three things to do today

The problem: Each year, more than 1.5 billion disposable lighters end up in landfills or incinerators every year, according to Gillian Deacon's Green For Life. Lighter casings are made from petroleum-based plastic while the butane fluid is a petroleum product.

The solution: Use cardboard matches. They are made from recycled paper and decompose faster than lighters.


The problem: Around 9 billion ATM transactions occur each year in the U.S. and Canada, most of them spitting out receipts. That's a lot of unnecessary paper, considering after a quick look, it all inevitably gets balled up and pitched.

The solution: Instead, keep tabs over your transactions online. If 10,000 people decided to do that, together they'd save a roll of paper more than 460 metres long, according to The Ideal Bite, now part of Disney.


The problem: We know we need to reduce, but in our everyday lives the reality is that there are still things we need to buy, use and consume - which leaves us with leftover bits of food, old household items, and empty containers of all shapes and sizes all destined for landfill or resource-intensive recycling.

The solution: The brilliant team over at How Can I Recycle This? can show you what to do with squeezed toothpaste tubes, broken scissors, even those Ferrero Rocher boxes you got for Christmas (seed trays!).