Many vegans who care about animals also care about the health of our planet. Just being a vegan, vegetarian, or on a plant-based diet helps you to contribute to a healthier world. However, you can do other things that will help us to save the world as well. Having researched this in the past, I’d like to talk about some of the things I learned in the process.
Every person has an individual responsibility to reduce their impact on the world. Let’s take a look at what you can do to reduce your own impact.
Key Takeaways
#1 Recycle Properly
Recycling is a big one, and I realize it’s kind of obvious and over talked about, so I’d like to take the time to go more in-depth on a topic I personally had an issue with locally. The issue—while I was recycling properly by sorting all the plastics and glass and papers from each other—my local garbage company—wasn’t.
They’d take everything and put it all into a single garbage bin, and they weren’t recycling properly, if at all. This can lead to potential environmental harm when you mix your recyclables with trash.
It can lead to contamination when they do this because it ruins the whole batch. Not only that, but why would you want to try to sort your recyclables if the company will simply mix them all together at the end? It ruins the efforts of people trying to do good everywhere.
How to Respond to This Issue
First, you should understand how you can have a huge impact by getting the garbage company to follow the best recycling practices. This goes for taking action on any environmental issue in your local area.
You might try to call the company and ask them directly about their recycling practices. You could express your concerns that you saw how the company didn’t properly recycle the things that you put into the recycling bins.
In many cases, reaching out to the garbage company won’t get you too far. You need teeth. Otherwise, they give you the runaround without a change in behavior. This is where you can take it up a notch. You might check with the local government recycling mandates to see if the garbage company is breaking any of them.
For those who believe that the garbage company isn’t following the correct recycling practices, you could report them to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). You might discreetly take a video of the garbage company mixing the recycling. This industry is tightly regulated, and they must follow those regulations.
The EPA fines are typically larger than those of federal agencies, and a garbage company could face up to $37,500 in fines for each violation where they didn’t comply with the environmental, safety, or health requirements.
One thing to understand is that every state has its own recycling requirements, and there are no national laws, so you need to understand the local and state laws to fight this way.
#2 Eat Local Produce
Being vegan in itself will be more environmentally friendly than consuming beef or other dairy products since the animals require vast tracts of land and require less water. One thing vegans can do to take this even further is to consume local produce.
Local produce shortens the distance it takes to get from between the farm and the table, lowering your carbon footprint.
Local produce tastes more flavorful because you get the food at peak ripeness, so it ensures the flavors and the textures will be at their best. At the same time, local produce is also fresher ensuring that it retains its nutritional value.
When you buy local, you also support the local farmers and create jobs for your local economy. You also shorten the supply chain and lower your dependence on distant sources, adding to your food security.
#3 Shop Wisely Even for Vegan Foods
You might believe that after you buy vegan, you automatically buy from environmentally friendly sources. Unfortunately, you have to exercise caution even when buying from vegan sources. There are a couple of different labels that you might check for including:
Becoming a wise shopper ensures that you encourage businesses to be more environmentally friendly. When you reward this positive behavior with your hard-earned dollars, it’s one of the most positive ways of ensuring that other entrepreneurs will have a reason to follow sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.
Just remember that not all labels were created equal with some carrying more weight than others. Some labels can even mislead consumers into thinking it will help save the planet, but it won’t.
The USDA Organic label is one of the more trustworthy labels. Unfortunately, other labels will only suggest that certain standards were met, but it doesn’t even guarantee it. Research the label ahead of time before you buy a product. Don’t buy just because it has a label.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this shows you a couple of other things that vegans can do to help save the planet. Being a vegan, vegetarian, or on a plant-based diet in itself will be more environmentally friendly, but you can take things even further with some of the things mentioned.
Especially with the first example used, it’s an example of taking action to get people to be more environmentally friendly.
You can use that to think of other environmental issues in your local region and either gather a group if possible or start looking for ways to make a positive impact on the local environment.
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