or habitats, and/or generally work towards living in ways that allow for more health and wellbeing for all aspects of the planet.

Plastic water bottle floating in a wetland (photo courtesy of Resource Magazine).

So, this week the green thought is about plastic water bottles. Plastic water bottles require a large amount of resources to create (including quite a bit of water), they are generally only used once, and then many of them end up in landfills or in waterways where they break down into microplastics and cause a whole suite of issues for animals, plants, water pollution, and more. They are a huge waste from start to finish!

A solution is a reusable water bottle! Get a nice one! Decorate it! Remember to bring it with you when you leave home! Most stores, shops, cafes, etc. are happy to use a bottle that you provide. So, lets all stop using disposable water bottles and reduce the amount of plastic waste we humans create!

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please check back in next week for another Green Thought Thursday!

If you are interested in other ways to connect with me, here are a few options:

Begin following this blog!

View and subscribe to my YouTube channel – A Birding Naturalist

Follow me on Instagram – abirdingnaturalist

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