When Earth Day is around the corner, you see a lot more tips and posts about being kind to Mother Earth, like this post right here. 🙂
But wouldn’t it be great if we thought and acted like this all the time? You can! Here are a few changes you can make in your life today and every day to be a little kinder.
Say no to plastic!
“Every year, more than eight million tons [of plastic] ends up in the oceans,” according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. And he says if present trends continue, our oceans will have more plastic than fish by the year 2050.
That’s just disgusting and incredibly sad.
But the good news is, there are so many easy and affordable ways to reduce your use of plastics.
- Switch to reusable shopping bags. Take your own bags to the grocery store and skip all the plastic they pack your food in. Also, skip the small produce bags. Your fruits and vegetables can be packed with everything else. You’re going to wash them anyway when you get home.
- Pack snacks and small items in reusable Tupperware-style containers, washable fabric bags, or paper bags instead of plastic sandwich bags.
- Use refillable water bottles.
- Just say no to plastic, single-use straws. Take your own washable, reusable straws, or just go without. For kids, pack a sippy cup or other type of cup with a lid to pour their drink into.
- Brush better. The Other Straw, maker of bamboo straws, utensils, and gorgeous coconut bowls, also gives you a way to brush your teeth while helping the environment. I was so thrilled that they gifted me some of their 100% bamboo, anti-bacterial, BPA free, and vegan-friendly toothbrushes. They reduce waste with detachable bristle heads that you replace every 3 months.
Recycle
Hopefully, your city, county or community has a way for you to easily recycle, providing a recycle bin alongside your trash can. If not, you can find a way. Earth911.org is a great resource for where to recycle and how to recycle certain items.
You can generally recycle these items:
- Aluminum cans
- Steel cans like soup & veggies
- Newspaper
- Magazines
- Paper
- Boxes
- Glass
- Plastic bottles labeled with numbers 1 through 7
You can see a more comprehensive list here.
RealSimple.com also has a great list with many more ways to be more earth-friendly and energy-conscious.
Reuse
Before you throw anything out, ask yourself if it can be used again. Lots of things can.
- Use glass jars for storage
- Use an egg carton as a seed starter for herbs and vegetables
- Turn a milk jug into a bird feeder
- Use shoe boxes as storage dividers in drawers and closets
Find a bunch more upcycling ideas here.
Purchase with a purpose
You can make your money count by buying products that also help the planet and the animals and humans who live on it.
There are lots of companies that give part of their proceeds to initiatives that impact our environment and the welfare of animals and marine life. Here are a few.
Sand Cloud makes t-shirts from recycled water bottles and gives 10% of their proceeds to marine conservation. You can save 15% with my code: TRACYS8368081
The Animal Pack gives 10% of profits to marine conservation programs.
Ivory Ella donates 10% of its profits to save elephants.
Ecosia is an online search engine that uses ad revenue from your searches to plant trees where they’re needed all around the world.
You can see more caring companies that support positive programs here.
Show your love for Mother Earth
Want to show off your love for Mother Earth on Earth Day and year ’round? I have just the shirt for you. Two, actually.
Word To Your Mother
This is a pretty simple design and you can do it in lots of awesome colors, or stick with earth colors of green and blue like I did above.
Just download the SVG like the one you see in the laptop screen you see above, splice the circle image and move it into place behind the image of the continents.
You can download the Word To Your Mother SVG here.
Earth Love
It’s hard to really see it in photographs, but I used a beautiful multi-colored glitter HTV for the L, V and E in this design for my daughter.
After downloading the SVG you see in the laptop screen above, splice the heart-shaped earth images, turn the continents green and the background blue and layer them in place between the letters.
You can download the Earth Love SVG here.
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