My theme for this lunar month is Love the Earth, Love your Self . . .  inspired by the arrival of Spring at the Vernal Equinox, Earth Day / International Mother Earth Day on April 22nd and the coming of Bealtaine on May 1st.

Together all of these honour our relationship with Mama Earth and our commitment to her health and sustainability.

You may already be familiar with Earth Day and may already have planned how to celebrate and honour it, either with respect to honouring Mama Earth or to this year’s Earth Day theme of End Plastic Pollution.

There are so many ways we can commit to sustainability of our planet, and one can become easily overwhelmed by the enormity of what could or should be done.

Focus, instead, on what you can do. . . how you can start to make some (or more) changes in your home and with your family that will reduce your carbon footprint and move you towards sustainability.

If you’re not sure where to start, visit the international Earth Day website or the Earth Day / Jour de la Terre Canada website, both of which have great suggestions for individuals, families, communities, teachers, etc.

Here are some simple ideas to get you started . . . but I’m sure you have lots of other great practices and ideas to share !

Reduce

Consume consciously, with awareness:  Always ask yourself Do I need this? Is there something else I can use instead?

Check out zero-waste organizations in your community. Facebook is often a great place to start, with on-line groups offering tips such as where you can buy food in bulk using your own containers, swapping and sharing equipment used infrequently, how to make or where to buy eco-friendly products.

Choose not to buy from manufacturers who use excessive packaging.

Refuse

Say NO to straws. Bring your own. There are many options including glass and metal (I prefer metal because I break things easily!), and you can purchase a straw cleaner at the same time.

I’m sure many will remember the video of the marine biologists removing a straw from a  sea turtle’s nose. This video can be disturbing so I am providing the link only rather than embedding into this post.
Click here to view.

Say NO to plastic microfibres. Avoid buying or using products with plastic microfibres. Be an informed consumer.

Reuse

Bring your own hot beverage cup. Here in Vancouver, and other coffee-loving places, the number of single-use coffee cups in the trash is huge. . . and unnecessary!

Choose biodegradable / multi-use cups rather than single-use k-cup types in your coffee/beverage maker. I make my coffee and tea in a french press or teapot and compost the grounds. I also use re-usable metal filters for making both tea and coffee.

Use felted dryer balls instead of single-use dryers sheets.

Bring your own reusable shopping bags to the market, and carry your own water bottle (I use my metal travel mug). I have a cotton mesh bag that can hold an enormous amount of veggies, and cotton canvas bags for holding larger items. And, yes, I carry my metal straw.

Swap cling-film, plastic containers and ziploc bags for alternatessuch as beeswax wraps (unless you’re vegan, of course!), and glass jars or containers for leftovers, for carrying take-away food or your lunch. Metal tiffin boxes (pictured to the right) are a great idea. There are also non-plastic alternatives using materials made from corn or hemp.

Recycle 

Use recycle bins. Most communities have waste / recycle bins organized by type and degradability, such as mixed paper, food containers, etc. Minimize how much goes into the bin, and put it in the right bin. In many communities, it’s estimated that much of what could be recycled by local environmental services isn’t . . . because people don’t prepare or sort their waste correctly.

Cut down food waste. This was a huge one for me, as I realized we were throwing out a lot of food. Shop for what you need. Sadly, most of the time my waste was items I had stored in the fridge but had forgetten to label by date . .  so ended up throwing it all out because it would likely be risky to eat (I’m talking pencillin in progress here!). Avoid buying huge amount of food. Shop when you need to.  (I did this by necessity when I lived in the UK back in the 80s and 90s, and had the world’s tiniest fridge in my kitchen, barely room in the freezer for a tray of ice cubes. I’m reviving that practice).

Reduce or compost food scraps. Our ancestor would use scraps and bones to make stock. I reuse citrus peel by drying and grinding for use in potpourri, cooking, bath salts, etc. I use eggshells in the garden, or clean/dry for a calcium supplement. I use onion skins for natural dyeing. And I don’t peel a lot of veggies! Lots of options!

Find a new home for unwanted items. Recycle / donate / pay forward items you no longer use that are in good condition.

Remove

Take a bag with you when visiting Nature and “pack out” any waste you see.

Join a community clean-up effort of a local park, beach, river, oceanfront, etc.

Other ways to take action

Many of us are digital nomads / homepreneurs. Click HERE to read 22 ways you can #greenitup in your home office.

Consider joining local / national / global organizations that support the environment. For instance, some of the organizations that I support include  TreeSisters, The Pachamama Alliance, the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace and, in Canada, the Dogwood Initiative. There are so many to choose from!

FYI, the Pachamama Alliance offers a couple of online courses which may interest you (I’ve done both). These courses are free or available by pay-what-you-can donation:

• Awakening the Dreamer
• Game Changer Intensive