Download Article
Download Article
Saving the environment might seem like a tall order, but living an environmentally friendly life is actually quite easy. With just a few small lifestyle changes, you can protect the planet while creating a healthier life for yourself and future generations. A single household or individual can make a big difference: the more people become environmentally conscious, the healthier our planet will be. Read on for a comprehensive list of tips on how you can save the environment at home.
Things You Should Know
- Follow the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle! Upcycle things you don’t need in fun creative projects, shop secondhand, and compost scraps too.
- Eat locally-grown foods, cut back on meat and dairy, and shop at farmer’s markets. Make an effort to conserve water and electricity around the house.
- Walk or bike rather than drive a car when possible. Volunteer your time to clean up the community and advocate for environmental awareness.
Steps
Community Q&A
Search
-
QuestionWhat are the best ways to keep the earth clean?Community AnswerAs an individual, there are lots of things you can do, starting with not littering or polluting. Dispose of everything properly, and even better, reduce your waste so that there is less to return to the landfill. Compost your food scraps and other compostables, to return nutrients to the soils. Lobby to have cleaner waters and air in your part of the world and make submissions whenever new projects are proposed that might cause more destruction of nature. Think before assuming that all human activities are either necessary or have to be done as they currently are -- think about a cleaner future and what it would take to get us there. That is a positive thing to do, not a scary thing at all.
-
QuestionWhy do I have to help the environment?Community AnswerYou are part of the environment and your very well-being depends on the healthiness and well-being of the environment around you. Your food, your air, your water and your sense of overall well-being is all sourced from nature. Since the era of industrialisation, human beings have assumed that the planet is something to tame and control, to be outside of and apart from. As a result, many practices from factories and chemicals on the farm, to cars and mass manufacturing have left scars on the environment that we now have an obligation to heal and restore.
-
QuestionWhat is the definition of "save the environment"?Community AnswerThat is a big question with no single, easy answer! On the one hand, it's about restoring or encouraging natural processes so that the ecosystems function healthily but without assuming we can control those processes -- rather, we need to learn to live with them. It's also about restoring habitats, so that animal and plant species can survive in a healthy way. On the other hand, the phrase actually implies "save human beings" because if we don't respond effectively to such as issues as climate change, degraded ecosystems and other environment challenges, the survival of the human species is at risk. The definition really depends on which angle you're coming at it from but it might help to realize that if we muck things up so much that we cannot survive, the equilibrium will be restored without us.
Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
Advertisement
Video
Reader Videos
Tips
- Stay up-to-date on environmental issues, using reliable sources of information. This way, you'll be able to share helpful information if someone asks for tips on how they can save the environment.Thanks
Tips from our Readers
The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.
- If you have old clothes, donate them to a secondhand store or take them to a shelter so someone else can wear them.
- Before you start a new school year, look through last year's materials. Many supplies can be reused or recycled.
Submit a Tip
All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
Name
Please provide your name and last initial
Thanks for submitting a tip for review!
Advertisement
References
- ↑ https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/build-healthy-cities/cities-stories/benefits-of-trees-forests/
- ↑ https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/awesome-hands-on-ways-you-can-volunteer-to-help-the-environment/
- ↑ https://www.epa.gov/recycle/frequent-questions-recycling
- ↑ https://www.boisestate.edu/cobe/blog/2023/10/reusing-recycling-and-upcycling-a-primer/
- ↑ https://extension.umd.edu/resource/how-make-compost-home
- ↑ https://habitatbroward.org/blog/benefits-of-buying-things-second-hand/
- ↑ https://www.turnbackthetide.ca/taking-action/households/waste/reduce-reuse-recycle.shtml
- ↑ https://sustainability.uic.edu/green-campus/recycling/paper-waste-reduction/
- ↑ https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/7_benefits_of_eating_local_foods
- ↑ https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/saving-water-at-home/
- ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351265191_Benefits_of_green_chemistry
- ↑ https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk//guidance/safety-around-the-home/energy-saving-tips/
- ↑ https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/awesome-hands-on-ways-you-can-volunteer-to-help-the-environment/
- ↑ https://www.nrdc.org/stories/how-call-congress
About This Article
Article Summary
X
You can help save the environment by turning off things that use electricity when you're not using them and unplugging devices when they're not in use. You can conserve water by taking shorter showers, turning off the faucet when you're brushing your teeth, and doing laundry less frequently. Also, try walking or riding your bike instead of driving, which will help reduce carbon emissions. Buying your food locally also helps lower carbon emissions since the food doesn't have to be shipped from far away! If you want to learn more, like how to recycle or reuse materials, keep reading the article!
Did this summary help you?
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 2,894,056 times.
Reader Success Stories
- "Taking steps to conserve and reuse is easier than you might think. You can do your part just by changing your daily habits. To help save the environment, try decreasing energy and water consumption, changing your eating and transportation habits to conserve natural resources, and adapting your home and yard to be more environmentally-friendly. Once you've made your own lifestyle more environmentally conscious, you can also engage in activism to help educate others on doing the same." ..." more
Advertisement
"Taking steps to conserve and reuse is easier than you might think. You can do your part just by changing your daily habits. To help save the environment, try decreasing energy and water consumption, changing your eating and transportation habits to conserve natural resources, and adapting your home and yard to be more environmentally-friendly. Once you've made your own lifestyle more environmentally conscious, you can also engage in activism to help educate others on doing the same."
..."
more
"Protecting the environment is important, and doing these steps will make it easy to save, help, and protect wildlife. Turning off lights, using less electricity and planting is better than throwing out trash, not forgetting to turn off a light when leaving a room or littering."
..."
more
"Really good explanation of how to save the environment."
"Easy to make children understand the steps to be taken."
"I was looking for some Ideas for my holiday assignment. At first I was getting very obvious methods to conserve environment. Then I stumbled on this article. And seriously, these are very different views on conservation! I love them and they were very useful for my assignment. Now I even share this link to my friends. Thanks!"
..."
more
