Collection
Kind things to do for the planet
Attempts to live lightly usually fail the same way: everything at once, across a whole household, abandoned within a month. A single change that becomes the way a thing is done survives, because it stops being a project being maintained.
So each of these is one item, one habit or one decision — deliberately unambitious, and chosen because it keeps working after you stop thinking about it.
8 things you can do
In roughly the order they tend to be needed.
Ten minutes of reading. Most households are wrong in both directions.
Find out what your council actually recycles
Ten minutes on their website. Most people are wrong about at least three things, in both directions.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
One repair beats a year of careful recycling. The cost of a thing is in making it.
Mend it once before you replace it
One repair attempt, on one thing, before it goes. Most failures are a seam, a fuse or a seal.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
One item, permanently. Do not add a second until the first is automatic.
Refill the one thing you keep rebuying
Pick a single household item and stop buying new packaging for it. One item, permanently, beats a good fortnight.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
The useful moment is now, not once it is worn out and nobody wants it.
Give it away while it still works
Not when you have finished with it and it is nearly dead. Now, while somebody would actually want it.
Half an hourFreeThe planet
Two pieces on a walk you already take. One route changes in a fortnight.
Pick up the litter you did not drop
Two pieces on the way home, every time. Not a campaign — a habit that takes eleven seconds.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
Repairability is fixed before you own it. This is the only moment it is a choice.
Ask whether it can be repaired, before you buy it
One question at the point of purchase decides the next ten years of that object.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
One named trip, changed once. General resolutions to drive less do not survive.
Take one regular journey off the car
Not driving less in general. One specific trip you make every week, done another way, permanently.
Half an hourFreeThe planet
The return goes entirely to strangers, which is the appeal.
Plant the tree you will not sit under
Whatever you plant now shades somebody who has not been born yet. That is the whole appeal.
An afternoonUnder $10The planet