Happy Green Day!

St. Patrick’s Day celebrates Irish culture and honours St. Patrick. But as a kid in Canada I just remember everyone having to wear green (or you get pinched for whatever reason) and the kids talking about leprechauns and gold; I also recall kids tricking each other with “fool’s gold” and telling each other they found a leprechaun and it gave them gold. As a German who barely spoke English in elementary school I had no idea what was going on, but wanting to fit in, of course I wore green and I never knew why! I still kind of don’t…

But today let’s talk about GOING GREEN! And I don’t mean wearing a giant green polyester hat.

10 things you can do to GO GREEN:

Start composting: organic material makes up, on average, approximately 40% of household waste in Canada; this wastes land space needed for expanding landfills, creates a greenhouse gas called methane, and wastes resources in the form of glorious topsoil.
Use cloth bags instead of plastic: plastic bags are a huge polluter; they cost money, marine life gets entangled or strangled by them, they break into tiny pieces that animals think are food, and they often clog pipes and machines in the recycling depots.
Use a reusable water bottle: see above for plastic bottle pollution; also, by buying water bottles you are supporting the privatization of water, and that water company giants buy out springs and charge whatever they want, even in poor villages where families depended on that water and now can’t afford to buy it back.
Drive less: fossil fuels suck and we are dependent on them; try riding a bike, walking, public transportation, or at least carpool.
Refuse single-use plastic items like straws and to-go cups: see plastic bags for same polluting problems; use stainless steel, glass, or even paper straws and refuse plastic ones, and bring a travel mug to forego senseless to-go cups.
Hang up your clothes instead of using the dryer: save energy costs, use the sun as a natural bleach, and make your clothes last longer; if necessary, use wool dryer balls instead of toxic dryer sheets.
Purchase clothing made from sustainable fabrics: in every load of laundry, thousands of microfibres are released and washed away, which is an issue when using synthetic fibres; opt for cotton, hemp, linen, etc.
Get outdoors: connect with nature to de-stress, energize, and be present; if you have a connection with nature you are more likely to protect it.
Buy bulk: use your own containers to buy bulk ingredients to avoid excess packaging.
Give a sh!t: there are always better, more sustainable, alternatives. It is our environmental responsibility to keep our natural world natural and free of our pollutants.