We’re somewhat astounded that more individuals aren’t involved with the living green movement, seeing how often we hear the words recycle, reduce and reuse. We’re running out of time; we all need to get started with eco-friendly living beginning right now. It doesn’t take all that much to start making a significant contribution, only a few minor alterations.

To start, how about getting more of your food from local suppliers – you’ll unquestionably be healthier, if you do. Certainly, you have been to a local farmer’s market, and seen all of the things for sale. You’ll see other local businesses trying to compete with the big boys with meats, bread and other baked goods, and farm-fresh crops. Usually the food is fresher, and healthier also, and not just that, but you are supporting the local economy. Also, you can talk to the actual producers of the goods and ask questions about things like pesticides and preservatives. The food didn’t have to be trucked from some faraway place, which means less fuel was wasted, and fewer emissions were put into the air.

Maybe you could think about using recyclable containers to carry your lunch to work instead of going out to lunch daily. Reusable containers can make a great difference, alleviating some of the sizable waste created by today’s methods of packaging food. It’s easier to select the exact size or amount you need as well. It is a superb idea to bring along a couple of reusable silverware also. Mostly, buying food in bulk will help us battle the enormous amount of waste involved in packaging food for only a single serving. If you’d like to begin sending less garbage to your local landfills, consider composting your old fruits and vegetables. What if you don’t grow a garden? Well, there’s always someone not too far away, probably a neighbour, who’ll be happy to take all the compost you can give them.

There are some tips for saving energy when you are preparing food. When you are boiling water, put a lid on the pot, as it boils much more quickly when it is covered. Just remember to lessen the heat as soon as it begins boiling. Pre-heating the oven also wastes energy, as this is not needed for most foods. Something else that will not waste energy is to turn off the oven for the last 15 minutes, when cooking such things as roasts, since the heat that is left will finish the cooking.

Does all this sound like a big waste of time to you? Well, nothing could be more wrong. There’s actually no excuse to not do most of them on a daily basis. You cannot overestimate how much energy we’d save just by doing these few simple things.