It feels good! Not only it is making nature happier and healthier, most importantly it is making me happier and healthier too.

Do you know every year 120 million marine animals die due to plastic debris? That’s 120,000,000!

Everything that’s mainstream contains plastic but that does not mean that there are no better alternatives. There are. And with the advent of social media and e-commerce, it has only gotten easier to switch to green alternatives to help us lead a sustainable and eco-friendly life.

I have adopted the following practices in my life to lead a clean and green life:

Switched to Bamboo Toothbrush

After cringing for a long time looking at my plastic toothbrush and knowing how it harms our environment, I came across this alternative but did not throw away the plastic one. Otherwise, it will too end up in a landfill or worse, in the sea bed hurting the marine animals.

It cost me around $4 for 4 pieces.

Segregating the waste

I think by now even a school kid knows that mixing our waste is a stupid thing to do. So, we started segregating the waste by buying a compartmentalized dustbin. Vegetable waste would go into wet waste containers and wrappers, empty packets, sachets, and papers would go into the dry waste container.

Wet waste can be transformed into compost in simple steps. Follow this website for a step-by-step guide.

This dustbin cost me around $15.

Transitioned to Glass bottles

It was high time that we replaced plastic bottles with glass ones. Not only do they look aesthetically pleasing but they are also an environmentally better option.

But that doesn’t mean that we threw away the plastic ones otherwise the purpose would have been defeated as the plastic ones would have eventually ended up either in landfills or under the ocean. So, we came up with the idea of upcycling it.

The set of 4 glass bottles cost me around $7 from Amazon.

Bought a cotton belt when I lost my leather belt

This is the first time I got happy when I lost something. For days, I have been thinking of switching to a cotton belt but with the existing leather option, I was not doing so. But then last week, I lost my leather belt so I made the switch to a cotton belt.

The cotton belt cost me around $4 from Amazon.in

Bought and Gifted Paper Straws

I and my wife love drinking coconut water. Earlier, we used to use plastic straws given to us by the vendor. We felt bad about using them as we didn’t have a choice. But then I thought, we do have a choice!

I bought 1 packet of paper straws (50 pieces) for our use at home and gifted 10 packets to the coconut seller after buying from a nearby shop.

2 packets of paper straws cost me $1.

You can also buy them from Amazon here

What can a single person do?

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
-Mother Teresa

We always say how does me changing myself change the whole mess. But what if 7 billion other people start thinking in the same way.

When one person makes a change, he/she by default influences other people leading to two major effects.

The Ripple Effect

Just like a stone thrown in the center of the lake can cause ripples to spread far and wide, similarly when one person changes it can affect thousands of people over centuries.

The Broadening Effect

It means that any change has a multiplicative effect, like a tree branching out. As you change one aspect of your life, it leads to change in another and so on and so forth.

Conclusion

Start with one step at a time. The idea is to reduce, reuse, and recycle or upcycle.

1. Reduce by buying less and only necessary stuff

2. Reuse by making good use of discarded items that would otherwise have ended up in landfills

3. Recycle by doing it yourself or contacting various NGOs and self-help groups

4. Upcycle waste products by using your creativity

   Nature gives us so much. We should be forever grateful to nature for the unlimited love and abundant resources it showers on us.

We can do at least this much in return, can’t we? And it is never too late to make a change.