| “To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash.” Bill Nye |
| Never Too Small to Make a Difference! I have been environmentally motivated for many years and hold strong beliefs and opinions about preserving our planet and conserving animal species. I am an avid and keen recycler, passionate gardener, composter and worm farmer with a very lucrative compost system and active supporter of various eco-friendly schemes. My garden is a safe ecosystem for nature, and where possible, l try to ensure that everything is naturally simplistic. Where possible, l buy local produce from sellers and always deal with fair trade companies. Suze and l also endeavour and have achieved quite successfully over the last five or six years to reduce our chemical usage to nearly zero. We do not use chemicals in any of our washing or cleaning. We aim to minimise any impactive environmental footprint to the best of our abilities. Humankind may well be slowly killing our world and society killing our way of life, but together we do have the powers and the technologies to pave the way for a brighter future if we start now. I am often asked why l bother with the things we do. My answer is always the same: everyone can make a difference if they try. If they believe, then they will. No one is EVER too small to make a difference – you have to start. Should you want proof of the impact something small can make – try smiling at someone – you could be surprised at just how big a difference you make to their day! Other small differences that all of us can perform for instant results are; If you see rubbish around the environment, pick it up, collect it and bin it properly. Stop eating meat or, at the very least, reduce your meat consumption; the same applies to your dairy consumption. Change your driving habits – walk, cycle or use public transport more. Watch your water consumption – have shorter showers or ‘share a shower – always fun!’ Reduce the amount of paper in your life – opt-out of junk mail, receive online banking statements, invent creative ways to ‘wrap gifts’. We should learn to treasure our trees more and stop the chop. You don’t have to stop using paper but look for recycled paper products made from sustainable products. Use refillable water containers and reusable lunch boxes. Be mindful of what you throw away – just because we live in a disposable society doesn’t mean we have to dispose of everything – think recycling and especially upcycling. Can you borrow more instead of buying? You might surprise yourself as to just how crafty you are. Can you perhaps buy secondhand? Remember to use reusable bags for shopping. Food leftovers don’t have to be discarded, but perhaps they can be used in other dishes – try to waste as little food as possible, and you can compost organic waste. Online shopping is one of the best savings and changes; you can now virtually shop for any brand online. Where you can, try to use less food packaging. Grow your menu, farm it organically, and save the air from pesticides and herbicides. You don’t have to have colossal vegetable beds to create your food, and pots are just as versatile. Try to eat seasonally – which helps boost local community sales of produce. Instead of using chemical cleaning agents, why not try creating your own? The above list is just a small selection of small changes that can make a difference to our lives, but more importantly – our planet. |
| Naturally Simplistic – Never Too Small To Make A Difference |
| Earthly Comfort Designs available on my Redbubble Store. Collections – Earthen Wurmin, Inspired By Nature and The Autistic Composter Please Pop Along and Check Them Out. |
Earthly Comforts 
If we all do one or two things, the difference in the world would be a lot!
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Yes spot on Carol Anne, if everyone chipped in just a little bit, the world would be remarkably different.
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I agree, and in some ways we recycled more in the seventies and eighties. I remember Dad growing his own vegetables, we used glass bottles, which were reused every day. Also, that meant we didn’t waste any milk, we just used what was delivered. Corona, the fizzy drinks, we used to refill and get ten pence back when we brought the bottle back. We didn’t use plastic bags, although we did use paper. The vegetables were brought loose and bagged at the shop. We shopped daily, not weekly. Only using what we needed.
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You are quite right Diana, l recall recycling being very different yesterday to what we have today and l lived my younger years in Australia.
There was always money back on ali cans and plastic bottles too.
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We do a lot of these things Rory but I wonder why you say shopping online is better. I believe in shopping locally. If it is something I’m not sure if a store carries I will go to their website first and see if they have it in stock before making a trip and finding out they don’t have it. Sure there are things I can’t get in my area and do order online but I try to avoid it. I’m not sure that having fleets of delivery trucks running around the world does any good and all. There is also all the extra packaging material that is required to ship individual items that I must figure out how to responsibly dispose of.
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Hey Ruth,
There will always be differences between countries, but as more and more governments work towards improved conditions, things will slowly change through recognition, identification and usage.
Regarding shopping for locally grown/manufactured produce, I support that and suggest others do as well for their regions. The reason that shopping online is better for the planet is that it overall reduces the population’s carbon footprint and carbon emissions.
The problem is that it is six of one and half a dozen of another, with the current variable in situ, which affects carbon offsets and benefits. It used to be here in the UK that the giant supermarket ‘initially’ had many brand genres and departments under one roof. However, as competition stepped into the affray and changed things around, many stores holding large ranges gradually diminished, and the bigger stores started to maintain lesser ranges.
Still, as time progresses, we will see more emphasis from environmental agencies to shop for products online rather than in real time.
Many considerations must be noted, from brick-and-mortar retail to online and digital shopping. Each shop, for instance, maintaining energy usage – heat and electricity is a more enormous drain than a warehouse. Therefore, driving to retail outlets is more damaging than going to one localised warehouse.
