10.5 Tips for a better world
Sustainable tips for everyday life
10.5 Tips
Background
People are being exploited - oceans are being overfished - children have no access to education - our soils are being contaminated with chemicals - in many places there is a lack of sufficient food and drinking water - primeval forests are being cut down - our raw materials are running out. We must act.
Our approach
With 10 1/2 tips, we help you to make your everyday life more environmentally and socially responsible. Because as a consumer, it's up to you to make this world a little fairer and more sustainable. Let's go!
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1FOOD
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2MEAT & FISH
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3KLEIDER
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4WATER
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5PAPER
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6ENERGY
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7TRAFFIC
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8RECYCLING
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9ZEUGS
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10CONTINUE
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10.5CONTRIBUTE
1. food
When buying food, pay attention to where the products come from and how they are produced. It is important that the products are as regional, seasonal and organic as possible. This way you eat healthier, support small businesses in your region and reduce CO2-emissions caused by the long transport routes. Through the purchase of Organic products you are not only doing something good for your health but also sending an important signal to the food industry. You are showing that you do not want to buy food contaminated with toxic substances and that animal welfare is important to you. When buying exotic products from abroad (coffee, mango, chocolate, etc.), pay attention to Fairtrade. By doing so, you are supporting fair working conditions and not buying products that have been produced using child labour. And while you're at it, make sure that you don't buy any products containing palm oil (margarine, creams, etc.), because hectares of our precious rainforest are still being razed to the ground for the large-scale production of palm oil! This not only accelerates global climate change but also destroys the habitat of numerous animals, plants and people.
Important.
More than half of our food ends up in the bin! Most of it before it even reaches our dinner table. Nevertheless, each and every one of us throws away an average of 82kg of food every year, 53kg of which is still edible! So only buy what you really eat and only throw away what is really no longer edible. Inform yourselfhow you can avoid food waste!
Fact.
The best-before date is set by the food industry itself and not by an authority. It merely specifies certain qualitative characteristics (e.g. consistency) of a product and is not an indication of health risks!
2. meat & fish
Meat consumption causes a large proportion of CO2 emissions worldwide, and animals are slaughtered en masse for our consumption. Today, a vegan diet is easily possible. Numerous animal-free products are on the market and the number is growing. By going vegan, you are protecting the climate and opting for a non-violent diet!
Facts
> Ten kilos of grain are needed to produce one kilo of meat.
> In Switzerland, 75 million animals are slaughtered every year for our consumption.
> The amount of grain used to produce a single steak could feed 40 children for a whole day.
> Almost 70% of the world's grain production is used to feed livestock.
> Approx. 15,000 litres of water are used to produce 1kg of beef - you could easily take a shower every day for a year.
> The world's oceans are already overfished: stocks have fallen by 90% in the last 60 years!
That blows your mind, doesn't it? Besides that, the list of food scandals is long and scary: hormones, antibiotics and vaccines in meat, dioxin in eggs, rotten meat and the animals are usually pretty miserable too, which you then eat with relish.
Let's go
Try vegan! At the vegan-challenge.ch you will get to know numerous fantastic dishes and learn a lot more about meat, milk, etc. In addition, you will learn how to take in missing vitamins and all important nutrients in a sensible way.
3. clothes
When buying clothes, also pay attention to Fair and ecological production. Chill out in the second-hand shop or give the "flea market" in your neighbourhood a try. You'll be surprised! The latter will save you a lot of money and the environment valuable resources that are needed to produce the clothes.
Facts
If you consider all the resources used to produce a single T-shirt, it weighs around five tonnes and around 2,700 litres of that would be water. Although only 2.4% of the world's cotton growing area is used for textile production, around 20% of the world's pesticides are used for this. As a result, 1.5 million people are poisoned every year. In India alone, an estimated 450,000 children work up to twelve hours a day to produce clothing. In return, they receive no more than a wage of 50 centimes in the evening! Sad, but true! And for your latest branded sneakers, which sell for CHF 130, the worker earns just 0.4%. Most of the money probably goes into the pockets of the companies and their bosses, who then use it to buy their new Ferrari!
4. water
Almost 90 billion litres of water are bottled in plastic bottles worldwide every year. You think this water is healthier than the water from the tap? Wrong - it's just a marketing strategy to take money out of your pocket. You're also producing a lot of unnecessary packaging material. We have such marvellous tap water in Switzerland! Why buy bottled water every day when you can use a reusable bottle, for example from refiller can be topped up again and again?
Pay attention to water consumption in your daily personal hygiene routine. After all, valuable drinking water comes out of your shower head, which has to be cleaned again after use and requires a lot of energy to heat up. So dear hot showerers: In summer, occasionally turn the tap on a little less hot and ideally buy an energy-saving shower head.
Tip
How many times a day do you flush the toilet? A normal cistern holds about nine to twelve litres of water. This means that every time you flush, you waste a huge amount of water! Are you still okay? Even if you have to deal with "bigger business" from time to time, half a flush is enough and everything is clean. Place two full PET bottles directly in your cistern. This means you use a few litres less per flush. Do the maths over a whole year! AIGHT.
Fact
Of all the water on earth, 2.6% is fresh water and only 0.3% is drinking water. In that sense, it's pretty little to be careless with.
5. paper
Try to reduce your paper consumption. It is not necessary to always print everything out! If you use paper, make sure that you Recycled or FSC paper use. In this way, you reduce the deforestation of our forests and support more sustainable forestry worldwide.
