New Delhi: A home is a place that speaks about us, reflects our personality, and mirrors our lifestyle choices. A home is a place we come back to after a long tiring day at work. Even after travelling the world, we find peace and luxury in our home only. If we cherish our home this much, then why not make it a place that gives comfort not only to us, but our environment as well? Why not make our ‘home sweet home’ an eco-friendly and sustainable space to live in? Just a few changes in your lifestyle and home can make you lead an eco-friendly life that you have been wanting to live but dodging the idea considering it’s luxurious and aid you in reducing your carbon footprint. So, what are you waiting for? Bring out the eco-crusader resting inside you. Go through the following tips and get going.
Also Read: Free India From Air Pollution: Five Ways To Reduce Carbon Footprint
1. Start From Your Living Room
Living room, commonly known as the drawing room, is the first place in our home that any visitor notices. From our couch, wall hangings, tiny pieces of décor to corners, each and everything is scrutinised by any visitors. It’s essential that your living room speaks of sustainable living. How? Instead of buying luxurious couches, pouffes, chairs, tables, sofas, swings, opt for furniture made from waste. A Mumbai-based sculptor Anu Tandon Vieira along with the help of local weavers creates waterproof, durable, and attractive pieces of furniture using waste like old clothes, plastic items, and rejected tyres. She manufactures about 100 pieces of furniture per month that range from Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 20,000. You can search for her or ‘Retyrement’ Plan on social media and reach out to her.
https://www.facebook.com/TheRetyrementPlan/posts/2018980691506969
Also Read: ‘Retyrement’ Plan: How Mumbai’s Anu Tandon Is Creating A Unique Line Of Furniture Using Waste
If you don’t want to shell money on new furniture, get some made from your old pieces which you don’t like. All you have to do is contact The Second Wind, a Gurgaon (now Gurugram) based design studio that converts old furniture into something innovative, and valuable. For instance, an unloved headboard was refurbished into a vintage inspired bench. They can make something new and useful from leftover pieces of furniture as well. Simply write to them, plan a schedule, tell your requirements and see the magic happening.
An unloved headboard refurbished into a vintage inspired bench
Also Read: Exchange Your Old Furniture For New Upcycled Items: Gurugram Duo Gives A New Spin To Waste
2. Because Kitchen Is The Heart Of Every Home
Whenever a guest comes, we love showing off our collection of cute tableware which is usually made of plastic. The reason we opt for plastic is its non-breakable and easy to handle nature, but the fact is, eating in plastic is unhealthy. It’s time you make the switch from plastic to something traditional like steel or rather something sturdy and beautiful like glass. One can also opt for bamboo cooking utensils.
Similarly, replace all the plastic water bottles and food containers in your fridge with steel tumblers/glass water bottles, and steel/glass food storage containers.
Always segregate your waste into dry and wet. While the dry waste can be sent for recycling, wet waste or kitchen waste can be used in gardening, and for other purposes. For instance, you can you banana leaves to polish your leather shoes, and leaves of the plants.
Lastly, start collecting rejected water from RO. All you need to do is keep a bucket under it and use the collected water to water plants, wash your vehicles or parking, and clean your house. This way, a society in Bengaluru with 46 flats saves 500 litres of water everyday.
3. Everyone’s Favorite Destination – Bathroom
Everyone’s day starts and ends with a visit to the bathroom. The first baby step towards sustainable and eco-friendly living can actually start from the bathroom. All you need to do is get rid of your plastic toothbrush and tongue cleaner and opt for bamboo toothbrush and tongue cleaner. Bamboo is a grass that grows faster than any wood which makes it a renewable and eco-friendly resource.
You can save 50 per cent of the water in your bathroom by reducing the flow of water coming from taps. Simply, befriend water saving aerators and bid adieu to water wastage. Water saving aerator or adapter, is a water saving device that simply fits onto a tap and reduces the flow rate of water by 70-80 per cent.
Difference between flow of water before and after using water saving aerator
For instance, if the flow rate is 10 litres per minute (LPM), aerator brings it down to 3 LPM without any compromise on washing experience. This way, 80 per cent of the water is saved, says Mitesh Surana, co-founder at Eco365, while speaking to NDTV.
Also Read: Adopt Water Saving Aerators And Bid Adieu To Water Wastage
4. Next Stop: Your Personal Garden
We all love to have at least a couple of plants in our balcony, if not a proper garden or backyard. And the minimum we can do is to ensure those plants breathe well, are nourished and give back to the environment. All plants shed leaves, especially during the spring season. Instead of tossing those leaves in a bin, you can compost them or put it back in the pot.
Also Read: Fighting India’s Garbage Crisis: All About Composting
Next time don’t throw away these plant nutrients in the dustbin
The segregated kitchen waste can be used as a fertiliser for plants. Like egg shells, peanut and pistachio peels are natural fertilisers for the plants as they give calcium and aerate the soil.
Also Read: Throwing Your Kitchen Waste Recklessly? Think Again! We Give You 5 Ingenious Ways To Reuse It
5. The Final Destination: Your Bedroom
A bedroom is your personal space and the more eco-friendly is your personal space, the more are you likely to think about the ways to reduce your carbon footprint. In your bedroom, you can have upcycled pieces of décor like a photo frame made using old CDs (compact discs). Also, a small lamp near your bed or on a bedside table made by stacking CDs and putting a bulb in the centre will uplift the look and feel of the room.
Bid adieu to e-waste as you frame those memories with a dash of bling
Also Read: From Old To Gold: Tap Your Creative Side To Upcycle Your Used CDs
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
akshat
January 28, 2020 at 9:36 pm
Love all the ideas! But there is no point in throwing away whatever plastic we own because eventually it will end up in the landfill. Better still to keep using whatever one has and not buying more in future. Change the buying habits.