Every Day Is Earth Day

A few years ago I wrote one of my favorite posts on the blog sharing some ways to protect Mother Earth. This year I wanted to post 20 updated tips about how you can save the Earth! Now more than ever I think we have the opportunity to re-evaluate our behavior and make more environmentally conscious decisions. 

1. Join Terracyle and sign up for recycling programs to recycle everyday products you use! Terracyle helps recycle the "non-recyclable." They partner with collectors, companies, retailers, etc. to help recycle all sorts of "non-recyclable" items. Once you create an account you can sign up for recycling programs. I participate in recycling programs for items I use often like beauty products, toothpaste, etc.
2. Shop resale and vintage! Did you know that shopping secondhand can save you anywhere from 10-90% off MSRP and helps curb our global consumption of clothing. Some of my favorite resale retailers are eBay, Poshmark, Vinted, Vestiare Collective, the Real Real, ThredUp, and Schoola.
3. Read books about sustainable/secondhand fashion like Dress [with] Sense and the Conscious Closet. These are a couple of favorites.
4. Shop at your locals farmer's market. Find a farmers' market near you at localharvest.org.
5. Wash your clothes when they are dirty, with cold water, and in full loads just like a dishwasher. Cold water uses 90% less energy than hot water!
6. Hang dry your laundry. Personally I always hang dry jeans, pajamas, athletic bottoms, and anything I don't want to shrink!
7. Buy a concentrated plant based laundry detergent, with third party labels, leaping bunny certified, and without a scent.
8. Carry your lunch in polypropylene #5 containers (#6 and #7 have toxic chemicals). Glass is also a great option and stainless steel as well.
9. Consider how you take your coffee. I have a Nespresso Vertuoline coffee/espresso maker and my favorite part is that the pods are recyclable. Nespresso even sends you their own recyclable bags to ship your pods to their recycling plant with a prepaid label!
10. Taking this one step further bring a reusable cup to coffee shops. Stojo sells great collapsible cups that can easily be fit in a purse or on the go. The company has evolved so much from their Kickstarter days and they're offering a promo right now!
11. Recycle your clothes with ThredUp or donate them to a cause via Schoola. I donate gently used clothes to Schoola supporting the Malala Fund. You can also donate gently used kids and women's clothing to a school in need or your own school! Make sure these clothes are clean and stain-free.
12. Recycle your makeup empties at the Origins counter. Origins recycles cosmetic empties from any brand, every single day!
13. Support eco-friendly beauty brands. Recycling 6 MAC empties to the MAC counter gets you a free $19 lipstick. Origins, the Body Shop, Alba Cosmetics, Honest Beauty, Kiehls and Burt's Bees are a few other brands making a difference in the beauty community.
14. Sign environmental, human rights, and sustainable food petitions on Change.org!
15. Add An Inconvenient Truth, Bee Movie, and the Lorax to your watch list. We have to protect the Earth!
16. Turn off lights when you aren't using them. There is nothing chic about wasting electricity.
17. Stop buying clothes that will only be worn once! Consider renting pieces for special occasions or for whenever from Le Tote, Rent the Runway, or Tulerie (invite only right now). I know how appealing it can be to want to buy something new for a special occasion but renting or even borrowing from a friend is more environmentally friendly, and keeps your closet organized.
18. Use your local Freecycle, Craigslist, or Goodwill to get rid of old furniture and unwanted things. I've gotten rid of things through all three sources.
19. Kansas City friends recycle clothing and all sorts of materials and scraps to Scraps KC. Also recycle your glass at Ripple Glass bins!

20. Try committing to one small thing for the environment! Whether it be shutting off the lights, not using plastic straws, consuming less plastic, recycling your makeup empties at the Origins counter, or committing to sustainable fashion. You'd be surprised how easy doing one thing can be!

Well that's all I got, friends. 20 tips on how we can protect our Earth. Its the little things that add up! Going forward would you guys like to see me hone the tips to a category like home, beauty, fashion, etc.?

Photo above by Juliana Noelle Jumper