Do this |
Because |
|
| Remove hair with sugar |
Using
sugar (or wax) to remove hair has much less impact on your energy
consumption than shaving with hot water, or even worse, with running
hot water. |
|
| Shower briefly |
The
shorter you shower, the less water and energy for hot water yo use.
Making hot water pollutes unless it is heated by the sun. 5 minutes
should be plenty. |
significant |
| Shower colder |
Reducing the temperature of the water you use results in a reduction of hot water use and energy to make it. |
significant |
| Shave with cold water |
Making
hot water requires energy and pollutes. Your razor does not care if it
is rinsed in cold water. It may take a bit longer to rinse it but that
is about the only difference. |
not enough |
| Use unbleached toilet paper made from recycled paper |
Toilet
paper is very important to have, but it does not need to be made from
new materials. It does not need to be stored for a long time because it
immediately turns into trash after it was used. Unbleached toilet paper
with high recycled paper content pollutes less because it uses fewer
new resources. |
noticeable |
| Use sanitary paper products made from recycled paper |
Unbleached paper with high recycled paper content pollutes less because it uses fewer new resources. |
noticeable |
| Avoid disposable tissues |
Unless
there is a risk of re-infection when you are already sick, you can
safely use cloth handkerchiefs. Wash them once in a while in cold(!)
water. Not after each use though otherwise you increase pollution. Do
not buy new handkerchiefs unless they are made from organic cotton;
conventional cotton production is very hard on the environment. Cut and
reuse old t-shirts or so. Works well and lasts a long time. |
not enough |
| Compost your paper tissues |
They compost well and end up as soil that you can use. |
not enough |
| Use oxygen bleached products |
Pollutes much less than chlorine bleached products. Better is non-bleached though. |
not enough |
| Use non-bleached sanitary products |
Bleaching
paper products requires more energy than not bleaching the product. If
you rest a moment to think about it, you may start wondering why some
products have to be bright white to begin with. Considering their use,
why do toilet paper, tampons, and menstrual pads have to be white? |
significant |
| Use menstrual cups |
Menstrual
cups can be sterilized easily and reused over and over. Some are made
from silicone and will last you for years (Read the instructions!). A
menstrual cup replaces many tampons, tampon dispensers, or pads that
use resources, energy, packaging, bleaches, chemicals, etc. |
noticeable |
| Let hair air-dry |
Letting
your hair air-dry, not with help of hair dryer, will require no
additional energy and pollute less. You also do not need to buy a
hairdryer which requires energy and resources to be fabricated. |
significant |
| Use cloth towel to dry off |
A
towel is reusable for many years. An infra-red or heat lamp uses a lot
of electricity and pollutes because both the lamp and the electricity
have to be made. Use human power to dry yourself. Good work-out too.
Right. |
significant |
| Avoid white towels |
White
towels (or anything you wear) require a bleaching process to even
become bright white during their manufacturing, have to be washed
sooner, often require bleach to become white again, and will get
replaced sooner than colored towels. All this pollutes more. Use
colored towels instead. |
significant |
| Reuse single-use razors. |
If
a thing can be reused, why not do it? Reuse them until they really
don’t work well any longer and then recycle them. I noticed that you
can still get double edge razor blades and razors. They are a bit
harsher on your face but all you throw away are small pieces of steel
(that can easily be recycled) and the razor itself will last a
life-time. |
not enough |
| Repair electric razors rather than replace |
The
parts of an electric razor that do the cutting often can be replaced
and the razor is almost as good as new afterward. Keeping a product
longer and taking good care of it pollutes less. |
noticeable |
| Use biodegradable cleaning products |
Biodegradable
materials will decompose with the help of natural processes and
ultraviolet light from the sun. They exist less long in our
environment. |
noticeable |
