Love The Planet: 3 Earth Day Tips

Luv The Planet Reusable Grocery Bag

Happy Earth Day! Want to know 3 things you can do in the name of ecology that pay lasting rewards?

1. Get some cloth or canvas tote bags and throw them in the trunk of your car. Use these for bagging your groceries. The bagger at the checkout will use your bags instead of those flimsy plastic ones.

Where do you get bags? My goodness, they're usually given away at events, or you can order online, or make them yourself if you have a sewing machine.

The Luv The Planet Bag shown at left is from WriteWay, my CafePress shop, and comes in 2 sizes. The one shown is Medium, and it's 10-ounce weight natural canvas. The graphic is on both sides, and it features full side and bottom support gussets, measures 15"x18"x6" and has 22" reinforced fabric handle. It's a good size for groceries. Earth Day Price is $13.99 for this week only.

2. Recycle paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, and empty food cans. If you have curbside recycling, separate the items into the specific colored bin as necessary. A lot of curbside recycling takes everything in 1 bin. Unfortunately, my small community doesn't have curbside recycle, so we got some cheap plastic kitchen trash containers and lined them up in the garage. Plastic in one, aluminum in the other, etc. When full, we empty into a large trash bag and take to the big county park near us and dump the stuff into their huge recycle containers.

3. Learn not to be conservative consumers. Avoid conspicuous consumption. Back in the day, people were taught this mantra: "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

While this Spartan philosophy may seem alien to you, it's the basis for being thrifty and ecologically practical. Use what you've got rather than running out and buying something new. Learn how to re-purpose, re-fashion, or up-cycle. These 3 skills are hot trends right now. There are books and websites that espouse and teach these skills.

If you just want something new for the sake of newness, don't throw away something that's perfectly good. Donate it to a charity thrift store where it will be recycled and/or re-purposed.

Takeaway Truth

Simple practices like the three about can change the way you live and might just save you money including saving the landfills and reducing the taxes too.