Top Ten Thoughts for Living Lighter on the Earth

 

Happy Earth Day! And a reminder that Earth Day should be EVERY DAY! As (vegan) cheesy as that might sound, one day a year to celebrate/protect/think about the environment is just not going to cut it. Not even close. Following up on the “Top Ten” lists I promised to start posting regularly, I decided to post the top ten ways I try to be mindful of living more lightly on the planet. There are hundreds of others, but these are some of things that are top on my mind on a daily basis. I’d love to hear yours!

1. Be vegan. Eating a plant-based diet cuts more CO2 emissions than stopping driving a car.

2. Cut down on car use. I try to use the public buses, lightrail, and good old fashioned feet for walking!

3. Composting. Seattle, luckily, has a city compost/yard waste program and so, in addition to our garbage can and recycling bin, we also get a yard waste bin which takes all yard refuse and food scraps. Eric and I for now put our kitchen scraps in the yard waste, and try to compost most of our yard waste at home in our own composting box. Until we can get a rat-proof worm bin set up for our yard, we just can’t have food composting in the yard. If your city doesn’t have a compost program, see what you can do to get one started and in the meantime, the best thing you can do is compost at home anyway. It’s even possible to have a small worm bin in an apartment for composting.

4. Stop using plastic. Every time you think about buying something packaged in plastic, don’t. See if there is a less packaged option. For instance, try to buy heads of lettuce instead of prewashed plastic boxes of lettuce. If your favorite companies use plastic packaging, write or call them and request that they switch to a more biodegradable option. Buy condiments/sauces/etc that are packaged in glass jars that you can reuse instead of buying the one bottled in plastic.

5. Bring your bags. Now every time I go to the store and grab my cloth bags, I think of the Portlandia skit above about forgetting your bag at the grocery store. Seattle outlawed plastic grocery bags, and now charges for paper bags, which has been a great way to encourage people to bring bags from home and cut down on the mindless consumption of plastic and paper.

6. Buy in bulk. Bulk food buying can reduce packaging, especially if you use cloth bulk sacks to buy things like beans, grains, etc. Just remember the tare weight of your bag for when you check out so you don’t get charged for the weight of the cloth.

7. Change up your cleaning and beauty routine. Household cleaners and beauty products can contain some pretty gnarly ingredients and even the more eco-friendly options are often packaged in plastic. Looking under our kitchen sink is like a forest of plastic bottles — gross. As we use things up, I’ve been trying to switch to simpler options. Not the least of which is vinegar and baking soda (the miracle combo for cleaning and, surprisingly, hair care as well). Check out Sonnet’s recommendations and great recipes for skin/beauty care products.

8. Eat in season for your region. Eating out of season produce can use up an awful lot of fossil fuels. But even when you’re eating in-season foods, be mindful of where they come from. Asparagus might be in season in Washington, but the stuff at the grocery store might still have been shipped from halfway around the world. Read labels and ask questions.

9. Pick up garbage that’s not yours. When you’re out and about, allow yourself to see the garbage around you and pick it up. I realized on my walks with the dogs that I have trained myself to tune out garbage that I see. Instead, I should just pick it up. It doesn’t take much effort. My mom is great at this. Every weekend she goes out into her neighborhood with her gardening gloves and a bag and picks up all the garbage. This doesn’t necessarily solve the problem in number 10, but it does reduce the amount of garbage that wildlife local to your neighborhood is eating and the stuff is polluting your immediate vicinity.

10. Reduce waste. This one is a bit repetitive with some of the earlier ones, but it is probably one of the most important. When we throw things “away,” we have to remember that they don’t go “away” — they go somewhere else. I visited Nicaragua when I was 18 and was brought to a landfill. There was a large community of people living at the landfill in makeshift tents and structures. That reality is seared in my mind forever both because of that example of extreme poverty, and because of the way in which the well-off around the world don’t have to think about how their actions (and waste) impact poor communities around the globe. I’ve been trying lately to be mindful about imagining the garbage I throw away piling up around me. What if we had to KEEP our waste? Also, each time I throw something away, I try to be mindful of the animals who might encounter it. What will this mesh plastic bag that held onions do to a bird or fish that encounters it?  

In general, each of these small steps is centered on being more mindful and compassionate. Thinking of how our actions not only impact the air, water, and soil, but also how waste impacts other humans around the world and animals who share the planet with us.

What are your top ways for living lighter on the earth?