Single-use plastics a serious climate change hazard, study warns

I got rid of those single use plastic baggies and they don't darken our doors at all now. Well, except we have to use the 1/2 gallon versions when we fly. We also don't use bottled water anymore at all, we all switched to jugs years ago. We limit running water as much as we can with just one hot water heater for a long ranch house. We want to buy the smaller room specific water heaters, they are so much more efficient and save so much water and energy, but they are also not cheap and we'd need a min. of 3. New windows are another thing that would save a lot of energy but are super expensive for us because we have so many old large windows that aren't std. We were hoping to get those installed this year, but my health problems have put everything else on the back burner until at least next year. Oh yeah, we are going to plant a butterfly/bee garden this weekend to try and help those endangered populations.

Does anyone have any other suggestions of inexpensive, easy ways of saving energy, helping our earth?

I'll use and refill a bottle probably for a month until it starts cracking and leaking.

We live in a very rural area and separate trash like this until we get enough, at which time my son binds the trash in chicken wire and uses them as giant bricks to channel water or for other building projects. Dirt eventually fills into the cracks and they look like bricks.