15 Free Things You Can Do To Help the Earth Right Now
2. Calculate your carbon footprint. There’s tons of free calculators out there. Once you know your results research some ways to improve your footprint!
3. Eat your leftovers. Leftovers are such a good way to combat food waste but they only work if we eat them. Make it a back of the pantry, almost done frozen veggies and leftovers day! We make our leftovers bigger and better by adding more veggies and spices.
4. Bike or walk to work/grocery. Free transportation and it’s good for the planet! I wear a backpack to the grocery so I can fill it up with some fruits and veg before heading home. Even if it’s less food you’d normally buy it’s great exercise, better for the earth and free.
5. Make a cutlery kit, napkins or sandwich bag out of old fabric! Use up the old fabric for something you might have bought. Templates can be found online or try and figure it out on your own. It’s a fun zero waste puzzle.
6. Write your elected officials! We’ve seen with the current #BLM revolution that protesting and writing elected officials works! Try it out. Tell them what you’re happy or upset with. If nothing else it’s fantastic therapy.
7. Save the empty containers! I save a lot of empty old plastic and glass food containers. It’s free jars, why not use them until they’re unusable! It’s perfect if you have a dinner party to hand out leftovers in the free peanut butter jars collected.
8. Find a couple vegan recipes you’d like to try. If you usually eat meat meals cutting down tremendously helps the environment. It’s okay to start small. Search your favorite meal with the word “vegan” after and who knows you might find something you like just as much and save as a new staple!
9. Save your veggie scraps! Lately I’ve been saving veggie scraps in the freezer to make homemade vegetable broth. I no longer have to buy a plastic container of veggie broth, it’s much healthier for me without preservatives or tons of sodium and it’s delicious!
10. Charging electronics when you’re not using them. A laptop that is charging while being used is consuming more energy than one that charges while not in use. It is trying to make up for the energy already used in the battery as well as the energy you’re currently using. Try to make charging while not in use a habit and it’ll help with cables restricting your work space as well!
11. Donate, loan or sell items you don’t use. Keeping a house full of junk that you don’t use doesn’t help anyone. If you put some of these things on an online flea market someone will eventually need it and collect it from you instead of them buying new and creating demand for more items collecting dust. This includes books! If you don’t think you’ll read it again donate it! I love used book stores and search them for books I want first.
12. Fix that piece of clothing with a hole. Mending old clothing and using them for another nine months reduces the impact by 20%-30%. Worn Wear by Patagonia will fix your clothes for you, regardless of the label, just find out when they’re near you! Clothing has a big environmental impact and using it until it is unusable then mending and using it longer is the best way to reduce that impact.
13. Dry your clothes without the dryer. Speaking of environmental impact of clothes, might as well try to get them to last longer by not using a dryer. Dryers make up 5.8% of total carbon dioxide emissions in the US. Save money and the earth by line drying. If you don’t have a line outside or if it’s raining your clothes will dry inside on a hanger, it might just take longer. I dry most of my clothes inside the van which looks ridiculous and makes it hard to walk around but my footprint is lower and my clothes last longer.
14. Watch a vegan, climate change or zero waste documentary. Youtube and Netflix have lots of good options. If you don’t have Netflix you can sign up for a free trial or ask a friend to borrow. Keeping yourself informed and passionate will help push the message of clean living around you.
15. Inventory your trash! Every so often I check to see what I’m throwing away most of and try to find another solution. First was paper towels, it seemed like my garbage was only paper towels. So I switched cold turkey to old t-shirt rags and cut up old towels. The next thing for me was granola bars. So many plastic wrappers in my garbage, so I learned how to make my own. Little things like this help gradually to reduce waste.
We made an app, Boycott That! Available for iOS and Android devices!
Boycott That is the app to start becoming a healthier consumer. For the wannabe zero waster, Boycott That has achievable sustainable switches for everyday items. The app is also perfect for helping to avoid companies that partake in animal cruelty and violate basic human rights.
