Summertime comes and we all tend to be a little more free-spirited and less diligent about things than we normally would be. That’s also true about making wise choices regarding consumption and being eco-friendly. While it’s true that summertime means better weather and more opportunities to spend time in nature, many of the activities that we’ve been socialized to do in the summer are the opposite of good for us or good for the planet. What should you avoid and what can you do instead? Here’s a list of four things to sidestep and our recommendations for what to substitute!
Avoid Summer Blockbuster Movies!
We don’t mean that, if everything in your heart is telling you that you need to see the new Tom Cruise movie, you should deny yourself. But don’t make heading to the Cineplex for every summer blockbuster a habit simply because it’s … become a habit. Huge blockbuster movies use tons of power to make, generate enormous amounts of waste and trap most people in a funneled cycle of blockbuster-related merchandise. The entire system is designed to make you spend and waste – and that’s just the movie itself. It doesn’t include all of the consumption at the movie theater. (We do have tips on how to reduce waste at the movies.)
What Can You Do Instead? Support your local theater, performing arts group or musicians by seeing live performances at actual physical venues!
Avoid Theme Parks
Another ingrained summer activity is a trip to a theme park. Again, we don’t want to tell you to never experience the thrill of a roller coaster again, but it’s important to keep perspective on how much energy, food packaging and overall waste and consumption happens at a theme park. If you are going to go to a theme park, consider visiting a smaller local one instead of adding the consumption of travel miles onto a trip to a major theme park.
What Can You Do Instead? Visit an actual park! Whether it’s a smaller local park or a larger National Park, chances are you have a green space nearby where you can get the natural thrills of sunshine and motion instead of the manufactured thrills of roller coasters and rides.
Avoid Water Parks
If we haven’t (subtly) hammered it home to you yet, there is a global water shortage going on out there in the world! Pause for a moment and consider the massive amounts of water that are used (and wasted) at a water park. And, similar to theme parks, water parks use huge amounts of energy to operate and result in massive amounts of consumer waste from food packaging and other merchandise sales.
What Can You Do Instead? You have two options here. The first is to use a public pool. Yes, there’s still water waste happening, but it’s via a public resource rather than a private, profit-driven one. The second, of course, is to get back to nature and learn to love your local lake, stream or river. If you’re particularly lucky, you may even have a waterfall in your area.
Avoid Couch Potato Summers
The dream of just about anybody who gets summers off or any type of time off in the summer is the couch potato summer. Laying around, doing nothing, with your TV, laptop, phone and tablet. It’s relaxing. And also unhealthy and full of wasted energy on your electronics.
What Can You Do Instead? Try making it Couch Potato Day instead of Couch Potato Summer. We all deserve some indulgent rest and down time. However, like anything, the dose makes the poison. Enjoy your relaxation, but then go out and do activities. And, consider reading a book instead of electronics!
To find the satisfaction of enough for today, you may need to flip your traditional summer thinking on its head. Have an idea for a replacement summer activity that we missed? Tell us about it. Comment below or tell us about it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram.
Photo Credit: Pamela Heywood via Flickr
