5 Meaningful Ways to Celebrate the Earth Year Round

It’s that special time of year, where the sun is shining again, the birds are singing, and the new spring season brings a wave of environmentally conscious folks, excited about making meaningful changes in the name of the Earth Day. But before you know it, April has passed and we’re right back to where we started. So now what?

Just because Earth Day has passed doesn’t mean that you should hang up the Birkenstocks and Prius until next April. There’s no better time than now to double-down on your commitment to the environment and sustainable living, and here are 5 simple ways to bring the eco-friendly attitude into the summer and beyond.

Understand Your Habits

Take a look at your everyday habits and really think about how these actions impact the environment. We all contribute to climate change, the key is to understand how and where you can personally lower your contribution. 

To understand how you can reduce waste, you have to first find out what waste you’re producing. To accomplish this, start by going through your trash (yes, you heard that right) and see what exactly you are throwing away. In the low-waste community, this is called a trash audit. Lay out what's in your bin so you can see precisely what and how much is being tossed out. 

If your bin is 90% takeout containers and disposable cutlery, consider cutting back on the delivery apps, and designate a few meals every week that you can cook at home instead. If your bin is half filled with paper towels, try swapping them for kitchen dish towels or a few old rags that can be used to clean spills. If it’s mostly old food that’s past its prime, whether that be rotting produce or forgotten leftovers, take an audit of your fridge next! See what items you have, what will last, and what needs to be used first, and plan your meals accordingly. For items you’re continuously tossing (ie. the ever present bag of forgotten spinach), consider switching your habits. Try purchasing frozen spinach instead, using up the wilted greens in stir frys or soups, or swapping it out for a hardier green that will keep longer, like kale or lettuce. 

Pro tip: your spinach goes bad quickly because of how it’s being stored. Swap the plastic bags for an Organic Cotton Muslin Bag that allows the produce to breathe, allowing the natural gasses to escape rather than trapping them in, which only accelerates decay. For extra crispy greens, lightly dampen the bags before storing in the fridge for an added boost of hydration.

Now that you’ve got the hang of auditing, try it out for other aspects of your life. Think about your transportation needs, recent shopping purchases, even digital subscriptions. Anything that you regularly spend time and energy consuming is up for closer inspection.

Plan Ahead

One common reason people fall back into wasteful habits is due to a simple factor: it’s more convenient. So much of our culture is based around convenience, after all, time is money. Most companies have capitalized on this perceived convenience, often having you pay more just to save a little time. 

When planning a day out, think about what's involved in those plans. Are you meeting up with friends to see a show or try out a new restaurant? Instead of individually driving, arrange a carpool. You’ll lower your carbon emissions while actually getting to spend more time with pleasant company. Know you’ll be on the go around lunchtime or will need a coffee pick-me-up later in the day? Pack a lunch beforehand and grab a reusable travel mug on the way out. And as a bonus, lots of local coffee shops will give you a discount for bringing your own mug to fill, as it saves them the cost of purchasing disposable to-go ware.

Go beyond planning ahead just for specialty days out and begin to work these habits into everyday life. If you’ve got a busy schedule for the coming week, meal prep for the days ahead to have quick convenient foods ready to go rather than solely relying on takeout. While there are always unforeseen circumstances and last minute change of plans that are hard to account for, you can still easily combat the most common forms of waste in your everyday life with just a little forethought. 

Learn More

Now that you’ve dipped your toes into a more conscientious lifestyle, go ahead and dive deeper into a subject that interests you, or branch out and learn about an entirely new field. No matter what your interests are, it can always relate back to environmental impact and sustainability.

For the animal lovers out there, consider reading more into endangered species or the detriments of factory farming. If you’re a beach-goer, find out more about rising ocean temperatures or the impact of trash pollution. For avid hikers, fishers, or outdoors people, check out advocacy groups for funding and preserving national parks and open spaces. If you’re a tech head, look into recent advancement in fields such as ocean motoring or renewable energy, go a step further and research how “disposable” tech waste is impacting the environment.

Think as big or as small as you like, whether that be a global issue like worldwide plastic pollution, or as local as plans for a native wildlife space. Each issue can be just as important as the next, it’s about what resonates most with you and what can drive you to action. And don’t keep this new information just for your own knowledge. Share these ideas and findings with friends and family, and see what sort of information they’re digging up as well.

While it’s always beneficial to gather as much knowledge as you can to form opinions and take action, most news when it comes to climate change and environmental awareness tends to lean heavily on the negative end of the spectrum. Even though it’s good to be aware of the issues at hand, don’t let an overwhelming sense of dread keep you down.  Be sure to look at all the good work that is currently being done in the environmental field and understand how you can personally help!

Be Realistic

It’s so easy to get consumed with a new hobby or interest, especially when it relates to a topic as important as global warming. While deciding to make sweeping lifestyle changes is simple in theory, especially without experiencing any of the implementations first-hand, you may want to set more reasonable expectations for yourself about what you’re able and willing to do.

For those wanting to cut out meat or animal products from their diet, great! However, making a dramatic switch like this overnight can be difficult (and not only on the digestive system). Start by getting used to eating less meats and cheeses, cutting them out from one meal a day or for one day a week, then slowly ramping up. This will give you a more reasonable idea of plant-based flavors and foods, while allowing you to get excited about new recipes. And don’t just toss anything containing animal products. Use up any remaining ingredients in your cabinets and fridge first and then replace them with plant-based alternatives. Remember, the idea is to prevent excess waste, so tossing edible food products because they don’t fit a certain dietary restriction will only add to carbon emissions.

Take this idea and apply it to other aspects of your life as well, not just in your diet. Whether that be taking public transit instead of walking or growing your own food at home, ease yourself into the change. It may take some time, but making a slow, conscious adjustment to your lifestyle is more sustainable in the long run. Going cold turkey (pun intended) on your regular routines can be a hard adjustment to make, and if you really are committed and want the changes to stick, being practical about your circumstances and habits are a great place to start.

Take Action

So much of the hype around being environmentally conscious is focused around April and Earth Day, then soon after tossed out the window in place of the next socially conscious topic. Just because Earth Month is coming to an end, that doesn’t mean that your concern for the environment should be hung up until next year too!

The simplest and also hardest thing we can do to help the environment is to simply start taking action. Get involved, put in the work, and actually take a stride towards creating a better world. Pick up the trash you see littering the streets, whether that be organizing a community cleanup session or simply going on a walk with a pair of gloves and a garbage bag. Write a letter to your local government officials expressing your concerns and urge them to vote on upcoming topics. Find an organization doing good work in the community and donate to their cause, even just sharing their message on social media to help spread the word is better than nothing. If you see something you want to change, the best place to start is by embracing those changes yourself.