10 Eco-Solutions That Make a Difference

REDUCE USE OF PLASTIC BAGS

Bring your own reusable shopping bags:

According to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed globally each year—that’s 150 for each one of us. What do we have against plastic bags? They require petroleum to make, they end up as litter, they take hundreds of years to break down, and they kill thousands of sea creatures. Avoid using plastic bags by having your own reusable shopping bag on hand in your car or purse.

REDUCE USE OF PLASTIC BOTTLES

Bring your own bottle:

If you buy just one pesky plastic water bottle for two bucks every day, you might spend 700 dollars a year staying hydrated. If you spend a couple of weeks’ worth of that budget on one reusable drinking bottle and fill it with (preferably filtered) tap water, you get to save the rest instead. You’ll also save a lot of water, oil, and transportation emissions that would’ve been spent with Mr. Plastic. Just think, producing the plastic to make all those water bottles emits the same amount of global warming pollution as 140,000 cars (http://www.simplesteps.org/content/view/96/46/ ).

SAVE ENERGY

Switch to energy efficient lighting:

Natural Home Magazine has the skinny on light bulbs: Use a conventional bulb and you use a lot of energy while a CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) lasts 10 times longer. An LED (light-emitting diode) can last as long as 10 or 20 years!

GARDENING

Compost:

Love Food Hate Waste tells readers that a third of all food ends up in the trash in the U.K. (can’t be much different in the states). With a small investment in composting products to compost food scraps (along with yard trimmings and paper), you divert waste taking up landfill space and create your very own nutrient-rich fertilizer for your soil. Not a gardener? Give it to someone who is.

CLEANING PRODUCTS

Use natural cleaning and laundry products:

Women’s Voices for the Earth is spreading the word about the dangers of chemicals in cleaning and laundry products. Consider this: ingredient labeling is unregulated on cleaning products and many toxic chemicals used in them can cause health problems from asthma to reproductive harm. In fact, of the 87,000 chemicals around, only 1,350 of them have been tested to see if they make us sick (simplesteps.org). Environmentally friendly cleaning products will keep you safe from toxic chemicals often used in conventional cleaning products.

WATER CONSERVATION

Save water:

The EPA’s WaterSense program has a good incentive for conserving our most precious resource: we can save $170 a year doing it. Add up every American cutting back with simple practices and water-saving devices and that’s 18 billion dollars and three trillion gallons of H2O saved from going down the drain.

SUSTAINABLE APPAREL

Buy sustainable clothing:

The amount of pesticide used to produce the cotton for one conventionally made t-shirt? A third of a pound (AboutOrganicCotton.org). Just for one t-shirt! And all those t-shirts and jeans and other cotton items adds up to 10% of the world’s pesticide use and 25% of its insecticide spraying. Not so with organic cotton. By buying sustainably made clothes you protect farm workers, air, soil, and water, as well as yourself.

COSMETICS AND TOILETRIES

Stick to safe cosmetics:

We need the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics working on our behalf to clean up our cosmetics and personal care products. There are about 10,000 chemicals used in various body products and 90% haven’t been tested for safety. That’s a problem because they don’t just stay on our skin–we actually absorb them. Visit the  Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database for useful information about safe cosmetics. Using natural beauty products, organic personal skin care products and natural cosmetics is safer for your own health and eliminates the use of harmful chemicals that would otherwise be used in the manufacturing process.

MOM AND BABY

Give your baby BPA-free bottles:

Many plastic baby bottles contain Bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been linked to hormone disruption (The Green Guide). A safer route for your little one? Safe bottles that say no way to BPA.

KITCHEN PRODUCTS

Take a different take on “to-go”:

According to WasteFreeLunches.org, an average school-aged child generates 67 pounds of trash–sometimes more than he/she weighs–every year from disposable lunch waste in the form of zippy bags or plastic or Styrofoam purchased food comes in. Grownups lunching at work must generate the same amount or more, depending on their appetites. Going zero waste on the go is not as hard as it may seem once you’re stocked with safe, lightweight containers, cool bamboo utensils, and a cloth napkin. You could also save a couple hundred dollars a year.