Call me a crazy millennial or a hippie tree hugger but I care about the Earth I live on and I’m not about to feel guilty when it all goes up in flames because I didn’t try to help it. If there is one thing I want others to do it is this: REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE!

By no means, does this mean you have to become a vegan, ride a bike to work and give up everything you enjoy about the material world, but there are some really easy things you can change in your daily routine that can help the world immensely.

• 1.Use public transportation!
  • a.Transportation accounts for 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States according to the Federal Transit Administration. But if more people start using or sharing transportation, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions decreases. Leaving your car at home just twice a week can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 1600 pounds each year.
• 2.Use reusable grocery bags
  1. Using eco-friendly reusable bags is a cheap and effective way to help our Mother Earth. It takes about 1000 years for plastic bags to decompose and there’s over eight million tons of plastic trash finding its way into the oceans every year. There’s even a floating gyre of plastic waste in the ocean called “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”! Just this big heap of garbage traveling the ocean, can you believe that? Every year nearly 1 million sea creatures are killed because of the mass amount of waste in their homes.
• 3.Use reusable water bottles
  • a.Reusable water bottles are cost-effective, decrease the amount of fossil fuels used to make compared to that of plastic water bottles, and obviously, decrease the amount of plastic that is wasted. It can take hundreds of years for plastic water bottles to decompose. Plus, they look way cooler than plastic water bottles.
• 4.Recycle cardboard boxes and paper
  • a.Breaking down cardboard boxes or finding alternative uses for the boxes can be helpful too! Use the boxes for storage or mailing boxes, Christmas present boxes, etc. Recycling your materials can be so easy! If you’re unsure of how to do so, it’s a matter of google-ing your area’s recycling facilities. In Michigan in 2013, only 15% of materials were recycled- that’s only 1.4 million out of 8 million total tons of materials! Michigan has publically accessible recycling drop-off facilities in every county if residents don’t already have access to curbside services.
• 5.Save Water
  • a.Turning off the water while brushing your teeth can save four gallons per minute or 200 gallons per month! That’s also a lot of money saved in your pocket. The average 10 minute shower uses 25 gallons of water but if you cut your time in half, you can save 10-15 gallons of water.

Lastly,

Whatever reason you have for doing any of these things, I’m just glad you did it. One might do it because it gives others the perception that they care about the environment and they like to uphold their image. Another might do it because, like me, they genuinely care about bettering the world they live in.

I’m aware that nay-sayers will tell me that these are small feats that will have no impact, I would say you’re probably right. But if lots of us do these things, there are undeniable benefits. Go hug a tree or whatever, save the planet a little today.

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