It reduces food miles and shrinks your carbon footprint \u2013 but, surprisingly, new research has found that this isn\u2019t always true.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, food products that travel thousands of miles can actually have a lower carbon footprint than local produce, especially if you\u2019re eating them out of season.<\/p>\n
![\"Strange](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-habits-could-save-earth-food-miles.jpg\")
Growing tomatoes in the UK often requires high-intensity LED lights, creating strange colours at night – Image credit: Alamy<\/p>\n
For example, research<\/a> from Bangor University found that eating tomatoes and lettuce grown in the UK during winter is worse than importing them from Spain.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because growing tomatoes in the cooler UK climate requires heated greenhouses, which uses more energy than flying in tomatoes from a warmer region where no artificial heating is needed.<\/p>\n Generally, eating foods typically grown in the summer all year round forces the production system to work harder, using more energy and generating more emissions.<\/p>\n There are plenty of ways to check out what\u2019s in season in your region \u2013 if you\u2019re in the UK, the National Trust has an online guide<\/a> to choosing seasonal fruit and vegetables, while in the US you can use the Seasonal Food Guide<\/a> to check the best produce for your state.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also good news if you\u2019ve been forcing yourself to live off of the carrots from your back garden for years.<\/p>\n According to Dr Alice Garvey<\/a>, researcher at the Climate Evidence Unit at the University of Leeds, eating a variety of food makes a much bigger difference than focusing on food miles.<\/p>\n In other words, it\u2019s less about how far our food travels and more about what we\u2019re eating and how it\u2019s produced.\u00a0<\/p>\n Garvey, who specialises in climate change<\/a> policy and sustainable food systems, says that the research backs up the importance of diets that reduce the amount of meat and dairy in your diet \u201ceven if just by a little bit. You don\u2019t have to necessarily go vegan or vegetarian completely.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if vegetables or grains are imported from far away, their overall carbon footprint may be lower than locally produced meat. That\u2019s because beef and dairy production requires significantly more water, land and energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Calculating the exact environmental impact of specific foods can be complex, but there are nifty tools that can help you.<\/p>\n You can input everything you eat \u2013 or would like to eat \u2013 into the Our World in Data Environmental Impacts of Food Data Explorer<\/a> to see how each food product compares in emissions.<\/p>\n 2. Buy (less) eco<\/p>\n Your wardrobe is bursting with tote bags, and judging by the number of keep cups in your kitchen, you\u2019ll never need a takeaway coffee again. We understand: you\u2019re doing your bit.<\/p>\n With good intentions, we buy reusable bottles, biodegradable cosmetics (more on that later\u2026) and sustainable clothes, thinking we\u2019re helping \u2013 but how much difference does it really make?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBuying less but better is generally a good rule across most areas,\u201d says Garvey. She also suggests buying things that can be repaired.\u00a0<\/p>\n But not everything we call eco, natural or \u2018green\u2019 actually is better for the environment, and sometimes we might be lured into a greenwashing trap by a brand\u2019s packaging.<\/p>\n Even small things, like a green leaf symbol or words like \u2018eco-friendly\u2019, are likely to make you believe a product is more sustainable than it really is.<\/p>\n Psychologists call this the environmental halo effect<\/a>, a cognitive bias that leads people to assume that if there\u2019s even a small nod to sustainability on a product, then the product must be entirely environmentally friendly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus, sustainable products are no longer sustainable if we chuck them out or replace them without a second thought.<\/p>\n Sure, reusable things are generally the better choice<\/a> if we want to reduce plastic waste. But their effectiveness depends on how many times they\u2019re actually used.<\/p>\n As a Danish report<\/a> shows, one reusable cotton bag needs to be used a whopping 7,100 times to offset the CO2 emissions involved in its production (bump that up to 20,000 times if it\u2019s organic cotton).<\/p>\n In other words, you\u2019d need several people\u2019s lifetimes to make that collection of totes you\u2019re hoarding worth it \u2013 sustainability speaking, anyway.<\/p>\n Other studies suggest reusable water bottles<\/a>, lunch boxes and straws also need to be used hundreds of times to offset the amount of carbon emissions and toxic materials used to produce them.