Celebrate Earth Day

The 5Rs of Rubbish:
responsibly
reduce, reuse, recycle & recover

How can you reduce your energy consumption, your waste production, and help the environment? Here is a list of simple things you can do, starting today:

1. Walk up and down the stairs every day;
2. Cut 1 minute of your shower time every day until you shower for a maximum of 5 minutes, and reward yourself with a long relaxing bath once a week once you have reached this goal;
3. Wet your toothbrush, cloth or shaving brush/razor and turn the tap water OFF while you shave, wash or clean your teeth. Rinse using a cup of water;
4. Make sure all electrical appliances are unplugged when not in use;
5. Take your own shopping bag(s), whether it be cloth, paper or from recycled material, when you go shopping, and leave spare bags in the car and one in your handbag;
6. Say “NO” to plastic bags when someone automatically starts to put your purchases in a plastic bag. Ask for a recycled paper bag, and better still, carry a spare with you all the time;
7. Money talks – tell your suppliers to adopt more energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies. If they need help to do this, suggest they contact Clean Up Egypt. A great example of how this has been implemented is IKEA, who not only practice what they preach, but enforce the same behaviour from their suppliers, with particular emphasis on ensuring children are not being used in production and waste materials are not dumped;
   Walk once a week to an appointment you have, whether it be a lunch date, a visit to the hair-dresser, or to the office. A good walking speed is 10 minutes per kilometre, so in half an hour you will already have walked 3 km (see www.cairowalkinggroup.com or email muhammadfarag@gmail.com to join);
8. Are you a two car household or a one car household? Try one week using just one car;
   Buy fresh food which is not pre-packaged, and buy in bulk – fill small containers with the serving size required at home eg instead of individual 100g yoghurt tubs buy 1kg and divide as needed;
9. Keep a water bottle (like cyclists use) for picnics, in the car, in your bag, in the children's school bags, and say “NO” to bottled water. Use a filter on your water tap, and fill your water bottles before you step out;
10. Cook at home once a week using a solar cooker – ask if you would like a demonstration on how to make and use your own, or where you can purchase these;
11. Use candles for gentle lighting at night – scented candles of tea tree, citronella and geranium are particularly effective against mosquitos. Ask if you would like to know where you can purchase these or how to make your own;
12. Keep your air-conditioning set to a minimum of 26 degrees celsius and use light colours to reflect heat. You won't notice such a difference when going outside on hot days, and you will acclimatise more easily;
13. Park your car in a shady spot and turn the engine OFF if you have to wait in the car – leave the battery on if you want to use the fan or air conditioner;
14. Grow your own food – it tastes better, is delivered fresh to your own doorstep and you can use all kinds of different containers, such as 1kg yoghurt tubs, tetrapaks, plastic bottles to hold your plants;
15. Cook at home and limit take-outs and home-deliveries to once a week, then once a fortnight, then once a month.....;
16. Avoid meat for at least one day a week – it takes 10kg of edible grain to produce 1kg of meat, and ruminant animals produce large quantities of methane, which is 20 times worse in its effect on the atmosphere than C02;
17. Take up a craft such as knitting or crocheting recycled plastic bags into a duffle bag, sandals, place mats, shower curtains – if this isn't your style, donate your clean plastic bags to people who are recycling plastic this way;
18. Once a month, offer to plant (and do so) a mulberry tree in each school within walking distance of your home or office;
19. Separate your garbage according to the sorting tips provided, and make sure your waste is being appropriately managed by your waste collector ie being reused, recycled or having its energy recovered eg waste oil converted to biodiesel, and not ending up as landfill;
20. Aim to implement at least one of the tips on this page each week so that these become part of your normal routine.