Can I actually make an impact on climate change?

It’s perfectly normal to feel disheartened by the declining state of our planet.

Between your carbon footprint, what you should or should not be recycling to eco laundry products and reusable coffee cups- it can all be a little overwhelming. Although climate change is a global issue that requires collective action, your individual actions can also have a significant impact. So here’s are a few things you can do to help, if you’re wondering where to start:

1. Take steps to reduce your carbon footprint: Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases you generate as a result of your daily activities, such as transportation, heating, and electricity consumption. It’s one of the easiest things to minimise. You can reduce your carbon footprint by walking, biking, or taking public transportation instead of driving. In the home, using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs will greatly help your carbon footprint, and perhaps you could consider eating a few more plant based meals every week? This is an easy way to reduce your meat consumption. The small, regular actions create the greatest overall impact after all. 

2. Add a recycling bin to the bathroom: Whilst you may be a dab hand at recycling in the kitchen, perhaps you neglect to do the same in the bathroom. One study suggests that in the UK, we only recycle 50 per cent of our bathroom waste, with women’s health and beauty products accounting for a significant proportion of that figure. These days, the majority of our bathroom products such as shampoo bottles, makeup containers and toothpaste tubes are recyclable, so make the most of this opportunity. Adding the recycling bin to the bathroom will make the recycling process so much easier- saving you the time to separate everything when you’re emptying your bins.

3. Support renewable energy: You can support the development of renewable energy by opting to purchase products from companies that use renewable energy sources, installing solar panels on your home, or investing in renewable energy funds.

4. Reduce your single use plastic consumption: It’s widely known that single use plastic contributes enormously to our landfill sites and therefore we should, where possible, look to reduce this. It’s always a good time to remind yourself of the common single use plastic items that you can avoid on a day to day basis; takeaway coffee cups, plastic bags, plastic straws, fruit & veg plastic wrapping and non-degradable toothpaste tubes are all common ones to avoid.

5. Recycling: it’s time to brush up on what your local recycling centre or bin collectors do and do not recycle! It is very common now for the majority of household packaging to be 100% recyclable and it’s your responsibility to know how to do this so that it doesn’t end up in landfill anyway. Every recycling centre and council have their own policies on this so you should check this a couple of times a year to see if there have been any changes. Here's my guide for recycling in Mid Sussex.