Fact
Don't feel like bundling waste paper all the time? A sheet of paper always has two sides! You can reduce mountains of paper waste by half if you also use the reverse sides of the sheets and cancel annoying adverts.
6. energy
TV, laptop, stereo system - most devices have a standby mode, but this consumes more power than you might think! Get a power strip that you can always switch off completely after use. And did you know that your charger also consumes power when nothing is connected to it?
Do you remember to switch off the light every time you leave the room? Many households waste a lot of electricity this way, which is not only bad for the environment but also for your wallet. So flick the switch and save money!
When buying new electrical appliances, such as a television, make sure that they are energy-efficient or even second-hand. You will find so-called "energy consumption labelling" (e.g. A+ / A++ for low energy consumption) on almost every new appliance. This pays off for the environment and your piggy bank! And don't forget, an old hat: energy-saving light bulbs.
Important
Use green electricity instead of nuclear energy! Nuclear waste contaminates our soil and everything that grows on it! It cannot be recycled and must be deposited in special repositories for radioactive waste for millions of years! Clean green electricity is supplied by renewable and harmless energy sources (e.g. water, wind, solar, geothermal energy).
Fact
When it comes to energy, think about heating in winter. Come to terms with the fact that it is cold in Switzerland for more than half the year and that you have to wear a jumper at home rather than a T-shirt. By airing your home three times a day, the air will always be fresh and you won't waste too much heat. The radiators should also never be covered and leaving tilt windows open all day is taboo in winter anyway! If you optimise heating and ventilation in winter, you won't pay a penny for heating every six years!
7. traffic
Despite all the advances in today's technology, cars still have a very high CO2Â emissions. Try to use public transport as often as possible. With these petrol prices, you can get away even cheaper with a Half-Fare travelcard! If you still occasionally travel by car, pay attention to your driving style: high-speed and noisy cruising is more pitiful than cool and costs a lot of petrol. Sports fan. Attend a fuel-saving training course instead. It's good for the environment and fills your petrol tank.
It's best to get your arse on your bike. It's the quickest way to get around the city anyway! Or you can simply walk.
Important
If you're planning your well-deserved holiday, give Europe and Switzerland a chance. Instead of taking a cheap flight, take the train or bus. You'll save the environment massively and can enjoy the wonderful scenery on the way. After all, the journey is the reward. If you fly, then at least offset your CO2 -emissions. For example here: atomosfair.de / myclimate.org / Fairclimate Fund
8. recycling
It's so simple: paper and cardboard, glass, aluminium, PET, compost and residual waste - recycling is child's play and saves a lot of energy and money. A roll of 35 litre bin liners costs around CHF 20. Not exactly a small amount. So grab a few boxes and start separating your rubbish. Take electrical appliances back to the retailer or to a landfill site and old batteries to the shopping centre. It's also no great effort to take your own waste to the nearest rubbish bin when you're out and about. The next time you throw something on the floor, please remember the following list. Here you can see which waste takes how long to decompose:
Daily newspaperSix weeks / biodegradable
Banana peelTwo months / biodegradable
Aluminium can: 200 years / non-biodegradable
Plastic bag300 years / non-biodegradable
Plastic bottle450 years / non-biodegradable
Cigarette butts50 years / not biodegradable
Info
INFO: "Non-biodegradable" means that the residues can decompose but cannot be absorbed and reintegrated by nature.
FACT
A single cigarette butt contaminates over 50 litres of groundwater! Plastic is even worse: Especially in marine regions, an enormous amount of plastic ends up in the water (PET bottles, bags, flip flops, etc.) and breaks down after a while into tiny particles, which in this form are mistaken for food by fish. These fish will have swum out shortly afterwards and can therefore poison the entire food chain, including you as a consumer.
9. stuff
After tip 8, it should now go without saying that you should separate your rubbish from now on. But it is much more important to make sure that you produce less waste. Grab your rucksack or a cloth bag when you go shopping. That way, you don't have to take a new plastic bag with you every time you go shopping, which you'll throw straight back in the bin when you get home.
Take a look around your home and be honest with yourself: how many clothes and shoes do you have in your wardrobe? How many of them have you not worn for ages? What else do you have lying around? How much stuff do you really need? How much of it is a luxury and completely superfluous? If we bought less stuff in general and therefore produced less (the principle of supply and demand), there would ultimately be a lot less waste. The more we buy and consume, the greater the damage we cause. We are already suffering the consequences of our parents' luxury lifestyle. Imagine what the next generation will look like.
A clean planet, clean air, uncontaminated food and drinking water are much more important than all that stuff that gets on your nerves after you've watched it three times anyway.
Tip
Before you throw away something old - sorry, you've been recycling lately - first think about whether a mate, your little sister or someone else could use it. Think about whether you could make something new out of what you're about to throw away. By the way, this is called upcycling.
10. pass on
Voilà , by tip 9 at the latest, you are certainly ready and well enough prepared to do educational work. A great deal of effort is being made in schools, in the press or on YouTube to draw attention to the issues of the environment, climate change, child labour, exploitation or unfair working conditions. It's not just you who should learn more about environmental protection. Your parents, siblings, colleagues etc. should also be informed or made aware of their misbehaviour. So spread the word! Here's to a better world that we can only create together!
10 1/2 Join
Immediately to the FAIR! join.