Going Green has a bigger impact than people give it credit for. In honor of Earth Day, celebrated on April 22 of this month, here are 10 ways you can start to go green/stay green.

• Recycle

You might think that this is so obvious, but most plastic, paper, cardboard, or canned items are recyclable. If you live in a large city, you know that it is easier than ever to recycle because they have those big garbage cans just for recycling. If your area doesn’t recycle, take the extra step and find a place that will accept your recycling. This saves resources and those materials can be recycled into new materials!

• Carpooling or walk

If possible try to carpool if you have a long commute to work or school. Or, if you are within a reasonable walking distance to where you need to go, and weather permitting, op to take a walk, it’s good for you. Limit your carbon emissions produced by cars when it is nice out.

• Go paperless

Try saving a tree and switch to paperless bill statements. Many people have already made the switch to online statements and have saved many trees. Even if you can’t fully eliminate your paper usage, reuse scraps of old papers for shopping lists and other things.

• Reusable water bottle

Stop buying water bottles at the store and get your own. There are a lot of them out there, big ones, small ones, and even filtered ones. Reusable water bottles save thousands of gallons of water each year. Reduce the amount of plastic used each year by making this easy and affordable switch.

• Change light bulbs

To save some money on your electric bill and save energy, swap out your old light bulbs if you haven’t already. Put in energy efficient or smart florescent light bulbs to cut back on the amount of energy used to power them.

• Use rags

I know many people use paper towels everyday for spills and cleaning. Instead of using paper, reuse old clothes as rags for cleaning. This will help the earth a little bit by cutting down on the amount of paper pulp used to make paper towels.

• Compost food

Composting is a great way to give back to the earth. Many of us go through eggshells, coffee grounds, and fruit skins daily, and all of those can feed delicious nutrients back into dirt. Composting is not only good for the dirt but it saves on creating waste that is valuable to the environment.

• Use natural cleaning products

There are a few different emerging natural cleaning products out there that don’t use harsh chemicals that are toxic to the environment. Opt for these products that will clean your house just as good without the hazardous chemicals that leak into the environment.

• Reusable shopping bags

Reusable bags are great, and for multiple reasons. First, they save you money every time you grocery shopping. Most stores will give you a 5-cent discount on every bag you use. Second, you don’t use plastic or paper bags, cutting down the amount of plastic that is used and won’t be recycled. And third, you can use reusable bags for other things, not just groceries.

• Home veggie/herb garden

Growing your own vegetables and herbs is a great way to enrich the soil with good nutrients. Not only will you feel good about sustaining yourself with homegrown food, but also it will save you money in the long run. And you won’t be ingesting those pesticides that are on the vegetables in the grocery store.

Through these ten ways, reconsider how you can contribute more to cut down on your environmental imprint. Earth Day is supposed to be a day of awareness and appreciation for the place we live. Spread the word and try new ways to save the earth and to save money!