Eco-friendly has taken on a new force, with celebrities sporting their latest eco-trends and the media exposing the forlorn condition our home planet is being left in.
This is all with just cause, but does that mean we have to throw away our non sustainably harvested furniture and turn our minivan in for a electric car?
No! But there are a few environmentally conscious efforts we can make to ensure our grandchildren are able to enjoy the same natural beauties we have.
Going for the big eco-friendly gestures is admirable, but most of us have a lot on our plate to consider in a day and can only start with small transitions.
- Carpool
This concept is as old as the hills, but a smart and economical one.
Many moms these days have minivans, so if you and a friend are planning on going to an event out, hitch a ride.
School pick-up, sports practice, and dance class are all routines shared with many moms, so try taking turns taking the boys to practice, or one does pick-up and the other does drop-off.
Moms are constantly chauffeuring kids around, why not do it in a way that helps everybody in the world.
- Keep Reusable Bags in the Car
And don’t just keep the bags in the car, but use them. There has been so many instances where you are shopping and realize you left the bags in the car again.
Conserving Now reports:
“Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute.”
That is a lot of waste! Not even considering the landfill buildup we have, marine creatures are in danger as well from the plastic bag obsession humans have.
Ocean Crusaders reports:
“100,000 marine creatures a year die from plastic entanglement and these are the ones found. Approximately 1 million sea birds also die from plastic. A plastic bag can kill numerous animals because they take so long to disintegrate.”
What many people don’t know is that plastic bags are preventable, recyclable, and overused.
It is okay to tell the cashier who is using a new bag for every piece of fruit she picks up to try to fill the bags completely before getting a new one.
Also, keep a couple plastic bags in the zipper part of your purse or diaper bag so you can pull one out when you have a pharmacy run or trip to the farmer’s market.
- Pay Attention To What You Eat
Where you eat, what foods you eat, where the food came from, and how it was harvested and shipped matters.
Eating organic when you can is an easy place to start being mindful of how our food affects the planet.
Pesticides and herbicides used in conventional produce, along with packaging of many processed foods, leave a big imprint on our environment.
The Environmental Working Group has released some alarming data on meat consumption, finding that red mean “is responsible for 10-40 times as many greenhouse emissions as common vegetable and grains.”
In addition to this data, if we were to look at just the grains that are fed to cattle so that people can eat them, another 800 million people could eat, according to NaturesPath.
This doesn’t mean the world has to go vegetarian as much as it is a wake-up call to the impact our dinner plates have on all those around us.
- Every Effort Counts
There are countless everyday items that have been made reusable nowadays. From metal straws to cloth snack bags, there are chic alternatives to the disposable varieties.
You can smile a little every time you grab your super cute cloth snack bags for the kid’s lunches, knowing that a flower may now bloom that couldn’t, or a tree will now stand that was meant for a baby’s swing.
Each item may be small in and of itself, but mindful choices by the millions can change the world.
We were given this beautiful Earth to tend and care for, and our current efforts our leaving a lot of devastation in its wake.
It’s time that each individual, not the government, bears responsibility for the impact they make on their home, and the home of the generations that follow.
Please let us know in the comments section what you think about these eco-friendly choices, and what you like to do to stay environmentally conscious.