Earth Day 2019 just passed. It is on the 22nd of April each year to celebrate the birth of a modern environmental movement in 1970. It gives voice to that emerging consciousness, channelling energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns on the front page. As we can see, there are a lot of environmental issues going on. It's not enough to just celebrate once a year but to carry out the spirit of Earth Day in our everyday life.
Here, we team 513 introduces you some ways to start an Earth Conscious Lifestyle this April so as to help our Mother Earth.
Photo from Market Square Music
Choosing Earth Conscious Products
Plastic pollution is one of the existing serious environmental problems. Many products that we use on our daily basis contribute a lot to it, and very often you may have never noticed. We put a list of eco-friendly products to show you how replacing the most mundane things can help reduce plastic waste:
1. Clothing
Most clothing is made from cotton, but you can never guess much percentage of clothing is made out of flexible plastic sheet and plasticized fabric. To avoid them, you can buy clothes from Recover Brands, whose products are entirely made out of recycled material. They also use environmentally sustainable manufacturing methods such as eliminating the use of dyes and minimising chemical, water and energy use.
Image from Recover Brands
2. Coffee Cups/ Drink Bottles
Starbucks single-use coffee cups and a lot more from vending machine make up a lot of plastic cup waste. It is a good idea to recall BYOB (Bring your own Bag/ Bottle/ Box) from our January blogpost: Down-To-Earth Practices for Green Living in Daily Life). If it bothers you to bring them, you can also choose shops that provide reusable containers. Little steps and you can help out the earth.
3. Home Items
You may not aware that a lot of home items that you are using are killing the earth day by day, yet it is understandable many of the products are inevitable. To minimize their impact on the earth, we advise you to use biodegradable/ disposable waste bags, reusable sandwich wraps, fair trade organic towels, organic pillowcases, recycled paper, 100% recycled Aluminium Foil, etc. Always remember, choices of products are the key.
Adapting Eco-friendly Habits
Photo from Medisys
Despite the concrete steps you can take, some daily habits can add up to a great contribution to take care of our earth. They are:
1. Consuming local Food/ Less Online Shopping
Photo from Food Revolution
A big thank you to the easy transportation, we can enjoy international food originating from South Africa to Northern Europe. But do you know their transportation cost a lot of global resources as well as waste disposal? The environmental impact of shipping includes air pollution, water pollution, acoustic and oil pollution. According to a European reference system, ships are responsible for more than 18% of air pollutants. Another terrifying impact is the greenhouse gas emissions. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) estimates that carbon dioxide emissions from shipping were equal to 2.2% of the global human-made emissions in 2012. As a global citizen, we have the responsibility to reduce these consumption as much as possible by eating more local food. This is because local food requires less transporting environmental cost and promotes more sustainable consumption pattern. Similarly, buying less online products that require shipping across the Pacific Ocean is also a good habit. This is a very vital modern earth-conscious lifestyle we can adapt.
2. Do not over follow trend
Photo from Unwind Magazine
This earth-conscious habit may seem baffling at first glance, yet it is one of the major reasons why this creates a modern-day apocalypse. When everyone follows a certain trend, fast fashion for instance, over-consumption will occur. We must take its cost of the goods into consideration: agriculture/ farming, manufacturing, distribution costs, etc. All these together create many harmful effects on the earth. The takeaway is: do not over follow trend, especially things that involve huge production environmental cost.
Photo from eastchapelhillobserver
Earth Day isn't just a day of commemoration. It is a commitment to the Earth and it requires actions. Do not ever think that only you are working on it is not enough. Little steps from each of us can create great impacts on the environment. Let's continue the Earth Day spirit by starting an earth-conscious lifestyle!
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