Welcome to Sustainables50!

This is a small webpage made to promote environmental action, reduce consumption, and give pathways to live with less of an environmental impact. It focuses largely on ways to reduce our consumption of everyday goods, finding alternatives to needless consumption, and ways of dealing with the waste generated by our consumption.

Made for Cabrillo College's Environmental Sustainability Class

Sustainable action should be more accessible to everyone, so here are some simple ways to reduce your impact on the environment, that everyone can do!

Relevant Categories For Reduction:

Reducing Consumption

Buy Less Stuff: It's stupidly obvious, but warrants saying; Buying less of the things you don't need reduces waste.
Analyze Your Trash: By going through your trash, you can identify what things you consume generate the most waste, and then work to cut them out.
No Plastic Straws: This is pretty simple. Don't grab plastic straws when given the option, and ask for no straws if you think you'll get some in an order.
Saving Wrapping Paper: Yeah, your parents had a fair reason for saving the paper during holidays. It's high on the list because lots of people already do this, and reusing things is paramount to reducing your consumption. However, if you just want to shred presents open and enjoy the chaos, there's no shame in that.
Reducing Meat Consumption: It's a little lame, yes, but cutting meat out of even one meal a week goes a long way. Beef, shellfish, and mutton all are very impactful, with beef and shellfish producing on average 57 pounds of carbon per 1000 calories of food, and mutton coming in 3rd with 28 pounds per 1000 calories. Reducing your consumption of these high-impact foods is probably the easiest way to have a wider positive effect beyond your personal sphere.
Less Flying and Driving: Flying and driving have a huge carbon impact, so try to walk, bike, or take public transit when you can. It's usually also cheaper, since driving and flying can be really expensive.
Shorter Showers: The average shower length is 8 minutes long, but there are severe outliers. I myself have taken hour-long showers! If you have the option and you're taking those longer showers, just draw yourself a bath. It'll use less water, and you won't have to stand! For regular people, using low-flow shower heads or playing a song as a timer will cut down on your water usage, and therefore your water bill.
Make use of food scraps: You can make soup stock with carrot scraps, pesto with avocado, or cocktail garnishes with blueberries. All it takes is a little creativity.
Use blankets and sweaters over heating: Heating requires exponentially more power to continue bringing the temperature up, so before you set the thermostat to 85, curl up under a blanket or put on a sweater and see if that helps.
Different Applicators of Makeup: Applicators of makeup can soak up a lot of the stuff, so try to use non-absorbent applicators before blending your contour. It'll stretch the product, and reduce the amount of trash given. The makeup removal step is a tougher one, but castile soap and water on a cotton rag works just as well as cotton balls, and is reusable!
Carpooling: Unsurprisingly, carpooling is excellent for reducing consumption. One car for many people uses less gasoline than many cars for many people, and who knows, you may strengthen your relationship with friends. (Or destroy it, no promises.)
Gleaning Some Foods Directly: Coffee shops may sell teabags directly to you for cheap, and ethnic restuarants may sell you staples too, like authentic tortilla chips or salsa.
Low Maintenance Plants: Basil, Garlic, Hot Peppers, and Almond Potatoes are all great foods to grow in small planters, and can supplement your diet with some filling and flavor. They can also be grown from food scraps, so you don't even have to buy starter plants for them.
Reduce Your Lawnmowing: Lawn care takes up a ridiculous amount of resources, from the nitrogen/phosphorus fertilizer to the thousands of gallons of water it takes to keep everything green in sunnier areas. But there's a simple solution to reduce the amount of care needed for lawns: Let them grow out more. Trimming a lawn frequently means the lawn needs more water to stay green, and that's not good. So please, go the way of Austin Powers and embrace the shag. (And a recommendation for those who live in the American Southwest: get rid of your lawn. You live in a desert, what are you doing?)

Reducing Reliance On Disposables

Reusable Bags: Seriously, just put one in your car. Using a reusable bag is one of the easiest ways to make a positive difference.
Reusable Cups and Bottles: Disposable plastic cups and bottles are a scourge. A metal water bottle goes a good way, and glass and ceramic cups do so much at the home.
Buy Meaningful Gifts: Buy things that will be used and/or enjoyed, like candles, massages, tools, coffee, or books. (My personal favorites are small animal figurines, physical media, and old coins.) Bottom line, try to avoid plastic junk that will only collect dust under a bed somewhere.
Buy Things That Are Meant To Last: An extension of the last, try to buy things for yourself that will continue to be usable for a long time. For example, buy DVDs and CDs over virtual media, or solid shoes over sneakers. Though, this can be difficult for many, so don't feel bad if you're not able to do so all the time.
Avoid Plastic Wrappings: Opt for reusable plastic or silicone containers.
Cloth Napkins: Paper napkins are more convenient, undoubtedly, and that is the sacrifice at play. By giving up a convenience and slightly increasing your cotton washing loads, you cut out your paper napkin waste almost completely. It's your choice!
Handkerchiefs: If you often get a runny nose and don't feel too icky about carrying around a used handkerchief, this can greatly cut down on your tissue waste, and expenses.
Menstrual Cups or Period Panties: Menstrual products are one of the most commonly bought disposable items around, and generate a lot of waste. Thankfully, there are reusable options! Menstrual cups hold in the blood, and period panties absorb the blood, with both to be washed at the end of the day. However, it absolutely is your choice at the end of the day. It's your body after all!
Safety or Electric Razors: Gilette Razors literally invented the disposable razors sales model. Electric razors avoid the hassle of disposing things altogether, only needing a charger, and safety razors can be sharpened almost indefinitely if you feel like having a more ~~bloody~~ rugged experience.

