Seasonal Sustainability Tips: Autumn

Many of us are looking for ways to incorporate lower-impact practices into daily life, all year round. So instead of another list of abstract environmental insights, we've put together practical tips and strategies tailored to Autumn and designed to help you reduce the environmental footprint of your home.

We aim to provide our customers and readers with sustainable tips each season in order to keep up with trends, holidays such as Easter, Christmas and Halloween. It is all of our responsibilities to ensure we are helping the environment as much as we can, as we go through the year and celebrate the seasons. 

Why is sustainability at home important?

It might feel like making small changes at home has no impact on a large-scale problem like climate change. But the opposite is true – we can all play our part and collectively, those changes add up.

For families, making these conscious changes at home has the added benefit of teaching little ones to live in harmony with the planet as they grow, which in turn may make them more responsible adults. In fact, this isn't limited by age: showcasing these changes at home may inspire your friends, or at least get them thinking about the topic.

Clear out your inbox

Our digital carbon footprint is something that most of us have probably never thought about. Yet the energy to power our devices has to come from somewhere, and, with the majority of us now using a smartphone for multiple hours a day, that's a lot of energy, both for our devices and to power the multitude of apps we're using on them.

As the nights start to draw in, it's the ideal opportunity to reduce your digital footprint. According to research:

If we all deleted just 10 emails, that would save 1,725,000 gigabytes of storage per year, as well as 55.2 million kilowatts of power (the equivalent of electricity for 2.4 million homes).

This can be a dull task to spend hours on, so break it down in chunks – a few emails while you wait for the kettle to boil, for example. While you're clearing your inbox, take the chance to unsubscribe to any newsletters or marketing you don't need as well – this will stop your inbox clogging up again.

Make DIY bird feeders

As the summer plants fade away, food begins to get scarce for birds and other wildlife. You can do your bit to support the local creatures to survive the colder months by making some DIY bird feeders, as well as putting out seeds and nuts.

Or repurpose a juice carton to make a hanging feeder that you can fill with seeds? This can be a fun half-term activity to do with kids, and will give you all something to look at outside whilst you cosy up in the warm.

Preserve any produce that's left in the garden

If you've been growing your own fruit and veg in the garden, then autumn is where things start to turn, and most plants stop producing. However, hopefully, you'll still have quite a bounty picked, hanging on your trees or in the ground. To avoid this going to waste, you can preserve suitable produce so that you have stores all through the winter:

• Root vegetables and fruit such as apples and pears can be stored in a cool, well-ventilated place

• Raspberries, currants, broccoli, tomatoes, peas and beans can be frozen; some may require blanching first to preserve their freshness and flavour

• Apples, courgettes, apricots, beetroot, onions, rhubarb and tomatoes can be made into chutney

• Beetroot, courgette, cucumber, grapes, pears and peppers can be pickled in vinegar

• Blackberries, blueberries, garlic, mint, peppers and raspberries can be used to make jams or flavoured vinegars

Leave the garden natural to support nesting animals

It can be tempting to tidy up the garden for the winter, cutting back plants once they're done flowering and trimming hedges ready for them to grow again in the spring. However, remember that your garden isn't just for you to enjoy – it's also home and a food source for a whole variety of animals, from birds to tiny mice. Leaving undisturbed piles of twigs, creating an insect hotel, making sure there's water available and leaving seed heads and berries to provide food are all ways that you can support the ecology of your garden.

Choose natural Halloween decorations (and dispose of them correctly)

Spooky season is the perfect chance to decorate your home. Whether you choose a more muted autumnal theme or go all out with witches and ghouls, there's plenty of ways to add seasonal personality to your home. Aside from choosing decorations that will last for years to come, the best way to lower your impact is to use natural decorations, which can then be repurposed or composted – as long as you dispose of them correctly.

Pumpkin waste is an issue each year in Ireland, with an more than a million pumpkins are wasted each year and destined for landfill once they have completed their purpose. However, pumpkins can be used in a number of ways. Soups, stews, curries and even pies can be made out of the spooky vegetable; the seeds can also be dried and roasted to be used for a tasty snack. 

Collecting the pumpkin 'meat' to cook with as you carve your spooky faces sounds like a much better use, rather than disposing of it straight into the bin. Once your pumpkin is ready to be disposed of, use your brown bin for organics so it can be disposed of correctly.

Get your cosy lighting options set up with LED bulbs

Lamps are an autumn essential, providing low-cost lighting as you settle down under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate. But have you checked the bulbs in your lamps to see if they're LED?

Compared to traditional bulbs, LEDs use around 75% less energy, and last 25 times longer. This is an easy eco switch that you can make at home, saving you money and helping the planet – cosy evenings will feel even better.

Turn your Autumn tidy up into a sustainability win with Oxigen

Autumn is a natural time to reset whether that means clearing out the shed, trimming back the garden or finally tackling the spare room. But all that tidying can leave you with piles of waste that need to go somewhere. That is where Oxigen comes in.

By choosing a skip you take the hassle out of waste management and make sure it is handled responsibly. At Oxigen we do more than just collect and move things along. We sort, recycle and recover materials wherever possible giving them a second life and reducing what ends up in landfill. Your autumn refresh does not just leave your home feeling lighter. It is also a step toward a lighter footprint on the planet.

Booking is simple, delivery is reliable and you can get back to enjoying the cosy side of the season knowing the not so cosy job of waste is taken care of.