EARTH DAY INSPIRATIONS
We've rounded up some ideas you might want to take a closer look at, things that might fit into your and your family's life. They're easy ways you can make your own impact on Earth Day, and every day.
TIPS:
You already have a reusable water bottle (kleankanteen.com or mysigg.com) but you left it at home. What to do? Choose an environmentally responsible bottled water to get you through the day, such as Icelandic Glacial, said to be the world's first and only carbon-neutral certified bottled water (icelandicglacial.com)
Strive to reduce your body's toxic burden by avoiding processed food and eating organic food whenever possible; also eliminate simple sugars and refined carbs, and rid your diet of artificial sugar substitutes. If you don't do this already, maybe spring is the time to give your body a fresh start, step by step.
Take a re-usable shopping tote to the grocery store. Earthday.net notes that you could drive your car a mile with the amount of gas it takes to make 14 plastic bags. Then they wind up in landfills or on the side of the road. If you don't have a reusable tote, you can buy them at stores like Trader Joe's. For a stylish one, check out bhappybags.com.
Take a shower instead of a bath. You'll save money along with 30 gallons of water each time.
Getting a new cell phone or switching to a Blackberry? Don't throw out your old phone, recycle it. Usually the store at which you bought it will take it back. Scary thought: old phones are being thrown away at the astonishing rate of 2 million phones per week. That's a lot of hi-tech waste in landfills.
Thinking of throwing something out cause it's not running as well as it used to, or suffered some dents or chips or broken parts? Consider re-habbing these items or finding a place that will fix them - almost every town has someone who fixes small appliances, for example. Sure, it's easy to buy a replacement, but hard on the environment. You'll feel better about making something you already have last longer by doing a little DIY repair or paying an expert to do it for you.
Sign up for electronic billing and cancel all of your junk mail by using a service like stopjunkmail.org. More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail, which is comparable to clear-cutting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.
