1000 Flowers for the Planet - #136 Eat Less Meat

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #136 Eat Less Meat

I’m definitely not vegan or even vegetarian, in fact, I’m very much a carnivore, but I propose this Flower suggestion because there are a few advantages to eating less meat. In the first instance, people in Western cultures probably eat more meat than is desirable for good health. Reducing portion sizes will be better for your overall wellbeing as well as reducing your grocery bill. It is better to eat plenty of fresh vegetables with meat more as the accompaniment than the main event. Apart from better health for both your body and your budget, if millions of people eat less meat then fewer animals need to be grazed to produce it. I’m aware of the issue of farmers and profit margins, but won’t go into that here. With about one quarter of the earth’s land area being used for grazing, reducing the number of grazing animals means less strain on the environment, less wear on natural terrain, less water usage and less need for feed supplements. Furthermore, the animals would benefit from less dense farming, as fewer head can be run per acre. Eliminating factory farming would be even better but that also needs to be driven by less demand. Cattle apparently add considerably to greenhouse gas emissions. It’s difficult to find current figures on the effects of meat production on the planet, but I discovered a comparison: one cow emits the equivalent CO2 as a car using 8 litres of petrol per 100 km driving 12,500 km per year (source: http://timeforchange.org/are-cows-cause-of-global-warming-meat-methane-CO2). Yes, perhaps it is time for change.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #135 Utilise Your Smart Phone

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #135 Utilise Your Smart Phone

I’m nowhere near as proficient at using my smart phone as my daughter is, but I do recognise that it has functions that can aid in the reduction of paper usage. Firstly, it can be used to store the names, addresses and phone numbers of all your friends and family, so it becomes your electronic address book. Secondly, it takes wonderful photos that you then carry with you everywhere as your very own brag book (great for new grandmothers eh?). Thirdly, your smart phone is terrific for notes – as many as you like without the need for finding a pen that works. It can also give you reminders, either at a certain time or at a certain place, with an alarm to alert you. All of these are very convenient tools and save paper along the way, which is good for the planet.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #134 Use Electronic Faxes

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #134 Use Electronic Faxes

This idea will only save paper as long as you don’t print something out in the first instance and probably would work best in a business environment. The user is required to sign up to an Internet fax service which will assign them a number e.g. 180044449999@emailfaxes.com. To send a fax, attach an electronic copy of the document to an email and use the fax number in the recipient’s address line. The document will be received by their fax machine and printed. Conversely, you can send a paper document via your fax machine to a recipient’s email where it will be converted into an attachment. Either way, one end of the process will avoid printing paperwork, thus saving trees and many other natural resources. It all adds up over time.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #133 Get Digital Pay Slips

 1000 Flowers for the Planet - #133 Get Digital Pay Slips

Another good way to save paper is to ask your employer to provide you with digital pay slips. Depending on the system your employer uses, this saves paper from being used to print a payslip and the envelope it might be put in to deliver it to you. I receive my payslip by email and immediately save it to a folder on my hard drive, giving it a logical file name so I can retrieve it easily when necessary. Done. It’s so easy when you get into the habit of it and without even thinking about it, you’re helping to save some trees, and the planet.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #132 Use A Memory Stick

 1000 Flowers for the Planet - #132 Use A Memory Stick

Sometimes we want to share files or information with others but cannot use email to do this. Rather than printing the file and taking the hardcopy to its destination, copy the file to a memory stick and take that with you. These memory sticks are inexpensive, last a long time, are small and therefore extremely portable, and hold a great deal of information.  So they can also be used as backups of some of your files. They may not replace an external hard-drive that will hold all of your files, but make for a sensible extra copy of your most important files. Another good use for a memory stick would be as storage for photos. I’ve often heard of people losing all their photos when their phone was stolen or dropped in water, and this kind of catastrophe can be avoided by regularly loading these precious memories onto your computer and/or a memory stick. Take the time. It will be worth the effort and help the planet as well.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #131 Get Digital Bank Statements

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #131 Get Digital Bank Statements

Online banking is ever more popular these days so continue the good work by organising to receive your bank statements electronically. They can then be saved to your hard drive for retrieval as required. Usually it’s a simple matter of logging into your regular online banking and clicking on the appropriate tab to give the bank permission to provide digital statements – easy.

