Here is a list I have formed:
-Switch to Esim
-Build more apartments
-Use shampoo/conditioner bars
-Put carbon labels on products
-Buy stuff at the store
-Eat plant based
-Prioritize transit over cars
-Switch to Ecosia
-Recycle
-Give homemade gifts
-Compost
-Be organized
-Avoid synthetic cloths
-Switch to green burials
-Buy reputable carbon credits
-Mandate microfibre filters for washing machines
-Install Linux on old computers
-Switch to Electric car -Shut down all oil operations
-Pickup litter
-Ride your bicycle instead of the car
-Adopt kids and companions instead
-Build more green spaces
-Convert animal agriculture land to wild lands
-Support repairability
-Ban private jets
Any stats on the eSIM? Seems pretty irrelevant in the scheme of things, feels kinda close to greenwashing.
Here’s a source that provides numbers on that:
Since the commercial launch of SIM cards three decades ago, approximately 4.5 billion SIM cards are sold and shipped each year industry-wide, accounting for more than 560,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 18,000+ tons of plastic waste annually.
https://www.iot-now.com/2023/05/05/130286-kore-sim-card-initiative-cuts-plastic-use-and-carbon-emissions-in-shipments/
That’s a pretty stunning figure. Wonder how large a portion of that is private individuals vs. companies.
I changed my SIM for the first time in a decade earlier this year. Do people change SIMs more frequently than that?
18,000,000 kg / 7,000,000,000 = 0.0025 kg per person on earth. 2.5g per person. Its not a big number at all.
Granted, not everyone has a phone or sim, so the number may be 2-4x higher, but we are talking about such a tiny amount of waste that its a rounding error in the scheme of things.
See, to me, those numbers just dont seem that bad in the scheme of things, annual medical waste in Victoria, Australia, is 3x that (Vic is a state of 7-8M people, we are pretty small). I bet the single use plastic shopping bags tossed annually dwarfs this by many orders of magnitude.
https://www.health.vic.gov.au/planning-infrastructure/waste
Many phones dont support eSIM yet, so an individual switching means throwing away an otherwise fine phone, and that doesnt seem worth it to save on 1 credit card sized peice of plastic.