Ways to make your home more eco-friendly

If there's any upside to load shedding, it's that we're being forced to go green. We have to deal with multiple Eskom-induced earth hours for more hours a day than is convenient. Although being without electricity for four to eight hours a day is, in a sense, the foundation of being eco-friendly, there are several steps you can take to make your home more eco-friendly.

Switch to Solar

There are many less-expensive ways to introduce solar power into your home than investing in the six to fourteen solar panels - or 5kW - needed to power the average South African home - a system typically costing R130,000 for the panels alone.

A solar-powered heating system is far more cost-effective, allowing you to power one of your home's most energy-intensive appliances - the geyser.

This system should cost about R40,000 to R50,000 to purchase and install.

Use Less Water

Attempting to use less water can be challenging, especially if you love long hot showers or relaxing baths. Those in the Western Cape remember that amid the drought, each person was limited to 30 litres per person. Although droughts may not be as severe, they're typically imminent, given South Africa is a water-scarce country.

Water-saving shower heads are an excellent way to encourage less water usage.

Aerated shower heads mix water droplets with air to create gentle shower pressure. However, if you still want high shower pressure, water-conserving shower heads force water out of smaller openings but still give significant pressure.

You can also save water by purchasing a bath that requires fewer litres to fill. Typically, these are shallower baths with a raised end at 45 degrees.

Start Composting 

Rather than throw away your eggs, vegetable and fruit scraps, you can compost them.

You can compost most food scraps, including pasta, bones, dairy products, bread, and cakes. 

You can also compost newspaper, untreated wood, biodegradable packaging, and paper products.

Recycle

The things you can't compost - glass and plastics - you can recycle.
To make things easier in your home, you can purchase a bin that makes dividing things you should throw away from things you should compost and recycle. These waste separation pedal bins aren't imposing and ensure anyone in your home - including a cleaner or visitor - knows where to dump their waste.

Ways to Make Your Apartment More Eco-Friendly 

If you're in an apartment and may not be able to install solar power or compost, you can still make your home eco-friendly.

Use Green Cleaning Products

The typical chemical solutions you're pouring down your sink, toilets, and other drains in your home aren't good for the environment, often making their way into the ocean and polluting the water.

Greener products are biodegradable and don't have the same negative impact on the ocean.

Some green products also have the benefit of breaking down hazardous fats, oils, and grease into water and CO2.

Start a Herb Garden

If you enjoy adding fresh herbs or sprouts to your food, you can save on plastic packaging by growing some of your favourites in your apartment.

Often grown in small pots, most herbs don't need anything more than a window sill.

Switch to a Water-Saving Washing Machine Cycle 

The typical washing machine cycle uses about 180 litres of water. That's more water than most people use when bathing.

Using a quick wash or cold wash often uses less water and electricity.

You can go a step further by only doing laundry when it fills the machine and then hanging your laundry to dry.

If you have soiled items, rather than use a higher temperature or longer cycle, presoak the items before throwing them in the machine.

Use Reusable Shopping Bags

Although shops like Woolworths are already making moves to stop selling plastic bags, given how they are often found wreaking havoc in the ocean. 

To create a more eco-friendly environment, you can opt out of using single-use plastics by buying a few reusable bags and keeping them in the car.

There are also reusable vegetable bags that allow you to skip out on those single-use barrier bags.

Naturally, you can change your bulbs to energy-saving or switch off your appliances when they're not in use, as these are all eco-friendly options. But they're also tips you're likely using, given the current stage of load shedding.