With the climate crisis escalating and the world’s weather changing rapidly due to the way that humans behave, it’s understandable that sustainability is an important factor for many homeowners and consumers.

Scientists believe that changes in behaviour are required if we want to reduce our impact on the environment, so we all need to review our choices and lifestyles and then find ways to improve our sustainability.

One of the main ways that we can reduce our impact on the earth is to stop being so wasteful. Our throwaway culture causes many issues for the environment, including wasting resources, harming animals and plant life, damaging habitats and more.

There are many ways to go zero waste and reduce your impact on the planet; you don’t have to do anything drastic, such as getting rid of all of your possessions or only eating food that no one else wants.

Reducing your personal waste is easier than you might think: with simply a few lifestyle changes, you can live less wastefully.

Here are some practical tips to help you to reduce the waste that you and your family produce and improve your general sustainability.

Try to buy less

Getting rid of less means improving your buying habits. If you regularly go shopping, either in-store or online and buy lots of items that you don’t use, then you should try to improve your shopping habits. Try to think about what you need and whether you’d actually use something or adopt a one in, one out policy. So, for every item you buy, you have to get rid of something else. Other useful ways to ensure that you always have what you need, but don’t buy too much, include renting clothes rather than buying them, particularly formalwear that you won’t get much use out of.

Put unneeded items into storage

Some larger items, such as furniture or old paperwork, can be difficult to throw away but will also take up a lot of space in your home. In these cases, you could consider checking out storage units, such as those offered by personal storage specialists Safestore. These units can help you to keep everything you love but don’t currently use without having it all shoved into a corner of your home or gathering dust in the attic. When you buy a larger home or your tastes change, you can get what you need out of your storage unit.

Choose products with less packaging

One of the biggest causes of waste for most homes is buying food, toiletries and other products that come with lots of packaging. This excess material is usually thrown away, which can lead to excessive waste. As such, you need to try and reduce the amount of packaging you receive. A great way to do this is to shop at zero waste stores, which allow you to bring your own container for products such as food and hygiene products. You could also try to buy items that don’t have lots of packaging and avoid ordering from online stores that use excessive packing materials.

Recycle what you can

While reducing your waste is important, it’s almost impossible to avoid getting rid of some things, such as the packaging around gifts or broken or unusable items. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t help the environment. Instead of just throwing out products, you should try to recycle them. Learn about what you can and can’t recycle, both through your local council bins and by using private services. You can then reduce your waste and ensure that anything that you need to get rid of is disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.