How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint in 2021

Carbon emissions trap heat into the atmosphere, causing climate change and global warming. For this reason, they are sometimes also called greenhouse gases. Carbon emissions are produced from burning fossil fuels. Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases that you release by your day-to-day activities. When you reduce your carbon footprint, it means that you contribute less to climate change, which is good for you and everyone on the planet.

Now that you know why you should reduce your carbon footprint, here are some things you can do to bring it about.

Improve Your Home's Energy Efficiency

There are many things you can do to avoid allowing energy to go to waste around your home. One of the biggest and most exciting is to install a solar power system to either augment the electricity you receive from your energy supplier or replace it altogether. The sun is an endlessly renewable source of energy, and solar panels are becoming more and more practical and affordable all the time. Solar power allows you to either reduce or eliminate your dependence on suppliers that burn fossil fuels to generate electricity. If, for some reason, you are not able to implement solar power, you may still be able to choose a supplier that relies heavily on renewable sources of energy, such as solar or wind.

That's only one of many things you can do to increase energy efficiency in your home. You can also replace incandescent light bulbs with LED lights or try to optimize natural light. You can make sure your home is properly insulated and replace leaky windows with energy-efficient ones. You can try to cool your home naturally using air currents during the summertime rather than constantly running your air conditioner. As an added bonus, many methods of making your home more energy efficient also reduce utility bills, saving you money in the process.

Travel More Efficiently and Less Often

The number-one source of carbon emissions on the planet is transportation, especially by flying and driving. Electric and hybrid vehicles are much more efficient and are becoming significantly more affordable, so if you are in the market for a new car, you might want to consider one of these.

However, if a new car purchase is not currently feasible, there are other ways to drive more efficiently, such as carpooling when possible, checking your tire pressure for better fuel economy, and accelerating slowly. You can also drive less often, using more efficient alternative modes of transportation when possible, such as public transit, bicycling, or walking, and decrease the number of flights you take.

Recycle and Reduce Plastic Use

There is a wide range of materials that can be recycled, including paper, metal, glass, and some plastics. However, you cannot just throw recyclables into the bin as you would trash into a wastebasket. Many areas offer single-stream recycling so that you do not have to sort materials anymore. Nevertheless, they still have to be clean to be accepted for recycling. It is especially important to recycle used electronics and batteries because these contain toxic materials that can leak into the ground and contaminate the soil and water if they end up in a landfill. These recyclables require special handling and cannot go into the single stream.

Not all plastics are recyclable, and they do not break down in landfills. Therefore, it is important to limit single-use plastics. For example, you can use reusable water bottles and cloth shopping bags rather than single-use alternatives. You can also use metal silverware and silicone straws whenever possible when eating out or ordering in.

Reduce Food Waste

When the average person purchases food in the United States, approximately 40% of it eventually goes to waste. You can prevent this by taking leftovers home when dining out, reducing portion sizes at home, making grocery lists, and freezing food before it spoils.

The last decade or so has seen a dramatic increase in droughts, floods, and other weather extremes due to climate change. If humanity fails to limit it by 2030, the risk could increase significantly. However, this means that there is still time in which to make a difference.