5 ways i'm being more eco-friendly
I am so excited to be writing this one! I have been wanting to write it for awhile, I have posted a few times on IG stories and people have wanted to know where some of the stuff I use is ordered from so figured this was the perfect post.
For awhile now I have been making small transitions in my life to just be more conscious of my lifestyle habits. It all started with switching over to a more non-toxic living. So I cleaned up my skincare products, make-up, and household. It took me a solid 2 years to get comfortable and confident with that and now it’s just second nature. Reading labels is mostly a breeze and I am in love with the brands I have come to learn about. They are paving a way in this industry to make sure people health is not being compromised for performance. You can find my blog post on that switch here.
Well in the last year I feel like going green has been a huge lifestyle change that almost all of us are doing. It’s very apparent that mother earth is in need of us to become more eco-friendly. We want our planet to survive right? As they say in the Lion King it’s the circle of life how things work out and right now we as a society need to make better decisions about how we produce waste. I know I wasn’t aware of how much waste we actually produce. It honestly was never a thought for me. Of course when you start to make lifestyle changes you start to become more aware of everything in your life. You start researching and I am a strong believer in the more you know the better you do.
So let me put some facts out there for you guys to understand a little bit deeper what I mean about the choices we make:
-In regards to plastic we produce nearly 300 million tons of plastic each year, and about 8 million tons ends up in our ocean. So you can imagine our sea life is suffering. I mean look at the corals just from conventional sunscreen usage. It makes me sad that we are literally killing the precious sea.
-2.12 billion tons is wasted globally right now and on average they say we trash things we buy within 6 months. So think of all the stuff you buy from food, to cosmetics, packaged items etc this all ends up as waste.
-Our carbon foot print average per person is about 20 metric tons. What this means if you don’t know is the carbon compounds we emit. So think driving our cars, heat for our homes, the foods we buy etc.
Living in California I realize how green this state is and it makes me happy that so many companies out here and that I support are very conscious on this. However there is still a large part of our population that don’t and want to show you guys how easy it is to implement small steps. I know that there are some things that are totally inevitable like our carbon footprint. We obviously aren’t going to stop producing food, meats, etc but we can help reduce it in small ways.
Did you know if we as a collective chose not to eat meat 1 day a week, just one we could reduce the carbon footprint by nearly 80%. I think that is an easy small change that makes a big wave for our planet. Likewise if we replaced even just 1 roll of our toilet paper to a recycled roll we would save 424,000 trees. Do you see how small these little things are and how you truly can make a difference. I hear it all the time me as one person won’t change anything. It actually does because you are one less person adding to the problem. It’s a domino effect. If you are doing this and you introduce it to even one friend and so on…. think about that magic for a second.
I am not here to tell you how to live your life, but I want to provide the knowledge for you in the small ways that I know. So here are 5 changes I made in my everyday that I know are making a small impact to help our environment:
I bring my own reusable coffee cup everywhere. I have a tall and a small so I know which one I will have depending on the drink I want. I also have a cute tumblr with a stainless steel straw for more iced drinks or smoothies. This helps to reduce single plastic usage already
I purchased a bamboo utensil set. So it has a fork, spoon, knife, and stainless steel straw you can take everywhere with you. At restaurants I use my own straw and try to remember now to get a plastic one now. Also if I ever eat take out and i’m not at home I have utensils to use instead of plastic. My favorite conscious blogger WaterThruSkin sells this adorable set here
I invested in reusable bags for grocery runs. I buy a lot from Trader Joes there bags are the best, at whole foods or amazon you can buy reusable produce bags (I linked it), stasher bags to store extra produce in the fridge or freezer. This helps reduce SO much plastic
I use reusable cotton pads to remove make-up or skincare, I use muslin cloths for makeup application (ladies think wiping your hands clean instead of baby wipes etc). You can find the cotton pads here and the cloths here and if I have to use wipes I buy the biodegradable kind and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the brand Kaia naturals or my trusted Beautycounter wipes. Here and here. The BC ones are much larger and have micellar water so they are better for stubborn eye make up versus the Kaia
I try to minimize my meat eating to a few times a week now. I have toyed with the idea of being vegetarian and what not. I just don’t think it’s for me. I have tried really hard to do this, but my body doesn’t respond well for how active I am in my daily life. I support any diet that works for you and at this point in time for me I am just trying to reduce my meat eating to help the carbon foot print once I learned that
I feel a lot better knowing I have been able to implement all of this into my life this last year and I am always working on making more small changes when I can. Water Thru Skin blogger Valeria and Jules Hunt of Om and the City Blog are some of my favorite people to learn from on how to life a more conscious lifestyle. Valeria is more environmental and Jules is more learning to do more with less in your life so think minimalist but a fun modern wellness twist. So you should definitely check them out if you want more. I hope to do more posts like this in the future and if you like it tell me!
Have the best day wherever you are and go make some eco-friendly choices :p
Xo,
Shay
