11 Easy (and Free) Ways to Help Save the Planet

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A beginner’s guide to reducing your impact on our planet

With eco-businesses popping up everywhere, it can be easy to think you have to buy eco-friendly products like keep cups or metal straws and install solar panels to save the planet. These things are great but you don’t need to spend any money to be kind to the planet. Some of the ideas below will actually save you money on electricity, water, fuel etc. Saving the planet AND saving money? Winning!

Nor do you need to invest a lot of time. Serious environmentalists may feel it is worth their time washing cloth nappies or ride to work instead of drive but not everyone has that much time to spare. All these ideas take less than 5 minutes (and number 10 will even save you time!).

1. Switch to E-bills

Have you heard about this new thing called email? It’s like normal mail but you look at it on your computer. It means you can switch your paper bills to e-bills and save paper used for the bill and the envelope it comes in as well as the carbon emissions to deliver it.

I will admit that I hesitated for a while because I thought I would forget to pay bills if I skimmed over the bill in my email and was worried I wouldn’t get all the trend data to compare to the previous bill. But since I’ve switched to e-bills – it is exactly the same! The bill looks exactly the same as the paper copy but is just an email attachment instead. And regarding missing payments, I forget to pay just as often as before.

2. Cancel your Yellow Pages delivery

Are you old enough to remember what the Yellow Pages even are? It is a directory of businesses that businesses would advertise in and if anyone needed a plumber, hairdresser, lawyer, they’d just browse the Yellow Pages to find their contact details. But now we have Google for that.

I didn’t even know the Yellow Pages still existed until it rocked up on my doorstep recently, noticeably thinner than I remember. But it honestly only takes 1 minute to visit their website here and enter your address to cancel it and voila! You’ve saved a tree.

Note: Although obsolete, I do have a soft spot for the Yellow Pages since they gave us a brilliant ad with a line that has lived on for years – “Not happy Jan!”

Garden sprinkler — Over 40% of household water usage goes onto our gardens. Image by Patricia Alexandre from Pixabay.

3. Reduce garden reticulation time

Over 40% of household water usage goes onto our gardens. Check your reticulation settings and you can save money on your water bill as well as saving the planet.

You could reduce the watering time by one minute or you could check each zone as some areas of the garden may not need as much water as others. For example a native garden bed won’t need as much water as lawn.

4. Enjoy a meat free meal

Enjoying a meat free meal is easy and good for our health as well as the planet. If you’re not sure how this helps the planet, know that the carbon footprint of lamb is over 14 times more than rice. Try these tasty vegetarian meals.

5. Don’t put bananas in a plastic bag!

I really don’t understand this at all. Bananas naturally exist with their own perfect packaging to protect the fruit inside and are even held together by the stem for easy transport.

You also don’t need a bag for lettuce. Let’s be honest, you’re probably going to throw away the outer leaves anyway. Even two apples or onions you could buy loose, rather than putting in a plastic bag. Snow peas or grapes I can understand needing a bag but for but when you’re ready to up your sustainability game, these reuseable fruit and veg bags from Onya are fantastic.

6. Say no to plastic straws

It is fantastic to see more and more cafes and restaurants offering paper or metal straws or no straw at all unless asked. If you are offered a plastic straw, consider if you really need it to drink your beverage. Do you ever use a straw at home? Do you still manage to consume your drink?

Refuse paper straws too if they are not necessary. It may be more sustainable and less hazardous than a plastic straw but it will still end up in landfill. And let’s be honest. No one enjoys drinking out of a paper straw.

7. Reduce air conditioner by 1 degree

Heating and cooling contribute the most to household energy usage. Reducing your air conditioning by one degree (or more if you’re really cranking it) can save electricity which will save you money too. Better yet, open a window when there is a nice breeze to cool the house down.

8. Put on slippers and a jumper instead of using the heater

How simple is this? If it’s cold, put warm clothes on. Sometimes a heater will be needed but first try to keep warm the old fashioned way – with warm clothes and blankets. Slippers and a beanie make a huge difference too.

9. Avoid using cling wrap

You may not be ready to convert to beeswax wrap or silicone food covers just yet but you can still avoid using cling wrap. If you have a bowl of food to go in the fridge you can simply cover it with a plate. Or use Tupperware. Simple. These things can easily go in the dishwasher too.

10. Work from home one day a week

Now I know not everyone can do this. For many jobs it is not possible. But for anyone with a desk job, give it a go. Transport has a huge impact on our carbon footprint. I mean most of us fill our cars with fossil fuels. If your job allows it, work from home one day a week. Since Covid19, we’ve all seen how working from home is possible and you can save time not having to commute and money for fuel.

11. Wash clothes with cold water

At least 75% of energy used for washing laundry is due to heating water. Most of the time, cold water is sufficient to clean clothes and other items. Clothes are also less likely to shrink or fade in cold water.

And surely I don’t need to say it, but hang clothes out to dry in the sun instead of using a dryer.

How will these small changes save the planet?

Olga Evans explains it so perfectly, I will not even try to explain in my own words.

“You can argue all day about whether one person not using straws or going vegan makes a global difference. The point is the mind set. We need to change our thinking from this idea that the earth is a bottomless pit of resources and start acting like what we do matters. Changing the philosophy of cultures and societies starts with individuals changing their own hearts and minds. That’s the importance of grassroots action. It’s not that my compositing will empty landfills of food waste but my changed mind and heart may influence others, and that could spread and change the world.”

These changes are so easy, everyone can do them. Tick off everything on this list and you’re on your way to becoming an eco warrior. Do you have any other quick and free tips to save the planet? Let me know in the comments.