Have you ever wanted to help the environment, but just don’t know how?
If so, there are several easy ways to “go green” and help the environment.
But what does it mean to “go green”? It means to make choices that reduce, minimize, or even attempt to reverse the negative impact of our actions on earth.
Here are a few basic changes you can make to help our environment and “go green”. The first step is to reduce, or even eliminate your use of plastics. We are surrounded by plastic everywhere we go. But it doesn’t have to be that way! If you stop using items such as plastic straws from restaurants, perhaps the restaurants will see that people care and do not want them to supply those straws. Every straw you refuse to use is one less straw in a land fill or the ocean. Many people now carry their own personal straws with them to reuse, or they have moved to paper straws.
And how about those horrible plastic bags that we carry our groceries home in? Most people these days have learned to bring their own reusable bags to the stores for their groceries. Hooray! Another easy way to reduce plastic use!
Another alarming use is how so many groceries or products are packaged in plastic. For instance, yogurt comes in a plastic container. You eat it and throw it away or recycle it. But that plastic container never really goes away. It would be much better to buy a yogurt brand that comes packaged in glass.
Finally, plastic utensils are used once and thrown away. How wasteful! But now there are wonderful alternatives to the plastic utensils. Wok This Way uses a fork made from corn which is 100% biodegradable. More so, they encourage their regular customers to even bring their own fork.
Going green also includes composting your waste that can be reused to fertilize soil. The ends you cut from your fruits and vegetables, egg shells, plus so much more should be put into your compost to return to the earth, rather than just throw away with all the rest of your trash.
Another easy way to go green is to purchase used items from second hand stores. The less demand there is for new products, the less new products will be made and in our society. In addition, get in the habits of not buying useless things that will provide happiness for five minutes, but spend an eternity in a land fill. Make wiser choices with your dollars.
In addition, when you are done with items in your home, you can donate it to a thrift store or to a homeless shelter. Basically, find a good home for your things other than the trash and eventual land fill.
Going green also means to recycle and find innovative ways to release the most common e-waste such as computers, telelvisions, phones, copiers, fax machines, etc. Technology advances so quickly and it leaves an enormous footprint of waste as we discard the last cool electronic for the latest and greatest.
Finally, going green with the foods you eat is also important. Did you know it takes a huge amount of natural resources to raise a cow, slaughter a cow, transport, package, and finally eat that steak or hamburger for the protein? There are plant based foods that create much less waste and pollution in our environment, yet will provide us with the same amount of protein and nutrition. Do your homework and see what other create foods are out there that leave the smallest footprint on our earth.
And once again, look at the packaging the food comes in. If it’s in way too much plastic, maybe it’s a food you don’t need.
By: Sammy Lipovitch