Image from The Nature Conservancy
Since today is Earth Day, I thought I would share some Earth Day tips with you. I’ve included some of the things I do to be more eco-friendly and some things that I am striving to implement. This is by no means a comprehensive list, there are plenty of other ways that you can reduce your impact on the planet and many others that may fit your lifestyle better. I’m also including lots of links and resources, so you can find out more about how can do more to become more Earth friendly. Every little bit does count!
My list of 22 things you can do to reduce your impact on the Earth.
1. Use cloth towels and napkins instead of paper ones.
2. Take a ‘Navy Shower’, which basically means turning of the water when you are soaping up.
3. Use Craig’s List, freecycle, swaptree, peerflix, bookins, half.com and others to get rid of stuff you don’t want anymore. Of course, you can always donate it to local charity shops as well.
4. Cut your grass less, use an electric mower or plant clover or another good ground cover that does not need to be mowed.
5. Use reusable shopping bags instead of paper or plastic as much as you can.
6. Hang your clothes out to dry on a clothesline or drying rack instead of using the dryer all the time.
7. Combine errands, so you don’t make as little trips in the car.
8. Reuse plastic and glass containers to store your leftovers in instead of buying those disposable containers. You have to wash them out to recycle them anyhow. Use any paper bags or newspapers you collect as wrapping paper. Cup up any 8 ½ x 11 scrap paper you collect into quarters and use padding cement to make your own notepads.
9. Buy local food and produce.
10. Eat less meat or become a vegetarian.
11. Have a home energy audit.
12. Replace your lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs and turn the lights off when you leave a room for any length of time.
13. Reuse shipping and packaging materials. I reuse as much as I can in the Indie Fixx Shop.
14. Buy goods that are made from recycled material.
15. Fly less.
16. Use the library instead of buying all your books, magazines and dvds.
17. Share magazine subscriptions with friends and/or donate your magazines to the library, doctors’ offices or senior centers.
18. Plant native species in your yard and replace and avoid planting invasive species.
19. Try to make your workplace more environmentally friendly by organizing office recycling, affecting purchasing decisions, encouraging less waste and more.
20. Recycle used electronic equipment responsibly.
21. Eat out less.
22. Walk more, drive less! It’s good for you and the Earth.
Please feel free to share some of the eco-responsible things you do in your life.
Here’s a list of resources to learn more:
National Audubon Society
Environmental Defense Fund
Friends of the Earth
The Nature Conservancy
Natural Resources Defense Council
Sierra Club
National Wildlife Federation
Rainforest Action Network
American Wind Energy Association
Worldwatch Institute
World Wildlife Fund
Earthday.gov
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Conservation International
EPA
National Recycling Coalition
Earth Day coverage from some of my must read blogs:
Etsy Storque
Treehugger
Craftzine
Apartment Therapy
Crafting a Green World
i would replace peerflix because they are going out of business with switchplanet.com and checkout their mission statement!