Easy Ways to Live a More Sustainable Life – NOW!

With Earth Day quickly approaching you may be asking yourself, “How can I live a more sustainable life? How can I help our planet?” If you aren’t, then you should be. Let’s just go over a few scary facts, K?

• More than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans every year.
• 500 billion plastic bags are used every year worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute.
• According to the Container Recycling Institute, 100.7 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in the U.S. in 2014, or 315 bottles per person.

Info from Plastic Oceans. If that doesn’t freak you out just a little bit, look around your city. I constantly see plastic bags, bottles, drink lids, and straw all over the place. It’s just plain sad. All of that stuff goes somewhere, friends. It’s in our oceans, drinking water and all over our beautiful earth. So, what can you do? Here are a few ways you can live a more sustainable life, NOW!

Limit your plastic

Plastic is pretty much unavoidable now. It is everywhere. Anytime you go shopping, your goods are probably wrapped in plastic. You may not be able to completely control that, but you can still limit your usage.

• Use stainless steel straws. I’m a straw lover. Not gonna lie, drinking directly out of a glass at a restaurant freaks me about a little bit. Instead of using a plastic straw EVERY time I go to a restaurant, I’ve vowed to take a stainless straw. I just carry one around in my bag. Easy. Order some of these and you’ll be set.
• Take your own produce bags. Instead of wasting another plastic bag that holds your produce for like an hour, get your own produce bags that you can use over and over again. Try these.
• Shop the bulk section at your grocery store. Grab your reusable produce bags and hit up the bulk area. I get trail mix, granola, oats, nuts, and all sorts of goodies here without the plastic packaging.
• When you do purchase products in a plastic container, reuse it! I have all sorts of containers in my pantry that have been reused.
• Say no to bottled water. Don’t act like you don’t have 85 reusable drink bottles at your house already. I know the Target dollar section is constantly calling your name and you have purchased several cute ones. Now, it’s time to actually use them. Get yourself a good water filter and use your reusable bottles ONLY! I know this seems tough, but always have water and a bottle with you. It will keep you hydrated and drastically limit your plastic usage.

Since we truly cannot avoid plastic,  you need to use your recycling bin or take all your recyclables to a facility. If not, just start doing it today. Please.

Use plant-based cleaning and skincare products

Not only will this help save you, but it will help save our planet. All that nasty stuff you use to clean your house is worse than smoking a cig (it’s so bad for your lungs) and it goes down the drain, into our water supply and our oceans. Yay! I highly recommend you check the toxicity of your household products on the Environmental Working Group website. Also, see why I tossed toxic products in my home here. Basically, you should toss your bleach spray that may be hurting you and use a homemade cleaning product instead. Just Google it. I personally love my Thieves cleaner! It’s so good and smells awesome.

The same goes for your skincare products. Don’t support companies who use stuff that is proven to disrupt your hormones, lead to reproductive issues, and cause cancer. Just don’t do it.

Buy Organic when you can

Did you know that pesticides are detected in breastmilk and in newborn babies? Just wanted to start off with a startling fact so you understand how important this is. I know buying organic can be more expensive. It’s sad because organic is just how your food should be, how it was made it be. Hop back over the EWG website and check out the Dirty 12 and Clean 15. This will help you cut your organic produce costs.

Besides the fact that our food is being sprayed with herbicides and pesticides that are made to KILL stuff (yummy), these sprays are killing lots of other creatures. Bees, butterflies, and even our sweet little ladybugs are dying. All because of us. I don’t want to depress you, but I gotta share the facts. These pesticides and herbicides are also leaking into our water supply. So, do your part and buy organic when you can.

It may seem small, but everything you do truly makes a difference. Especially if you can inspire your family and friends to do the same. Your children will duplicate you, so teach them how important it is to care for our Earth. So, recycle, reuse, and pledge to do your part to live a more sustainable life!