Daily hacks: How to do your part in celebrating World Environment Day

In our 'daily hacks' series, we bring you the latest beauty and home tips, trends and tricks to transform your life and save you money.


World Environment Day is celebrated on 5 June each year, and this year’s World Environment Day theme will be Only One Earth which, according to the United Nations website, was the slogan for the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972.

Join in on the global celebration of World Environment Day by trying out these effective ways in which you can contribute to better the environment.

Save on electricity

Turn off all the lights and plugs which are not in use when leaving a certain room or your home for a few hours.

A fun way to get the whole family to participate in this habit would be to create a chore jar that has a list of different chores, and whenever someone forgets to switch the lights or the plugs off when they are not in use, they pick a chore from the chore jar.

World Environment Day
Turning the plug off to save electricity. Picture: iStock

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Reuse your water

Whenever you and your family members take a shower, remember to place an empty bucket in the shower so the bucket can be filled up with all the excess water.

Make use of this water to water the plants and grass in your garden. This decreases your water consumption on a monthly basis as you will not need to use any fresh water from the taps to water your harden.

shower
Taking a steaming hot shower. Picture: iStock

Be cautious when doing laundry

Doing your laundry often also has a major impact on the environment, because of the amount of water which is used to wash your clothes in the washing machine. The wear and tear of clothes that happens from regularly washing your clothes also results in you buying new clothes and repeating the cycle, as well as using more electricity each month with your tumble dryer.

To decrease your water and electricity usage each month from doing laundry, you could wear certain clothing items more than once, such as jackets, jeans, and jerseys.

You can also wash your laundry ahead of time and dry your clothes indoor on a clothing rack to ensure that your dryer does not need to always be used.

World Environment Day
Clothes being washed in a washing machine. Picture: iStock

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