Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Good day, my friends!

I hope you had an enjoyable long holiday weekend!  As long as you like it a little bit on the warm side, it was really nice in my neck of the woods.  I'm not going to lie, I could do without all of the fireworks.  I just don't get how loud booms make everyone so excited.

Hold on to your socks (if you have them on).  I am going to give you some shocking news.  We only get one planet.  Yeah, I said it.  Just one.  And we should treasure it.  Keep it safe.  Keep it clean.

To do that, we need to be mindful about our every day habits.  Again, I know I'm not perfect.  I need to limit my single use items.  Such as bottles of flavored water or tea.  I try to balance that out with buying laundry sheets of detergent that come in little boxes as opposed to the liquid detergent that comes in the huge plastic containers.  I also buy bars of soap instead of liquid body wash.

Another thing I try to do is make things last as long as they can.  If I don't need it, I try not to buy it.  I make my clothes last as long as I can.  I have some shirts that I have had for several years, some of them being from second hand stores to begin with.  It's not that I'm cheap (ok, maybe a little), I just try to be conscientious about buying things I don't need.  

Another thing I am big on is taking my reusable bags to the grocery store.  It drives me crazy how much plastic is wasted just by bagging groceries.  I don't want to think about how many pounds of plastic are wasted just by the Walmart plastic bags every year.  Please take your own bags to the store.

I have recycled my plastics for years.  Thankfully my town has a program where I can leave them out in the recycle bin and the city will pick them up.  If they didn't, I certainly would be taking them to a recycling center.  I bring my bottles home from work instead of throwing things in the trash.  It only takes a little extra work, but I have piece of mind knowing that I brought it home to recycle instead of taking the easy way and throwing them in the garbage.

I know that I am only playing a small part.  However, if we all make a minimal effort, we can make a big difference.  (Corporations can do their part as well, but that's a different discussion for another day.)

Things that you can do to help our planet:

1. Reusable bags when going to the store

2. Minimize single use items (buy reusable water bottles, purchase detergent sheets)

3. Carpool

4. Recycle (including amazon plastic packaging, you can drop them off at the grocery store)

5. Turn off the lights when not in the room

6. Instead of buying single serve yogurt cups, buy the tubs and portion it out in to smaller containers

7. Purchase a water filter instead of buying bottles of water

8. Meal prepping instead of ordering out for lunch

Of course, there are many things you can do to help minimize your impact.  Together, we can make a big impact and the world will be a better place.

Thank you so much for your time.  I appreciate that you have taken time out of your day to read my thoughts.  

Please feel free to leave any positive/constructive feedback in the comment section or you can email me at blhutton4@gmail.com