Eco-Friendly February

So we’ve started the year (in some way) and have set our own personal goals for the year ahead. Now its time to start taking action and creating habits we can commit to at home as well as continuing in the future.

This month, start by making small decisive changes in your home and routine and stick to them for these 28 days, hopefully leading to the creation of more positive lifelong habits.

• I’m sure we are all asking the web a lot of questions at the moment, so why not make a difference while you search. Swap your usual search engine for Ecosia, the search engine that is combatting global deforestation by planting trees generated by your searches. The advertising revenue (made as part of the search engine) is used to plant trees and improve our planet’s environment. You can keep track of the number of searches you make and the corresponding number of trees you have helped to plant. So add to your home screen and make it the go-to place for all your questions and queries. (Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees)

• Familiarise yourself with Terracycle (TerraCycle) – this organisation helps to recycle hard-to-recycle items from our homes, schools and businesses to prevent waste in landfill. Although you may not be able to travel to a site at this time, take some time to look around their website and find out where your local recycling point is. Then collect the waste you would normally throw away, see if Terracyle can use it (check the for the logo on the product’s packaging) and create a bag or box to put it all in, ready for when you can visit your nearest recycling point.

• Learn bird ID – use this time to appreciate and value the nature on your doorstep by learning a new skill like being able to identify your garden birds. ID charts from the internet (e.g. Bird Identifier | British Garden Birds and Many More – The RSPB) are a great resource for helping you get to grips with what and whom is visiting your home. As you pick up your skill, you may start to see that certain individuals call your garden home or that there are patterns throughout the day that you can look out for. If you are a little more advanced, you could try learning some of the bird calls or noises in your garden and try identifying wildlife that way. At this time of uncertainty, really emersing yourself in the wildlife around you can be a great way to keep up your connection with nature and a real comfort during this period.

February may be the shortest month, but it can still be very productive if we open our mind to creating new habits, learning new skills and welcoming nature back to our homes. Enjoy the process of trying something new and be kind to yourself when putting new ideas into practice – it may not happen straight away, but it is better to start and gradually improve than not try at all.