The result will be that dozens of sheets of paper will be saved annually by each person, and when you multiply that out by the millions it’s a huge benefit to the planet. Save paper, save money, save resources – all by the click of a button.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #130 Get Digital Bills

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #130 Get Digital Bills

If you’ve always complained that you get nothing but bills in the mail (snail mail) then here’s your opportunity to empty the letterbox of those pesky window-faced envelopes – organise to receive your bills electronically. Often the company concerned will reduce or cancel any processing costs if they don’t have to post a hard copy to your home. This means an extra saving for your household, apart from the obvious benefits of saving paper, resources and the environment.

From personal experience I can say it took me a little while to manage my bills electronically because I didn’t have that piece/s of paper there to remind me to pay it, but you learn quickly enough to keep tabs on things and file things in a way that suits you.

Check with your supplier/s if they will email you a digital bill and help look after the planet.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #129 Ask For Digital Receipts

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #129 Ask For Digital Receipts

Digital receipts are already available in the USA and Canada but I’ve had no luck tracking down their availability in Australia, Europe or anywhere else. Hopefully they will be an option very soon. There are two ways the digital receipts work. The first is that the retailer can email you a copy of your receipt, so subsequently you can file them on your hard drive in a way that suits you for easy retrieval when required. The second way is by using an app on your smart phone – you tap the phone at the point of purchase and the receipt is beamed straight to the phone where it can be stored and retrieved as required. You can search the receipts by store name or product and even use the receipt for returns when necessary – the store simply scans the bar code on the receipt to complete the return transaction. Apparently this type of app comes with the bonus of coupon offers and other information to keep the avid shopper up-to-date.

Imagine a day when you can go shopping and not be bothered with keeping track of all those receipts that come in a multitude of sizes. Saving paper by asking for digital receipts is the way of the future.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #128 Use Smaller Margins

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #128 Use Smaller Margins

In my opinion the pre-set margins for documents is too large and I always make them smaller. Often I’ve received a document in the mail that has gone over to the third page, so despite the practice of printing on both sides of the paper, some people allow that second piece of paper to be gobbled up by the printing of the last few lines. What a waste! If you have a document that exceeds a single or even double sided sheet, change the margins to be narrower, on all sides, and see what a difference it makes to the length of the document. It may not use less ink, but it will use less paper, and that equals savings to your hip pocket and to the world’s resources.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #127 Proofread First, Print Second

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #127 Proofread First, Print Second

That print button is very easy to click and often we print things before we should. Take the extra time to proof read your work by reading it on the screen first, and only when you are sure that everything is as it should be, then print. This is especially important when printing multiple copies of a document where failure to proof the work first could result in many pages being needlessly wasted. Yes, paper can be recycled, but an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure – it’s better for the environment and your hip pocket if you avoid waste. Proof reading on the screen is a little more difficult than reading a hard copy, so try enlarging the document via the ‘view’ tab and give your eyes a break.

Save paper and think before you print.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #126 Print Only What You Need

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #126 Print Only What You Need

There are times when we do need to print things for various reasons. Unfortunately the print button is super-easy to click and often we print things we don’t really need or more pages than required. You may only need part of a document, so ensure you select the correct pages when you get to the print dialogue box. You could copy and paste information into a separate document where you are then able to reduce the margins and the size of the type, therefore reducing the number of pages needing to be printed. When printing multiple copies, be sure of the number required and don’t print more than you need. Always think about your actual requirements and be mindful of printing the minimum.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #125 Think Before You Print

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #125 Think Before You Print

It only takes a small amount of effort and time to think before you print. Eventually, doing the best thing for the planet becomes second nature. Meanwhile, before you print off an email, decide if it could best be filed into a different folder for future reference. Is the information something you really need for the long term or is it a temporary requirement that you refer to it? What are you keeping the information for? How important is it? Is there another way you could deal with this? The answers will be many and varied, and ultimately it is up to you, but by thinking before printing you may well be saving a huge amount of resources – trees, water, energy, transport, landfill, recycling costs, ink and money from your pocket.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #124 Write Notes on Scrap Paper

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #124 Write Notes on Scrap Paper

