Publication Name

KICK THE HABIT

THE CYCLE – REDUCE

100

Use your common sense

You need to think of what will work for you. Solutions do not usually come

in a one-size-fits-all format: they have to be tailored to individual circum-

stances. Perhaps you have a job which requires you to have a car always

available. That cuts down your chances of reducing the energy you use in

transport. Perhaps you care for an elderly relative who needs warmth: not

much scope there for reducing your heating bills as much as you could

otherwise. Choosing what will work for you, of course, goes hand-in-hand

with a determination to make as many GHG savings as you can. So, if you

cannot do much in one area, you will probably want to make bigger cuts

in other areas. And the bottom line remains the same: usually, the more

energy you save, the more money you will save too.

INDIVIDUALS

For many individuals in industrialized countries, food and related services

make up the biggest chunk of emissions related to goods. Getting started

on this is not too complicated. Buying only the food we need means refrig-

erators working less hard, less food being wasted and

thrown away

, less

energy being wasted on producing the food and transporting it to our tables.

And for those with a garden, how about the revolutionary idea of growing

some of our own food? Without necessarily going all the way and installing

a pig in every household, or even a few chickens, home-grown food will

Freeganism is a movement of mostly middle-class urban American – and increas-

ingly global – anti-consumerists who, among other radical acts of refusal to subdue

themselves to the dominant economic laws of our societies, feed themselves on meals

prepared from food found in urban waste bins. Freegans do not do so out of pure ne-

cessity, but to draw attention to the excesses of our throw-away culture. And not only

that: by recovering discards from retailers, offices, schools, homes, hotels, or anywhere

else, by rummaging through their trash bins, dumpsters, and trash bags, freegans are

able to obtain food, beverages, books, toiletries magazines, comic books, newspa-

pers, videos, kitchenware, appliances, music (CDs, cassettes, records, etc.), carpets,

musical instruments, clothing, rollerblades, scooters, furniture, vitamins, electronics,

animal care products, games, toys, bicycles, artwork, and just about any other type of

consumer goods. Rather than contributing to further waste, freegans curtail garbage

and pollution, reducing the overall volume of the waste stream.