EASY WAYS YOU CAN HELP
Things you can buy or easily change about your lifestyle
It can be hard to know how you can actually make a change, when the problem is so daunting. These are a list of ways that are easy to do that can make a start for living a more eco-friendly life.
GET A REUSABLE COFFEE CUP
While it may seem obvious, many people don't actually make the change. It saves so much paper or plastic and some coffee stores like Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts give discounts to incentivize usage. While some can be expensive, most are priced fairly and can even earn you money if you go to the coffee stores that give discounts enough! Some people fall away from the idea because it's a pain to carry a cup around all day, but a.) some brands make collapsible cups and b.) using a plastic coffee cup is really just so bad for the Earth, because 7 billion people tell themselves that their cup doesn't actually matter. It does. You matter. Make the switch.
INVEST IN REUSABLE PRODUCE BAGS
Many people these days have reusable shopping bags.  But something that is often neglected are the plastic produce bags used by many food stores.  Customers in almost all grocery stores these days use plastic produce bags to shop for their produce and then easily store it at home. Great, right? No. These produce bags are one of the biggest wastes of single use plastic. Some people shop at farmers markets and take their produce with no bags, but many people opt to shop at grocery stores where not using any plastic bag is a little harder.  People don't want to put their produce directly in a dirty cart.  Some stores have started giving paper bags, but it's hard to use paper bags for lettuce and other produce, which can sometimes be wet. Overall, the easiest way is just to invest in reusable bags, like small drawstring mesh bags, so you can stop using plastic and save your produce!
PURCHASE A BAMBOO TOOTHBRUSH
This one is pretty straight-forward. Plastic is such a big problem (emits fossil fuels and kills marine animals), one of the easiest ways to combat it is to find easy ways to change from plastic products in your life to eco-friendly ones. Most toothbrushes are made of plastic, so as a cheap and well-used (hopefully) part of your life, it's an easy item to replace. Because of growing environmental awareness and the fact that more people are using less plastic, bamboo toothbrushes have become a new market that is sweeping the nation. Of course, that doesn't mean go buy one right now. It's better to save the one you have now and purchase a bamboo one once you would normally replace your toothbrush. Metal toothbrushes with reusable heads also make a difference!
BIGGER CHANGES YOU CAN MAKE
Once you've made some smaller changes, you can start to adjust your lifestyle to make biggerpostive environmental impacts.
MAKE A PERSONAL GOAL OR PROMISE
Sometimes playing to your skills is the most effective way to do something. By making a realistic, personalized, and helpful goal, you can make change in the most productive way. If you want to cut out processed foods, you could set a goal to slowly cut them out, with an end date in mind. Or, you can promise to only buy 5% of food in plastic. If you find something in your life that's not environmentally friendly, it can be daunting to think of how to change it. But if you give yourself the time and put in the effort, you can do it.
TRY ECO-FREINDLYÂ ONLY ON SOME DAYS TO START
Another way to tackle intimidating changes is to start slow. If you find yourself stuck in the car more than you'd like, try taking public transportation or walking on one day of the week. If you hate the idea of animal cruelty, try going vegan or vegetarian for one week a month. However formidable it may seem at first to do something hard, going slow and getting used to it can lead to acceptance of the challenge and make it easier to change.
REMIND OTHERS
As the saying goes, if you see something, say something. By gently helping others to be more environmentally conscious, you can help increase their awareness of their environmentally bad habits. Sometimes, people are so in tune with their world, they can forget about their footprint. Be the one to remind them! It can be as easy as asking them to recycle instead of trashing something or just asking them to not use plastic bottles when you see them drinking from one. Hearing something from someone else often makes them take note of their actions. So be on the look-out!