Have you struggled to keep up with many of your sustainability practices because of quarantine?
With reusable bag restrictions in many grocery stores and an inability to shop the way we’re used to, it has been challenging for many of us to keep with our eco-friendly habits that we’ve been working so hard to maintain.
Let’s look at 5 ways that we can contribute to contribute to a cleaner Earth, regardless of what’s going on in the world.
Invest in Sustainable Companies
Voting with your dollar is one of the most valuable assets that we have!
With the rise of online shopping for all of our at home essentials, now is an opportunity to research and invest in companies that maintain sustainable practices.
This could also mean investing in renewable energy stocks or any company’s stock with a green history.
Although this requires a bit of work and more time, once you find a good company, the work is done, and you can continue to buy products from them forever.
We have listed a few companies that we’ve found to be great starts below!
This brand is famous for revolutionizing how cleaning is done, eliminating the unnecessary use of plastic bottles that live a short functional life and quickly get tossed to the dumps.
Grove Collaborative:
This company has been making waves recently as they offer a wide range of eco-friendly products and simplify the process so you can set up a recurring shipment. They even go as far as making efforts to offset the carbon that is used for your shipments!
Splosh:
Similar to Blueland, they specialize in household cleaning products and put an emphasis on refilling your bottle rather than continually wasting more plastic.
2. Create New Sustainability Habits
There’s always ways to reduce our overall waste and with this extra time, now is the perfect time to create a new habit that will contribute to this.
For example, one thing that many people (including myself) struggle with is food waste and waste due to excessive boxing and plastic from easy to make food.
Instead of eating out or buying meals that are quick and easy but contain unnecessary waste, now could be the perfect time to learn new recipes and meal prep.
While this may seem like a simple step, you’d be surprised how much waste you can eliminate by successfully implementing it.
It usually has a side effect of you eating healthier as well, which isn’t a bad thing either!
Check out this article for a guide to quickly start your meal prep journey!
3. Investigate Zero Waste Shipping Options
Did you know Amazon gives you an option to make your packaging as plastic free as possible?
Below you can see a screenshot of how to do this!
It is likely that many other online stores offer similar options, but you’d never know if you didn’t look for it.
If the company you are thinking of ordering from doesn’t offer this option, see if you can find a small business that does, they need all the support we can give right now!
4. Learn Something New!
Implementing a more sustainable lifestyle isn’t always about action steps, a lot of change starts with how we think about things.
It definitely feels better to bring a reusable bag to the grocery store, because you literally see the plastic bags you’re avoiding.
But working on our perspectives and mindsets are just as important, even if it doesn’t feel as immediately impactful!
There are so many great books out there, such as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson or Love Earth Now: The Power of Doing One Thing Everyday by Cheryl Leutjen.
Just because we can’t practice many of the sustainability habits we’re used to, doesn’t mean we can’t take this time to learn some new ones!