<\/p>\n And not all of these reusable products are created equal. Polypropylene takeaway containers, for example \u2013 the clear plastic kind often used for restaurant leftovers \u2013 are durable, dishwasher-safe and more widely recyclable.<\/p>\n They\u2019re designed for reuse, but need to be reused between 16 and 208 times to be environmentally efficient.<\/p>\n Polystyrene containers, on the other hand, which have a more foamy feel, only need to be re-used between 3 and 39 times \u2013 yet they\u2019re not built for repeated use and are generally not accepted in recycling systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n The long and the short of it: the material matters, but it\u2019s more important that you only buy the containers you\u2019ll actually use (and that fit in your tote bag).<\/p>\n Read more:<\/p>\n 3. Stop wishcycling<\/p>\n Recycling has become so second nature that you can probably sort your rubbish into the right bins with your eyes closed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost become a license to consume \u2013 and that\u2019s where \u2018wishcycling\u2019 creeps in: the hopeful (but often misguided) act of recycling items that aren\u2019t actually recyclable. The intention is good, but the impact\u2026 not so much.\u00a0<\/p>\n For one, not everything that looks recyclable is recyclable. Take supermarket receipts, for example \u2013 they\u2019re actually supposed to go in with the regular waste, but lots of us still toss them in the paper recycling.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s disposable coffee cups: they look like paper, but most of the time they\u2019ve got a thin plastic lining, excluding them from regular paper bins.<\/p>\n As a result of these mishaps, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates<\/a> that about 75 per cent of the waste produced in the US is recyclable, but only about 32 per cent of total municipal solid waste is actually recycled each year.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t because of a lack of recycling effort, it\u2019s because we often recycle incorrectly.<\/p>\n In fact, sampling at UK recycling plants<\/a> has revealed that 16.6 per cent of items are either contaminated with food residue or aren\u2019t recyclable at all \u2013 and this can cause entire batches of otherwise recyclable material to be rejected and sent to landfill.<\/p>\n Between 2019 and 2020, 525,000 tonnes<\/a> of collected household recycling had to be rejected at the point of sorting.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the other issue \u2013 even if the packaging is entirely recyclable, it mustn\u2019t be soiled. Half-full yogurt pots or greasy pizza boxes shouldn\u2019t be recycled because the system can\u2019t separate out the food waste. If you put these items in the recycling, they\u2019ll likely end up in the landfill.<\/p>\n What\u2019s worse, they risk contaminating the rest of the recyclable material: the food residue can soak into paper or cardboard from other products in the same bin, causing those to need to head to the landfill too.<\/p>\n All that said, it\u2019s hard to blame folks at home for this. Wherever you are in the world, packaging is often confusing and a huge part of the problem. That\u2019s why environmental experts call for more clarity on recycling symbols and information.<\/p>\n \u201cPackaging design plays an important role, but we need more awareness because marketing often misleads consumers,\u201d says Nicolao Bonini<\/a>, a professor at the University of Trento, in Italy, who led a study<\/a> on how product packaging design can influence recycling behaviours.<\/p>\n Check the guidelines for your local area, he says, as what\u2019s accepted in one town might be rejected in another.<\/p>\n Products with biodegradable packaging<\/a> are also meant to be greener choices when it comes to what you throw away.<\/p>\n They\u2019re often made from natural materials like paper, wood or cornstarch, or from bioplastics, which come from plants like corn or sugarcane instead of fossil fuels. The problem is, they can still take years to break down, during which they may leave behind toxic residues.<\/p>\n What you\u2019re looking for instead are products labelled as \u2018compostable\u2019, with specific labels<\/a> like EN 13432 or OK Compost, according to Dr Filippo Marchelli<\/a>, also a researcher at the University of Trento.<\/p>\n Even then, compostable products rarely decompose out in the wild of their own volition.<\/p>\n To fully break down, compostable bioplastics in everyday items like takeaway containers, magazine wrappers, or biodegradable wet wipes need to be sent to industrial composting facilities with specific conditions: temperatures of 55\u201370\u00b0C (131\u2013158\u00b0F), high humidity, constant aeration and microbial activity for 90 days.<\/p>\n Without these conditions, bioplastics can fragment into tiny particles and stick around just like regular microplastics, carrying pollutants into the environment like heavy metals and pesticides.<\/p>\n The answer? Again, check your region\u2019s disposal guidelines, but \u2013 generally \u2013 don\u2019t put biodegradable products into your compost bin, says Marchelli, and avoid any that can only be used once.