Many of us tend to write notes or lists, little reminders for ourselves and others to help us in these busy lives we lead. There are lots of different pieces of paper that come into our lives that can be repurposed for notes:

Envelopes from your snail mail
Partially used exercise books left over from the kids’ school work can be cut into smaller pieces

The extra pages that come with the bills but have little useful information on them have a clean reverse side

Old receipts are nice and long and make good shopping list paper

Desk calendars are already lined for note making and all the past dates are free to be used

Backs of Christmas and birthday cards or even the reverse of the front of the card

Back of paper that has been printed on one side – can be cut into smaller pieces or even make your own little pad

Any paper that comes your way could potentially be used for writing notes on. When you are about to put a piece of paper into the recycling bin, think first whether you could use it for scrap paper and extend its life.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #123 Save Emails to Folders

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #123 Save Emails to Folders

It’s so easy to print out an email to refer to later on or file it somewhere, but you can reduce this paper usage by simply creating some folders in your email programme and moving emails into the appropriate folders. What is likely to happen is that you will eventually realise you don’t need the information or it becomes irrelevant and the email will ultimately be deleted.

Alternatively, you can copy and paste the information into a Word document (or similar) and save it to your hard drive files as per any other document, where it can be retrieved and referred to at any time.

Think before you print – but try saving your emails to folders first.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #122 Save Receipts Electronically

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #122 Save Receipts Electronically

In discussing Flower 121 I mentioned that you can save your payment confirmation electronically. Learn how to do this on your particular home computer. Furthermore, if you are an internet shopper and use something like PayPal to make your payments, a receipt is emailed to you which can then be saved to your computer files – no need to print it out at all.

By using paper unnecessarily to print out receipts merely for filing away we use natural resources such as trees, water, electricity etc for manufacturing a product that will eventually end up as waste. All it takes is a little thought and retraining to refrain from using it. Save your receipts electronically and save a tree.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #121 Pay Bills Online

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #121 Pay Bills Online

For the next couple of weeks I’m going to suggest ways to use less paper.

I remember when I was a girl we had very little paper about the house. It was available, but it was not used excessively. I used it for my school work and I had cherished notepaper for writing letters, but we didn’t have reams of it lying around the house like we seem to today. I often feel like I’m drowning in the paperwork that finds its way into my house in the form of newsletters, advertising material, bills, receipts, documents, magazines, notes, vouchers etc. So let me offer a few ideas for reducing the paper problem.

Internet banking is used by many people these days, but if you don’t already, I suggest you give it a try. Pay your bills online with ease. You don’t have to leave your home to pay them, can pay any time of the day or night, and you won’t be given another piece of paper in the form of a receipt stapled to your bill. When you have paid the bill you can save a copy of the payment confirmation electronically to your hard drive where it can be filed appropriately and retrieved whenever necessary.  Job done.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #120 De-Sex Your Cat

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #120 De-Sex Your Cat

Much loved by some, much hated by others, the domestic cat is sometimes a controversial animal. For those who are in love with their feline friends, ensure you love your cat enough to have it de-sexed and prevent unwanted litters of kittens. I’ve personally known people who think that owning a cat is all about paying it attention when they feel like it and ignoring it when they’re too busy. This is not responsible pet ownership.

Owning a cat is a privilege, and owners should be responsible enough to have their beautiful moggy de-sexed at the appropriate age. There are so many unwanted felines out there adding to the problem of feral cats who threaten our wildlife. The Christmas season always creates a dramatic increase in the number of dumped cats (and dogs) that were temporary presents for children whose parents gave them a poor life lesson in the treatment of animals. Cats are not a commodity. They are living, breathing creatures, and they deserve better. And de-sexed male cats are often less aggressive, making them nicer pets.

Be responsible. De-sex your cat.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #119 Pull Out Weeds by Hand

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #119 Pull Out Weeds by Hand

Let me tell you something you really need to know: weed poisons containing glyphosate are DANGEROUS and BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH. Sadly these poisons are used worldwide in the agricultural industry and are therefore affecting your health in a negative way every day. I urge you to look at the following website:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx

So if you have any kind of weed poison in your garden shed, think twice before using it. Ultimately the best thing for you, your family, your pets and the planet is to pull garden weeds out by hand. Try to enjoy the process. Make it a cathartic activity that feeds the soul and enjoy the rewards of looking after your earth. If you pull your weeds out regularly, when they’re small, it won’t take very long to do and they will be easier to dispose of (via your compost).