Reducing Your Impact in Consuming

Buy Consciously: Try to buy from companies that are actively making efforts to mitigate their climate impact, or at least aren't actively destroying the environment while doing business. One's money is the primary way an individual interacts with pollution systems, and your money is a major way you can influence greater things. Your money is your vote, and a great source to assist in this is the Better World Shopping Guide, which grades companies on their environmental impact, actions, worker treatment, and more.
Recycled Paper: Using recycled paper reduces the amount of trees being cut down, allowing them to continue sequestering carbon.
Less Plastic Packaging: Less plastic packaged goods bought, the less potential plastic making it into the landfills or oceans. However, this can be very difficult for many places, so there's no shame to you if aren't able to. Shame the companies.
Buy Local: Buying local reduces the amount of carbon put into something's transportation, and gives your purchase a lower carbon impact overall.
Thrift Your Heart Out: Literally the second tenet of the Recycle Mantra: Reduce, REUSE, Recycle. Plus, clothes-making can be very hard on the environment, so getting more use out of already-used clothes is practicaclly a carbon-negative action. (That's a good thing.)
Use Natural Fibers Over Synthetics: Fun fact you probably didn't know: Every time you wash synthetic fibers, they fray and denature, shedding millions of tiny microplastics into your gray water. It's not great, to put it lightly. You can try to filter them out with specialized water filters, but IMO it's easier to just not deal with synthetics in the first place.
LED Lightbulbs: Incandescent lightbulbs convert about 5% of the energy put into them to light. LEDS convert 50%. 'Nuff said.
Farmer's Markets: Not everyone has access to farmer's markets, so this isn't a required point; but if you do, farmers markets are the single best way to get quality foods that have a low climate impact. Seriously, they should never be passed up for staple foods, plus they're great community builders!
Loose Tea Leaves: The idea that plastic tea bags are perfectly fine in boiling hot water has always been a strange one to me. It's plastic, it denatures under heat. If not for the environment, avoid the tea bags for your own sake.
Pour Over or French Press Coffee: These ways of preparing coffee cut way down on waste, and get you more in touch with your coffee.
Wood Or Metal Cooking Utensils: Cheap, durable, and won't ruin a soup if left in a pot by accident. Bamboo is also a great alternative!
Bars of Soap Over Liquid Soap: This is a contentious one, because convenience once again seems triumphant, but it comes down to packaging. Soap bars are often packaged in paper, which is compostable. Liquid soaps are usually packaged in #1 or #2 plastic, which is recyclable, but will never decompose.

DIY!

DIY Face Masks: Mash 1 part avocado and 1 part cucumber together. Spread on a clean, dry face, and let sit for 10 minutes, then rinse off.
DIY Lotion: Mix 1 cup melted beeswax and 2.5 cups of olive oil, then let dry. Add fragrance if you want. Though, most people do not have access to a local beeswax seller, so take this one with a grain of salt.
DIY Perfume: Pour 1 cup Safflower Oil and 2 tablespoons Vitamin E Oil over 3/4 cup of Dried Flowers, whatever fragrance you prefer. Let sit in the sun for 2-3 weeks, shaking once a day. Apply with a roll-on stick.
DIY Toothpaste: Baking soda should do the trick. It's easier on the teeth than most commerical toothpastes, and you can buy it in bulk. If you have sensitive teeth, blend 1 part bentonite clay and 1 part xylitol into 1 part baking soda. (If you know where to get those things, can you tell me?)
DIY All-Purpose Cleaner: 1 part water, 1 part white vinegar. Use with a spray bottle.
DO NOT USE ON ROCKS. The acidic mixture will react with the rocks and weather them.
DIY Rocks Cleaner: 16 parts water, 1 part liquid soap. AKA 1 cup water to 1 tablespoon soap.
DIY Tub Cleaner: Mix 3/4 cup of Baking Soda, 3 tablespoons of Hydrogen Peroxide, and 3 tablespoons of Castile Soap. Apply mixture to stain and let sit for 10 minutes, then remove and wipe away.
All of these DIY ideas are from Kathryn Kellogg's wonderful book 101 Ways To Go Zero Waste. Check out her blog in the link at the bottom of the page!

Dealing With Your Waste

Learn About Your City's Waste Policies: Your city or incorporated area will likely have a webpage on what is good to recycle and what is not. Here's Santa Cruz City's. If your local area does not have a guide, clean and recycle your hard plastics all the same, and remember: styrofoam is always trash.
Use What You Have Before Buying New: Don't rush out to buy new "green" things while throwing out items you haven't used yet. Use what you have first, then get things that have a lower impact.
Tree Urns and Cremation: Returning your body to the earth or making yourself travel-sized is a good way to reduce any lasting environmental impact you may have in death.

Paths For Community Action

Talk With Others: Talking about issues with others is a good idea in general, but spreading ideas on how to be more sustainable in your community can make a large difference, even if the majority of people only do little things.
Get Involved With Local Government: Bringing up issues to local government can be a great extension of Talking With Others, as making a sustainability campaign for, say, a composting endeavor for your town, could go a long way. Showing that there is the will for change makes it easier for those in power to contemplate and enact change.
It's Not About Being Perfect: Ultimately, it's not about doing the most things possible to reduce your environmental impact. It's about making small choices consistiently that make a large difference over time.

Big thanks to Kathryn Kellogg, author of the book 101 Ways To Go Zero Waste, which was a major source for this project. Check out her blog here!

I learned basic HTML through Neocities for this project, and if you'd like to as well, you can learn HTML by checking out these Neocities tutorials!