There are several ways in which individuals like ourselves can make a difference, this can be as little as recycling a plastic bottle or to more extreme lengths; changing our whole lifestyle.
As previously mentioned in my blogs, recycling is now a regular good habit in my household since the introduction of recycling boxes. Before they were introduced however, we did recycle newspapers and glass bottles at our local supermarket where recycling points were provided. I am pretty sure that if these recycling boxes were not given out we would have continued to do this although, the recycling boxes have made it a lot more convenient. It is arguable that not all people would have recycled before the introduction of recycling schemes however now given a more convenient option people are much more likely to respond.
There are several things we, as individuals can do everyday to be more sustainable. Waking up and having a shower rather than a bath will save water, as will turning the tap off while brushing your teeth. The biggest waste of water is not from burst pipes, dishwashers or washing machines but from leaking, dripping taps. A simple ‘fix it’ would solve the problem with no more wastage of water, a simple task that an individual can probably do within minutes.
More on the subject of water, I am continuously reminded about ‘grey water’ by Nigel Freestone and the fact that we use perfectly good drinking water for uses such as; washing our cars, watering plants, washing our dishes and clothes and of course in our toilets. There is not much we can do as individuals in the case of this except raise the awareness to local water suppliers that the use of two water supplies to a household, one for grey water and one for drinking water, would be much more sustainable.
Many European countries and Australia do in fact reuse bath water to flush their toilets, the bath water is filtered and stored and then pumped through into the toilet.
Although there is not much we can do about this point, we can reuse water for watering our plants and even collect what little rain we receive over the year in water tanks that are sometimes provided by local councils and use this water for similar uses.
Even more about water, other things that can be done is to only boil the water you need in the kettle at a time, and a point that Prime Minister Gordon Brown made when we were approaching these hard times, is when boiling vegetables ensure the water level is just above the vegetables for efficient energy use, a comment that was not received well, or rather laughed at by the public but stands true.
As I sat driving in my car by myself this morning on the way to university, I realised how many other people sit driving in their cars by themselves. Car after car, and all these people driving in the same direction. Of course public transport, when available is not the most comfortable or cheapest way to travel, so people are more likely to use their cars.
In America, whilst driving down the interstates, signs with ‘Ever tried car pooling?’ followed by an 0800 number are a common sight. Carpooling became encouraged during the second World War when fuel was limited and propaganda was even used. We often think of Americans as gas guzzlers but when have you ever seen a ‘car pooling’ sign along any of our motor ways?
The website http://www.carshare.com/ enables people in the UK to find others with the same or similar routes to share a car to work, school or university. However, again the topic of convenience occurs again when you have to rely on a lift, or are relied upon to give someone a lift everyday.
This was the case when a colleague of my Mum was unable to use his car to get from Kettering to Bedford to go to work. Living in Kettering she did not mind giving him a lift for the few days that he needed but as he lived on the other side of Kettering it meant her having to leave and extra 20 minutes early to beat the traffic around town. Also she regularly stayed late to get work done and miss the rush hour traffic on the way home, however she did feel that she was not able to do this as someone was relying on her for a lift home, although I am sure he would not have minded. Such situations like this and changes of work schedules can make car sharing difficult for all people involved and this is possibly the reasons why some people are put off car sharing.
There are still more things we can do as individuals such as turning off unused electrical items, not leaving TV’s on standby, cycling instead of driving, buying local produce, shopping at sustainable shops such as the body shop, and of course there are hundreds of things that we do not even think of doing day to day. But as one individual will it make a difference whether I do these things or not? No probably not, but if all the individuals in the world did this and changed their way of thinking, of course it would.