Pulling weeds out by hand also means you are NOT putting chemicals of any kind into the soil where they eventually get washed through into our waterways, there to destroy plants, birds and animals that depend on the water system for their survival (and that includes us). Don’t trick yourself into thinking it will be diluted along the way and your small contribution won’t make any difference. If we all think that way then we have millions of people contributing to the problem. We can make a difference by turning it all around and being one of those millions who make a positive difference to the environment – and it can be by the simple act of pulling weeds out by hand.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #118 Support Wind Farms

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #118 Support Wind Farms

Of all the methods used to generate power for the masses, wind energy is the only one that treads lightly on our environment without causing pollution. Furthermore, it does not generate hazardous wastes or deplete natural resources. There are, as always, some disadvantages, such as the initial use of resources to create the turbines and the need to build access roads for installation and maintenance. There are also very mixed reactions to the visual impact of wind farms, varying from horror at the impact on rural landscapes to joy created by the elegant beauty of their towering structures clustered on hilltops. However, when considered as a whole package, wind turbines present the best form of mass energy production available to populations worldwide. They are completely pollution free, keeping our air clean, and they do not contribute to greenhouse gases. Once installed they have very little impact on land use, as each turbine has a relatively small footprint, leaving the land to still be utilised for crops or grazing. Once you look at the facts – by searching the internet or take a look at: http://www.windustry.org/ –  you will see that wind energy is our best option to date.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #117 THINK

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #117 THINK

Some people don’t even do this much – they wander around the planet doing whatever they please without any consideration for others or their environment. ‘Thinking’ is something we are all supposedly able to do. Why is it that so many people are not willing to do so when it comes to looking after their home – earth? It begins with the smallest of things. I’ve watched someone screw up a piece of paper and throw it into the rubbish/trash bin sitting right beside a paper-recycling box. It astonished me! Yet it is one of hundreds of things I see all around me all the time. Small acts of thoughtlessness that could make a huge shift in the world if people decided to THINK about what they’re doing. Think about whether or not you truly need to make that purchase – do you need it or will it end up in landfill in a few days’ time? Think about what you’re putting in the rubbish/trash and whether you could have avoided the waste in the first place. Think about the way you function at work and whether there is a more efficient or environmentally friendly way of doing the job. Businesses need to think about the amount of natural resources they are using and how to be more efficient in what they do (Quality Improvement??). Think about how you treat others – we all share this world. Are we looking after each other as well as we should.

THINK

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #116 Use a Biofermenter

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #116 Use a Biofermenter

A biofermenter will help reduce the amount of waste you put into your rubbish/trash bin. It is particularly useful for those who cannot create a compost heap or worm farm, with the huge benefit of being able to store it within your kitchen where it is easily accessible at any time of the day or night. The fermentation process is completely odourless. What is particularly cool is that you can put in any type of food waste, including meat, bones, oil, and citrus peel – things that cannot go into a compost. You can include cooked food waste, fruit and vegetable peels, and teabags. The fermented waste is eventually buried in your garden where it will continue to decompose, benefitting the soil and helping to grow healthy plants. By using a biofermenter you will become more aware of how much food you waste, which may even lead to more efficient management of your cooking and eating habits, which in turn will save you money as well as many natural resources. Furthermore, you will reduce landfill – always a good thing.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #115 Participate in Clean Up Australia Day

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #115 Participate in Clean Up Australia Day

Clean Up Australia Day is on 2 March 2014. You have time to register and participate in this wonderful project, which began in 1989 when one Aussie bloke came up with the idea of cleaning up Sydney Harbour. The event was so incredibly successful that Clean Up Australia Day began the following year and then in 1993 Clean Up The World was born. You can read more about the origins of this fantastic event and all the statistical information regarding tonnage of waste collected and the type of waste thrown carelessly into the environment and waterways by reading www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au and if you don’t live in Australia then check out http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/en/  and participate in that special weekend from 19-21 September 2014. 40 million people from 130 countries participate in this environmental project – will you be one of them?

