Earth Protect Blog

Today is Earth Day, which raises awareness about the health and preservation of our planet. While today might be the one day that really drives the point home, the big changes will come when Earth Day is celebrated every day by changing old habits into more ecologically-minded ones.

Here are some small and easy ways to conserve resources and create a better world. The best part? Most of these result in financial benefits for you as well. Everybody wins!

Also, remember that this is a relatively short list. If you have some great tips and tricks, be sure to add them in the comments!

Reduce

The “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” campaign has been around for decades, so it almost seems like a cliche to bring it up. But, it’s not, so we’re going to bring it up anyway. The three Rs aren’t just a list of things to do; it’s a hierarchy. If your garbage can is overflowing with “green” products, your garbage can is still overflowing.

This one is the easiest to do and has the biggest impact: buy less stuff. If you want a new movie or your favorite band just released a new album, download it from iTunes instead of buying a physical disk. If there’s a book you’ve been dying to read, think about picking it up as an e-book or borrowing it from your local library. Instead of just rolling your eyes when you get a mailbox full of junk mail, open them up and call the company to get taken off of their mailing list. This saves on paper and also saves you the hassle of having to sort through the clutter on a daily basis.

Reuse

Empty peanut butter jars, paper towel cardboard rolls, old t-shirts, bottle caps, dryer lint… All of them can be reused and repurposed. If you have not heard of Pinterest yet, you need to head over there (I’ve made a board filled with ideas from the items listed to get you started). Nearly anything can have a second life. Not only does this reduce the amount of garbage and recycling you need to drag out to the curb every week, but it also saves you from having to pay for whatever you end up making. If you’re not crafty or can’t find a good use for certain items, bring them to an elementary school or daycare center instead of tossing them out. I guarantee they will be put to good use.

Recycle

If you’ve reduced the amount of things that you’re really just ready to get rid of, recycle what you can. If you do not have curbside recycling offered to you, just wash what you can and keep it until you have enough to take to the recycling center. First, find out what kind of recycling services are available in your area. Just because a plastic container has the recycling icon stamped into it doesn’t mean that your facility is capable of processing it.

Recycling can sound like a lot of work if everything needs to be sorted, but you can make a sorting center yourself that will make everything a bit easier. Cut a hole into plastic tote containers and stack to make a recycling sorting center. It doesn’t take up that much space in the garage and makes a difference. 

Meatless Mondays

I’m going to preface this section by saying that I am not a vegetarian, but eating an animal-free diet just one day a week can have a major environmental impact. Half of all of the grain produced in the world is used to feed farm animals, who generate triple the waste of a human. If every American began participating in Meatless Monday, a billion fewer animals would be eaten every year. This would drastically reduce the amount of water, fuel, and waste associated with feeding, processing, and shipping the animal. Eating meat is actually one of the most environmentally damaging things you can do, so even if you're not quite ready to give up your steaks permanently, consider reducing how much you eat.

Illuminate Responsibly

LED bulbs are relative newcomers to the home lighting scene and are therefore more expensive up front, but they offer huge savings and can pay for themselves incredibly quickly. An LED bulb requires a tenth of the electricity of a regular incandescent bulb, and can last about 25 times longer, which reduces the materials used to manufacture and ship the bulbs. An LED bulb averages about 451 pounds/year of carbon dioxide and other energy emissions, while a regular incandescent bulb produces about 4500 pounds/year.

While we’re on the topic of lighting, also be cognizant of how much light pollution you are creating outside of your house. Excessive artificial light disturbs human and animal sleep cycles, impacts nocturnal animals, and washes out the view of the night sky. While many people use external lights for security reasons, install a model that is motion activated and directs light down, instead of acting like a general spotlight.

Water Works

In the United States, each household uses about 300 gallons of water per day. There are several ways to reduce this number. For starters, turn off the water when you’re not using it. Turning off the faucet instead of letting it run while you are brushing your teeth can reduce the water usage associated with tooth brushing by 84%, which is 2340 gallons per year. If every American did that, it would save 740 billion gallons of water each year, just by changing the way we brush our teeth.

Over a quarter of water usage goes into flushing the toilet. A traditional toilet uses 13.2 liters (3.5 gallons) per flush, though toilets made since 1992 are low flow, which use a maximum of 1.6 gallons. You can reduce this number even more by getting a dual flush conversion kit for your toilet which can either use 1.6 gallons for a full flush or 1.1 gallons for a reduced flush, based on what is needed. Specialized shower heads can temporarily switch off water flow without having to alter temperature (or, you could spend $5 and install a regular shut off valve behind the shower head). By turning off the water while you soap up, you could cut your shower water usage down from 230 liters (60 gallons) down to 11 liters (3 gallons). This equates to a savings of 56,000 liters (15,000 gallons) per year for an individual.

Step Away From the Plastic

Each year, about 1 trillion plastic shopping bags are used around the world, and it is estimated that about 10 percent of them will end up in the ocean. If Americans switched to reusable shopping bags (which you could either buy or make yourself), it would reduce about 12 million barrels of oil needed to produce those bags. 

Bottled water is a $15 billion industry, resulting in the use of 50 billion plastic water bottleseach year in the United States alone; less than 15% of which get recycled. Bottled water may be marketed as a pure alternative to tap water, but about half of bottled water is actually derived from public sources and isn’t even held to the same purity standards by the EPA that tap water is. Buying bottled water is over 500 times more expensive than getting it from a tap. If you’re really concerned about the taste or perceived quality issues with municipal water, filter it yourself and carry a reusable bottle.

Buy Locally

A growing number of people are buying organic produce (in part) because of perceived environmental benefits, due to a belief that “organic” means “pesticide free” which isn’t remotely true. Farmers can still get USDA Organic certification while using a wide range of pesticides, which isn’t going to be made entirely clear while standing in your grocery store. Also, even if you get organic, pesticide-free avocados, it doesn’t do the environment a lot of favors if they need to be shipped in from Chile or Peru. 

Utilizing local farmer’s markets are a great way to solve both of these problems, as you can connect with the person responsible for growing your food and reduce the distance your food has traveled. This has an added bonus of getting produce that has been allowed to ripen on the vine, making it much tastier.

Get Involved

You don’t need to be a conservationist by trade or chain yourself to a tree in order to make a big difference. There are many citizen science projects you can help out with, including spotting birds, tracking migratory insects like the monarch butterfly, star gazing to estimate light pollution levels, tracking air or  water quality, and many more. 

While going for a walk with your dog or your kids, wear a glove and pick up litter that you come across. Not only does this improve the look of your neighborhood, but it also prevents the garbage from being carried by the wind and harming wildlife. 

Additionally, if you don’t live in an area where you can plant trees yourself, you can have  organizations like the Arbor Day Foundation or Trees For the Future plant trees in a protected area to help rebuild forests. You can also have trees planted in someone’s name, which makes a much better gift than sending flowers and can also be done to honor the memory of a loved one.