Simone Spotlight - Earth Day
Simone Spotlight - Earth Day
April 18th
🎉 Hey East Bay 🎉
How to Celebrate Earth Month: 12 Ways to Appreciate Our Planet
Let's start by going over some changes you can make throughout April to make a positive environmental impact. We don't expect you to do everything. Taking small steps and trying your best is what matters the most.
1. Choose a different snack
It's really easy to go to the store and grab some processed and packaged snacks, but that isn't great for our planet. The manufacturing process is messy, and the packaging creates literal tons of waste.
Instead, go for some fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables to snack on. Or, you can go all out and make your own snacks with fresh ingredients. This way you can also get all your shopping done with reusable produce bags and glass jars.
2. Pick up some litter
Unfortunately, there is litter absolutely everywhere. You're likely to walk by some litter no matter where you go or what you're doing. For Earth Month, try walking around with some waste bags that you can throw the litter in whenever you see any. It's such an easy way to take care of the planet while adding hardly any time or effort to your normal routine!
3. Compost your kitchen scraps
Enormous amounts of food waste has been a growing issue in households around the world. We simply don't use all the food that we buy, and end up throwing some away. A great solution to this problem is composting. Instead of food scraps ending up in a landfill and releasing a bunch of greenhouse gasses, they'll be turned into a rich fertilizer you can feed to your own plants.
4. Don’t buy as much stuff
One of the best things you can do for the world is to just buy less stuff. We often buy more than we need, and more than we ever actually end up using. We're sure most of us have been in the position of throwing away some clothes we rarely ever wore, but bought because we thought they looked nice. The fashion industry in particular is especially bad when it comes to waste, so even just cutting down on clothing purchases would be an improvement.
Just buying less will easily cut down on waste, but also cut down on the environmental impact of the whole production and shipping process. For Earth Month, think really hard about each of your purchases, and if they're actually necessary. If you're not sure, just wait a few days before buying it. That urge to buy whatever it was may just go away.
5. Reuse everything you can
The world is stuffed to the brim with single-use disposable items, especially single-use plastics. One easy change is to only use reusable items this April. Swap plastic bags with canvas bags, and plastic straws with metal or bamboo straws. You can even carry a reusable cup with you to your favorite coffee shops and ask them to fill that up instead of one of their disposable cups.
6. Get together with friends and family
While you may be excited to celebrate Earth Day and Earth Month, you might find your family and friends are apprehensive, or just don't know much about it. We would encourage you to gather as many of your friends and family as you can to join you for the Earth Month activities you're engaging in. Getting into the Earth Day spirit will be much easier with everyone participating together.
7. Get involved with your community
Finding local communities is one of the best ways to get involved in climate solutions! Want to make a real difference in your community? Local environmental groups can accomplish more than you probably think. With the help of a group, you can get plastic bag bans passed, carbon taxes passed, and much more.
8. Swap and Trade
Do you need new stuff but are worried about the environmental impact of new purchases? Don't worry, you still have plenty of options. Buying slightly used or trading with neighbors is a great way to get what you need and to recycle other people's trash. You can usually find local trade groups online, or you can go out to a thrift store to access all the used items you could need.
9. Eat more veggies
Another great way to help the earth is to change up your diet. Eating meat is harder on the climate than having a vegetarian or vegan diet. While it would be great for you to jump into that kind of lifestyle, we understand that also isn't personally sustainable.
Instead, try reducing your meat consumption while increasing your consumption of vegetables, fruits, and legumes. Even just having smaller meat portions during your meals, or having a single vegetarian meal a week can make a real difference! Not only can you save the planet this way, but you can easily save on money when you buy less meat.
10. Start building sustainable habits
We're not going to be able to protect ourselves by only doing some activities one day, or even one month, every year. We need to focus on building habits that we can sustain year-round that will positively impact our environment.
11. Reduce plastic use
In the United States alone, roughly 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used every year. As newly disposed of plastic gets added to landfills, it simply piles on to the billions of tons already present and slowly decomposing. A single plastic water bottle can take up to 450 years to break down.
So, one of the easiest ways to live a more sustainable lifestyle is by reducing your dependency on plastic. Choose plastic-free alternatives that are more environmentally friendly. You can start by swapping out your phone case for more sustainable ones that can break down in your compost.
12. Just go outside
Having an appreciation for our earth and its wildlife starts with actually going outside and experiencing nature for yourself. You'll grow to love the trees, the clean air, and the country by spending time surrounded by the nature we're trying so hard to protect.
Make a promise to yourself that no matter what else you can or can't do this April, at least spend some time outside. Go walk more than normal, maybe even take a hike in the woods. Do whatever you can to spend some quality time with this earth.
Happy Earth Day!