Tomorrow is Earth day! Here are 6 simple but important things you can do every day to love and protect our planet for Earth Day and every day!
- Buy Local
Purchase and source as much of your food from local sources. The local food movement has gained a lot of traction over the last few years, so eating locally grown food has never been easier. And this is great because importing foods from across the country and across the world results in billions of gallons of fossil fuel being used and over 1 billion metric tons of CO2 produced each year. Also, buying local supports the local farmers and artisans in your community and puts money back into your local economy, which is a huge win:win for everyone! Check out THIS great infographic about the impact of buying local on our enviroment by custom made.
And HERE, HERE and HERE are some links to help you find local farmers and farmers markets in your area. Also, you may learn a thing or two! ????
- Eat in Season
Seek out and eat seasonal produce. Not only is seasonal produce more fresh, delicious and nutritious, eating seasonal foods is more environmentally friendly. When you eat a fruit that is out of season, that fruit or vegetable probably came long distances to be in your store, and that shipping uses up precious resources and increasing greenhouse gas admissions. So eat local, in season foods, they are better for you and the environment. HThe sustainable table is a great website to help you choose seasonal foods.
I mean, look how excited this guy is…don’t you want that for yourself?! ????
- Minimize Packaging
Avoid individually packed items. I was recently in a grocery store and in the produce area, there was a section of individually wrapped bell peppers. I was like!???? This was crazy to me because wrapping each individual bell pepper just seemed wasteful! So just be mindful of what you purchase your ideas to choose things that have as little wrapping as possible.
- Bring Your Own Bags
Bring your own reusable bags. Yes, single-use plastic bags are cheap and convenient to use for shopping trips, but they are super terrible for the environment. Over 500 Billion single-use plastic bags are used every year only 1-3% are reused or recycled, so that is a lot of plastic that is just being thrown away in a landfill…that will never go away, because plastic doesn’t break down naturally in the environment. And often plastic finds it’s way into oceans and waterways and is dangerous for the animals. And besides, you can fit more in each reusable bag so you can bring all your groceries in at one time, because in case you didn’t hear…
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- Become a Green Cleaner
Purchase or make your own environmentally friendly cleaning products. Many of the chemical based cleaning products are damaging to the environment and our bodies. Look cleaning products without phthalates, Triclosan, and chlorine. And often you don’t have too look far to find some really great cleaning products like baking soda, vinegar, and alcohol. And I actually use vinegar to clean everything from my fruits and veggies to my floors. Check out these , HERE, HERE and HERE for some great homemade cleaner recipes.
- Become a Green Cleaner
Happy Earth Day!!
XO,
Sally
Bonus Tip: Start using a reusable water container! Plastic water bottles are such a waste and so bad for the enviroment! So invest in a great and maybe even really cute drinking vessel. Also, having a reuseable drinking container helps you track how much water you drink in a day…and drinking a lot of water is good for your health! ????