Fleets of smaller vehicles using and producing less carbon are the answer compared to people’s cars. Of course, the better option is to walk or cycle than to use cars which then lends more weight to shopping locally – half a dozen versus six of the other.
People sometimes prefer not to support locally here because local stores have to charge like wounded bulls to survive, and they might be trying to find and cut corners .. again, half a dozen versus six of the other.
There are many variables.
Packaging is one of this system’s most significant issues and needs to be thoroughly addressed. Amazon, as an example, is one of the biggest problems with its overkill packaging. Cardboard can, of course, be recycled more efficiently and sustainably.
Fast shipping and next day delivery, express delivery systems also need to be addressed more.
But in the future, shopping online will be the prime contender in reducing carbon footprints. But ultimately, modern consumerism will vastly differ from what it is today.
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I don’t know anyone who does online shopping because they think it is environmentally friendly. They do it because it is convenient. I don’t fault them for it. But for me I think since I already own a vehicle and can make one trip to get all the things I need for a week or more I am better than having multiple vehicles delivering things throughout the week. I also don’t like having to use credit or debit card especially online. Identity theft is a huge problem in the US and putting all that information out there repeatedly increases the risks.
For me it will be a sad day when I can’t go into a store and try on a pair of shoes, or sit in a chair to see if it’s comfortable before I make a purchase.
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There is a lot of research being and been done in this area now Ruth – it will be the future – the crunch really came to the fore with the arrival of the pandemic and lockdowns and researchers were able to understand the impact more.
Shopping online is of course convenient and l will not miss brick and mortar stores, l think that once they have the mathematics of everything sprted properly, it will make a huge improvement for the environment.
Identity theft is of course a growing concern worldwide. I can understand people’s concerns.
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I think any kind of dependence on the internet is a fool’s game as is dependence on the power grid. If brick and mortar stores are gone what will be the option when the internet goes down?
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Shopping today is set to change our future, Ruth. There will always ‘be’ a shopping outlet in real time, just not as we know it today.
Mainstream stores will disappear, and we will see the return of many more niche outlets, but more like bazaar styling.
But there is also talk of a very custom-styled shopping experience that we have today, but humans handle it. AI and IT could become more of a thing as well. Virtual reality will become a more prominent medium in the next ten to twenty years.
Consumerism is also yet to change as the world becomes more aware of the environmental impact and views change towards fast and faster fashion to more bespoke and cut out the middle frontiers of shopping and shipping. It will be more along the lines of the manufacturer-to-customer direct. Shopping in the next thirty years will resemble a sci-fi movie set.
There will always be the human need to touch and feel products from many buyers – but that is when we will see more of the niched shopping experience emerge, but so too will the price rocket as that will become more elitist.
But again, these touchy-feely stores will be more like a showcase than an actual store and quite possibly owned by the manufacturers.
They would be giant warehouses, so there wouldn’t be the need for an online shop, but VR and AI would govern them but in-house digitalisation.
Only some things are an errand towards stupidity with the reliance upon the Internet. It is merely how the world will look in the future of retail.
I have no love for retail. Having worked it for many of my younger years, l tend not to need or crave the social interaction that many people also need when shopping, so my views on retail will be slimmer.
Shopping in our future will change and become very different from what we see now. By 2030 a mere seven years from today, changes will already be in motion. By 2040, significant differences will be present. We already see different shopping experiences from 2010, and most assuredly, shopping vastly differs from how it was in 2000. So in 23 years alone, the shopping industry has turned a corner.
As the world progresses, it will become more efficient and eliminate wastage and overproduction. Supply chains will be significantly improved also, and shoppers’ needs will be more precision geared.
Not everyone will perhaps enjoy this new world, but it will become tomorrow’s world.
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I realy don’t do a lot of shopping. My needs are minimal. I don’t have to have the newest and best of everything. I also don’t mind paying more for a good quality product that will last and good customer service.
It’s not something I’m going to worry about because who knows if I’ll even live to see it.
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P.S. I should have the questions finished soon.
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““To leave the world better than you found it, sometimes you have to pick up other people’s trash.”
Bill Nye” isnt the most elegant meme I’ve read, but that’s about the truest thing I’ve heard on the subject recently!
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Hey Marilyn, sadly it is the truth.
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I was thinking about my Dad yesterday. He was the least likely environmental person ever. He would have raged at the messages about climate change and everything. Yet looking back he did way more than I do. He recycled, grow his own stuff (and was great at it), repaired what was broken, shopped really carefully, would always be switching lights off. He hated sending stuff to the landfill. All because things were tight and to him everything had value. I could never agree with his politics or world view but I sure can learn from his actions.
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He certainly sounds like he was doing more than his fair bit of energy for the climate Gary 🙂
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Great post
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I was trying to comment on this post since yesterday but it wasn’t allowing me to do so. Thanks for sharing these very helpful tips Rory.
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How interesting Sadje, l have no idea why that was. I do know that Eugenia, said she saw images missing on another post that weren’t missing on my page, so maybe a WP glitch perhaps. But thank you too 🙂
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Yes WP has one glitch after another. You’re welcome my friend
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Sadly WP Glitchiness has become more of a thing these days than it ever was.
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Yes unfortunately it is.
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