<\/p>\n 4. Plant trees in the right places<\/p>\n Plant more trees, save the planet. It\u2019s a message that\u2019s inspired everything from fundraising drives to volunteer projects.<\/p>\n And while most of us aren\u2019t out planting trees in our own gardens, many support these efforts through donations or volunteering locally. But here\u2019s the surprising twist: planting trees isn\u2019t always the climate fix it\u2019s made out to be.<\/p>\n In fact, as a recent study<\/a> published in Nature Geoscience showed, doing it in the wrong places can actually make global warming worse.<\/p>\n The unique characteristics of Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems make these areas a poor choice<\/a> for carbon offsetting projects, for example, but so far this hasn\u2019t stopped large-scale tree-planting projects there.<\/p>\n Arctic soils store a significant amount of carbon, and introducing trees in these areas can disrupt that balance, releasing the carbon and thereby increasing greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, the opposite of what those projects set out to do.<\/p>\n Best save the trees for our cities, then. In recent research, Ronita Bardhan<\/a>, professor of sustainable built environment and health at the University of Cambridge, and her colleagues found that<\/a> trees can reduce urban temperatures by as much as a whopping 12\u00b0C (22\u00b0F), especially in very arid regions where it\u2019s extremely hot and dry.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came up with an answer that startled and amazed us,\u201d Bardhan says.\u00a0But it needs to be the right tree, in the right place.<\/p>\n Well-ventilated spaces such as boulevards, wide avenues, parks, campuses, or areas with low-rise buildings provide give trees enough space for a lot of foliage and large canopies, which provide more shade. As such, these areas benefit most from tree planting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Surprisingly, in compact areas of the city with poor airflow, especially in hot and humid cities, dense tree cover can actually have the opposite effect \u2013 trapping heat at night and actually boosting warming effects.<\/p>\n If you live in this part of the city, it\u2019s better to plant sparse and small, narrow, columnar trees that allow air to move freely. (Where tree planting isn\u2019t possible, having a green roof or terrace can help instead, Bardhan says.)\u00a0<\/p>\n The species matters too \u2013 deciduous trees (like oaks, maples and lime trees), which lose their leaves in winter, cool more effectively in summer and allow better nighttime cooling than evergreen species with dense canopies.<\/p>\n Planting a mix of trees is better, providing about 0.5\u202f\u00b0C (0.9\u00b0F) more cooling than using just one type of tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking to support a tree-planting project, it\u2019s worth doing a bit of research first. The most effective initiatives tend to use native species, working closely with ecological experts and involving local communities in the process.<\/p>\n They\u2019re also transparent about where, what and how they\u2019re planting, and they don\u2019t just count trees. Instead, they focus on long-term impact, making sure those trees actually survive and benefit the local ecosystem.<\/p>\n 5. Think beyond your own footprint<\/p>\n You may be overwhelmed from being constantly urged to eat less meat, cut down on flights and generally lower your personal carbon footprint \u2013 especially after reading this article.<\/p>\n While these are important steps, focusing only on personal choices can make us lose sight of the bigger picture.<\/p>\n Studies show that the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions aren\u2019t generated by individuals but by industries and large-scale commercial activities<\/a> \u2013 and while companies talk about ethics and sustainability, they often act in the opposite way.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see the need for companies to appreciate and acknowledge their moral responsibility if they\u2019re to engage in genuine action,\u201d says Dr Jarrod Ormiston<\/a>, of the University of Technology Sydney, in Australia.<\/p>\n![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-habits-could-save-earth-eco.jpg\")
Cutting down on plastic is well and good, but quantity can be as important as quality when it comes to eco-products – Image credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-habits-could-save-earth-recycling.gif\")
Contamination and wishcycling can cause entire batches of otherwise recyclable material to be rejected – Image credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Directly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-habits-could-save-earth-recycle.jpg\")
Recycling systems often seem simplified to a fault. In reality, giving a product a second lease of life often requires careful sorting – Image credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bare-feet.jpg\")
Your carbon footprint is more than what you buy and throw away \u2013 it\u2019s also about how you spend your time and voice your opinions – Credit: Getty images<\/p>\n