When not in use, turn off the juice: There isn’t any juice to turn off here, this is just a phrase that says you should turn off the lights, fans, AC, TV and other electrical appliances when leaving the room or having used them.

Due to inflated electricity bill, I am sure your parents are already telling you this! But do you know that leaving electrical equipment on the standby mode, such as the computer, TV, AC and even chargers plugged in, leads to electricity being used by these equipments that gets added to the total bill. This is not just waste of electricity, but also precious money.

Reducing household energy use is important, especially so as we mostly use energy that is generated from bio-fuel that, once burnt, is lost forever.

Turn off the tap: Running water in the tap and shower is such a blessing! But a lot of effort goes into making water clean and supplying it to our homes. In summer, there is usually a shortage of water in many areas, so even if you have plenty of water, do turn off the tap when brushing your teeth, using the soap or shampoo during baths, and using a bucket in place of taking a shower.

If your mother or maid leaves the water running while soaping the dishes, do ask them to turn it off. If there are any leaking faucets, ask an adult to get it fixed because, according to an estimate, a drop-per-second leak wastes about 2,400 gallons of water a year!

Reuse or recycle: We don’t have a good system of the collection of recyclable waste material as in other countries. So everything goes in the same bin, but in many countries there are recyclable bins for items such as plastic bottles, cans and packing material, from where such things are taken to recycling factories for making other things.

We can recycle and reuse things in our own creative ways. Avoid buying disposable water bottles, take a water bottle with you when you leave home. Also, when going shopping, take a cloth bag or a spare plastic bag you have at home, and tell the shopkeeper not to give you a plastic bag for each item you buy.

Usually when we return from any outing, we have so many plastic shopping bags with us that we just throw in the dustbin and which simply goes to litter the environment as it doesn’t degenerate. All the plastic bags you see on the streets and neighbourhood are thrown by people like us, so if we all start using fewer plastic bags, or plastic and disposable items as a whole, there will be less garbage around us. The lack of proper garbage disposal and collection is reason enough to encourage us to do our part in keeping the environment clean.

Walk or carpool: Cars use fuel and emit gases that add to pollution. So don’t use the car to go to a nearby place if you can walk there safely. Use the school van or share a car with a friend to go to school instead of your own car. Encourage your parents to carpool or share car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car.

This has multiple benefits in terms of reduction of cars on the road, cleaner air, less traffic and is cost-saving.

Simplify your life: Only buy and keep things that you use and need on regular basis. By making this effort, you will buy less and thus create less waste in the future.

Moreover, the production of everything has an impact on the environment, whether in terms of the materials or energy used to produce it. So less production will mean less usage of resources and less impact on the environment. This is a topic that needs detailed discussion, but some other day.

Don’t waste paper: Paper comes from trees, and trees give us oxygen and take in carbon dioxide. You know all this, don’t you? Just thought I would remind you.

Replace disposables: Avoid disposable products in favour of reusable ones. Sadly, using disposable plates, cups, pens, batteries, kitchen items and what not, have become trendy. This is because businesses want us to keep spending money on buying things.

Imagine if you only used fountain pens where you can refill the ink, you would probably use just one or two in the whole academic year and just buy ink bottles. But so many fancy pens are now in the market to tempt you and you have given in to the temptation or trend. Can you count how many pens you used in a year? Now you realise the waste you have generated by using a disposable product.

There are many more ways in which we can reduce, reuse and recycle things to show our commitment to the conservation of the environment and the planet as a whole. This is our home, we all need to play our part in keeping this home clean.

Published in Dawn, Young World April 22nd, 2017