Tips for sustainable living
Some of these tips may seem very obvious, some may seem very radical. I have put them up here as suggestions that I have found useful in my own life. If I do not manage to live by them all of the time, I try not to beat myself up about it, and just try to do better next time. I find it makes life a complex and interesting journey.
Chemicals in the home
Instead of buying deodorant, I now sieve bicarbonate of soda into a little talcum powder bottle and use this. It works really well, although on very hot days it may not last all day. It's much cheaper than buying deodorant and eliminates all those plastic bottles.
I also use bicarbonate of soda instead of toothpaste. Just shake a little onto the wet toothbrush from the same talcum bottle. It tastes slightly salty.
Instead of using bleach to clean the toilet, just put a couple of tablespoons of vinegar into the bowl and leave for a couple of hours. You can then just clean the toilet using hot water. For cleaning the outside of the toilet and the floor, you can again just add some vinegar to hot water.
Washing up liquid is completely unnecessary! Most washing up can be done just using very hot water, especially if plates etc. are rinsed immediately after use. For meat dishes with lots of fat, and very oily dishes, pour or scrape the fat/oil off onto the ground underneath a tree/bush. Then wipe the dish down either with newspaper, or if you must, kitchen paper, and then wash as usual in very hot water.
Food
Eating locally produced food is the key to sustainability - wherever you are. This means that eating food produced using petrol/diesel, fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides that are brought in from elsewhere is a problem. This makes living in Armidale very interesting as very little of the food we eat is grown locally. Most of what is grown in the region has to be transported elsewhere for packaging or butchering, before being sent back to us!
This is why I am putting most of my energy into growing food, helping others grow food, through Armidale Local Food, and trying to work out a diet that we could grow locally.
Coffee is not an essential of life. Even organic, free-trade coffee has usually travelled a long way and means that good agricultural land in developing nations is not been used to produce food. I have struggled with this one and have sometimes bought East Timorese coffee, as they need all the support they can get. However, I still think that they would do better to feed themselves properly before worrying about any exports.
Meat is another complex issue. As an ecologist I know that all natural systems are a combination of plants and animal species and I have no ethical problem with people killing animals that have had a good life for food, if they need to, providing it is done humanely and with respect. However, there are numerous issues with most of the meat eaten by Australians but this would take far too long to discuss here. At present my solution is to eat the eggs from my own 'happy' chooks and to eat one meal of kangaroo a week.