Join the growing number of people who demonstrate in a practical way that they care about their planet and are willing to give time and effort to do the right thing. Care for your planet.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #114 Find Out What Your Friends Collect

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #114 Find Out What Your Friends Collect

A good way to recycle, reuse and repurpose is to find out what your friends collect. You may be very surprised by what some people like to gather. I have a friend who collects bread ties and the plastic rings from food and drink containers. Someone else I know collects old watches and clocks, working or not. Another person I know collects old cameras. Then there are the more mainstream collections such as stamps, postcards, swap cards, shells, match books, coins, comic books, antiques, beer bottle labels, coasters, charms, action figures, books, autographs, records, bookmarks, magnets, marbles, stickers, ceramics etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on. All it takes is to ask one simple question of each of your friends: “What do you collect?” and see if they’d be happy for you to pass on anything that might come your way that would add to their collection. It could save a lot of things ending up in landfill – and that would be a huge benefit to the planet.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #113 Recycle Old Towels

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #113 Recycle Old Towels

Old towels can be very useful for a number of different things.

You can cut down worn out bath towels, hem the edges and recycle them as bath mats or hand towels.

It’s always handy to have an old towel in the boot of the car. You never know when you might have a breakdown and you get dirty fixing the car. You may have something to put into the boot (trunk) that needs some protection – wrap the towel around it. In summer the car seat can get extremely hot – put the towel on the seat to protect uncovered legs from being burnt.

Make a knot toy for your dog from strips of old towel.

Use old face cloths for cleaning the house – they make great rags for cleaning up spills.

Donate your old towels to the local animal welfare shelter or veterinary practice to use as bedding.

Keep a number of old towels handy in the laundry in case the washing machine overflows (I speak from experience – sigh). Several towels are needed to mop up the flood.

Old towels are also very handy when moving house – wrap them around your precious paintings or framed photos to prevent damage during transportation.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #112 Manage Your Computer Files

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #112 Manage Your Computer Files

It is so easy to let the files on your computer get out of hand. We create a document / spreadsheet / database / presentation, give it a name and save it to the hard drive – then we forget about it ... for years and years and years. Eventually we have a hard drive containing a lot of useless data, and the larger our hard drives become, the less inspiring it is to cull the dead stuff.

By managing your computer files and creating some order to the system you choose to use, everything will be uncluttered and easy to retrieve. Finding things easily and quickly means you save your valuable time and become efficient.

I was looking at my own file manager the other day and thought to myself, “what a nightmare this would be for my daughter to deal with if I carked it (Aussie slang for ‘died’) tomorrow!” Electronic files are just like paper files in a filing cabinet and need to be deleted now and then. If you’re like me, you’ll find several weird documents you forgot you had and can well do without. Enjoy that ‘delete’ button and declutter your computer.

And how does this help the planet? Having fewer files may improve the running of your computer causing you to rethink the need to get a bigger one and put the old one into landfill. Becoming more efficient and using the computer as a ‘tool’ will enable you to do what you need to do, then turn it off to go and do something more interesting, thereby using fewer resources, less electricity, more money in your pocket and the option to do something good for your health.

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #111 Turn off the TV

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #111 Turn off the TV

Had any decent conversations with your family lately? Why don’t you try turning off the TV? It will probably be quite hard to start off with, but if you stick with it, you’ll see some wonderful advantages. First of all, turning off the TV will save on electricity costs, putting more money into your pocket. This will help the planet by using fewer resources and producing less carbon emissions.

But the biggest benefit you will discover is reconnecting with your family. If conversation is difficult at first, start by playing a board game. There are so many terrific board games available to choose from. Even a pack of cards can lead to a pack of laughs from the family as you play fun games with the kids. Maybe you could read a book! Give it a go. See what happens.

If games aren’t your thing, rejuvenate that old hobby you used to have when you were a child, or encourage your own children to take up something interesting. There are many things that people like to collect, and this could lead to joining a group of likeminded people. Get out of the house and join a sporting group, go dancing, go for a walk and check out your neighbourhood – think of something different to do.

And if all of that fails, turn to your loved one and start a conversation. You might even fall in love all over again. Now wouldn’t that be nicer than watching TV?