I understand some people are lazy by nature, and I am definitely in that camp. I have never volunteered to be on a clean up garbage crew or anything of that nature for example. I can certainly be lazy in other ways too. Specifically, instead of trying to sell old items I no longer need, I will give them to the Goodwill, because I am too lazy to go through all that jazz.
So, in that vein, I will give you examples of several lazy things that I do to help contribute to keeping the planet around a bit longer without going overboard.
1. Buying a hybrid vehicle. Yes I know, it still uses gas and oil. Electric would probably be better. However, I live in an apartment and my work has no charging stations, so electric really isn't an option for me atm. I also plan on keeping this car for as long as humanly possible. Bonus, my car doesn't have to look idiotic while saving the planet, either.
2. Recycle cardboard. Recyling can be hard and confusing. Besides the fact that my apartment doesn't support full-scale recycling, I have never really been in on doing all of that anyway. But, my apartment does recycle cardboard [boxes]. And that's super easy to do to break down your cardboard and throw it in a different container when you're taking out the trash.
3. Cleaning with electrolyzed water (EoW). If you don't know the miracle that is electrolyzed water, here is a primer. It's pretty amazing stuff. I had bought into Shine, which is a now defunct company who had invented a product that will clean your toilet with every flush using EoW. I absolutely hate cleaning toilets. Not only is it super annoying to have to clean them almost constantly, but then you're also flushing harsh chemicals straight into the sewer. I also bought into Force of Nature (however, I now have a Naturechlor instead so that I don't have to buy their little pods) to make EoW for surfaces. And in the same vein as using it to clean all my surfaces, I also use reusable hand towels instead of paper towels or wipes.
4. I buy most of my clothes through ThredUp (.com) or the Goodwill. This is also kind of out of laziness, because it's a lot easier for me to scroll through clothes online than it is to try to find stuff in a store. It also helps that I'm not a typical shopper that loves to go out and shop for clothes constantly.
6. Reusable fabric grocery bags. In the state of WA, it's actually illegal to use plastic bags now, so it's been kind of a necessity for a while. Any plastic bags I get, I re-use for my bathroom trash bin, so there's that.
7. Non-meat foods. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan by any stretch. I still love meat. However, I can potentially go all veg meals easily without a problem. And I really enjoy both Beyond Meat and Impossible burgers. It's not something I eat all the time, but if I can replace meat with non-meat for any meals, it's better than nothing.
8. Rechargeable batteries. There are many things in your home that still require AA or AAA to function, and rechargeable batteries have come a long way. The only issue with your generic (or even name brand like Eneloop) batteries is that they use 1.2v. Some products require more volts to function properly. For example: my Quest 2 controllers, my salt and pepper grinders, and my milk frother actually require 1.5v which is what disposable batteries run at. However, there is a solution for this now. Tenavolts is a company that makes 1.5v rechargeable batteries. And sure, they're not cheap, but you also only need to put them in things that need 1.5v. They work great for this.
9. Using Wool Dryer Balls and not using fabric softener. Dryer balls are not a perfect replacement for dryer sheets but they work pretty well. They just don't do a lot for stopping static, so if that's an issue for you and your clothes, then maybe stick with dryer sheets.
10. A Bidet. Okay, hear me out. I know, in the US, bidets are weird. And it took me many years to get over this weirdness to buy an attachable one for my toilet. It took the pandemic and not being able to buy toilet paper to finally convince me. And we still use toilet paper. But not nearly as much as we would otherwise. You do feel much cleaner when using one, and I sometimes wish they had one at work too.
11. Buying bed sheets that aren't cotton. Cotton is pretty damn horrible from an enviromental standpoint. But again, I don't necessarily do this for environmental reasons, but for comfort reasons. Although Bamboo is more sustainable as a bed sheet option, the way viscose/rayon is made is not enviromentally friendly. However, making bed sheets out of eucapluptus is more friendly, and they're still satiny and soft. Here is a primer on bamboo vs eucalyptus. The other option I like is linen sheets. They're considered "luxury" for sure, and it took me a while to get used to their feel, but I do like them a lot. They're not only breathable, but they'll last a really long time.
I know what you might be thinking. These 11 things are so miniscule in the grand scheme of things. Why even bother? Well, for a couple of reasons. The first one being that yes, while these things are small, the more people that do them, the bigger the impact will be. The other reason is something called "voting with your wallet". As consumers, we have all the power to decide how companies will behave. The more people that buy into envionmentally sustainable products like Vessi or Beyond Meat, the cheaper they will become and the more prolific - and the more inpact they will make. And the more people that buy one thing over another, then those companies will begin to realize how much their consumers want environmentally sustainable practices and they may change their ways. We can only hope. If everyone does a little, it will do a lot!
