Every year on Earth Day, people from all cultures and landscapes throughout the world are connected in the shared appreciation of our planet. This year, I spent the first part of Earth Day celebrating with an early morning yoga class. Each class starts with an intention to keep in mind throughout our practice, and on Earth Day, our class’ shared intention was to be more mindful of our impact on the earth.
Earth Day is great for bringing our awareness back to the planet, but as one of my environmentally-conscious best friends, Hailey Petersen ’20 pointed out:
“Earth Day should be every day.”
She’s right. After Earth Day, what about the other 364 days faced with increasing pollution and climate change each year? Our world is changing as we know it—bee colonies are on the collapse, the Great Pacific garbage patch grows, and in highly polluted areas of China and India, air is too toxic to for people to breathe. It’s not enough to show extra love to the planet once a year—it’s time to make sustainable changes.
We came up with a list of six impactful ways to be more eco-friendly every day:
1. Cancel Single-Use Plastics
…And switch to reusable water bottles and containers! This helps cut down on single-use plastics (only 23% of which are recycled), which take up to 1000 years to decompose. In addition, by switching to reusable water bottles, you will avoid judgemental stares from the majority of Seattle people who aren’t used to hearing the crunch of a single-use plastic bottle anymore.
Check out Hydroflask, Swell, and Nalgene for some fun, BPA-free alternatives.
2. BYOB
Last B as in Bags. Opt out of plastic and paper bags at Trader Joe’s, Bartell’s, and countless others and bring a reusable bag or tote. That’s an extra $0.05 that you’re saving, which adds to your bag in the long run.
Madewell has trendy, reusable Canvas bags that benefit various charities such as charity: water and Girls Inc., or just make extra room in your school bag.
3. Plant-Based Meals
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the biggest way to reduce your carbon footprint. Beef production results in up to 105 kg of greenhouse gases per 100g of meat, while tofu produces less than 3.5 kg.
Fans of Dick’s burgers and Earl’s mozzarella sticks—don’t click out just yet…This doesn’t mean you have to change your diet entirely to a vegan lifestyle, but simply adding more plant-based meals into your diet can do more than buying an electric car.
For good plant-based recipes and more education on a plant-based lifestyle, check out @pickuplimes and @elsas_wholesomelife.
4. Eco-Friendly…But Make It Fashion
Fast fashion promotes quickly made-to-order products according to all seasonal trends…only to be discarded once the trends change. The environmental impact of fast fashion brands like Forever 21, Fashion Nova, Missguided, and Zara also disproportionately affects low-income communities of color. Countries with some of the worst sweatshop→pollution situations include Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Indonesia, and Turkey.
Instead, try shopping secondhand at vintage / thrift stores. I’ve found some my favorite, most unique pieces at vintage and thrift stores and have gotten about 50-80% off the original price for my items. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in stores, try online thrift stores like Depop (great streetwear and vintage pieces) and ThredUp (more preppy and bohemian styles.)
Shop sustainable (and affordable) with these brands: Girlfriend Collective, Reformation, ASOS Eco Edit (includes beauty and skincare products), H&M Conscious Collective.
(Note: H&M and ASOS carry fast-fashion, but these particular lines are eco-friendly.)
5. Makeup Matters
Make sure that your makeup and other cosmetic packages have sustainable production. Lush carries their shampoo and conditioner in paper packaging.
Glitter is also bad for the environment unless it’s biodegradable. It’s a microplastic, so when washed down the drain, it is consumed by fish and then becomes part of the food chain. Pretty gross.
With old mascara wands, Wands for Wildlife collects your old mascara wands and uses them to clean larvae off the fur of wild animals. All you have to do is wash your wand with soap and water and send it over to them. Bonus tip: spread the word to your friends to share and minimize the packaging for shipping!
6. Take 3 for the Sea
Feeling adventurous? Instagram account, @take3forthesea created a challenge for people to simply pick up three pieces of trash when leaving the beach, lake, or anywhere in nature. Their goal: to put plastic pollution in the past. Just three pieces of trash doesn’t seem like a big deal, but as stated on their website, people in 129 countries participate in this challenge totaling 10 million pieces of trash removed annually.
Out of 7.53 billion people on Earth, you might not think that your impact matters, especially when our country is still divided on where climate change is even real, despite scientific evidence. Living in Washington, we have the privilege of appreciating clean air and beautiful hikes, but that doesn’t mean that we should disregard other areas in the world that are quickly deteriorating with climate change and pollution.
Let’s do our part for a more sustainable and equitable world.