Every year, I encourage my family to do something for Lent. Dad usually fails to give up chocolate, and Mum’s never been brave enough to give up white wine! For the last few years, each Lent we have gone vegetarian, which lead to me permanently becoming a veggie in 2017 – my sister, Esther, was wildly unimpressed as she is devoted to sausages.
This year, we decided we wanted to do something different. I suggested doing something for the environment as this is something I really care about and think we can all have an impact on. After much discussion, we decided to do something about our plastic use: we didn’t think we could eliminate it entirely, but I wanted to find ways we could cut it down and sustain after Lent. We’ve already taken the steps that everyone else has taken – not buying plastic water bottles or single use plastic bags. My challenge was to go deeper and find new ways of reducing plastic consumption.
After much deliberation and brainstorming, I have come up with several ideas and categorised them into 4 sections:
Shower & Soap, Celebrations, Food Transportation and Every-Day Items.
Everyone can do something for the environment, and I think that making small changes in your everyday lifestyle is the best way to do that. Helping the environment is something I am passionate about and every little thing helps: 1000 starts with 1. I also hope to inspire other people to change their lifestyle for the better with my ideas.
My family jokes about ‘killing polar bears’ when someone forgets to recycle or leaves a light on, but acting environmentally is not a joke and is something we need to all take seriously.