Four months into the new year comes Earth Day – a great time to reflect on the healthy, green changes you may have made as part of your New Year’s resolution, and to find new ways to preserve our natural resources. Today we thought we would talk a little bit about the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” and how you can apply it to your everyday life.
Reduce
It’s simple – reduce the amount of waste you create in the first place. Bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store, stop buying bottled water and opt for filling a reusable bottle at home and on the go. Look for packaged goods with the least amount of packaging, and with packaging that can easily be reused or recycled. Lifeway Kefir, for example, is bottled in BPA-free, #2 HDPD plastic, one of the most commonly recycled plastics. Check out the next section to see how our bottles can be reused!
Reuse
We all forget our reusable shopping bags now and again; luckily those plastic bags are perfect small waste basket liners. Cereal boxes coming out of your ears? Turn them into desk organizers with a few snips of the scissors! Find ways to reuse and repurpose the disposables you do acquire, or to reuse something you already own before purchasing something new.
Recycle
Once your house is overflowing with kefir bottle herb gardens and cereal box organizers take the time to sort out your recyclables. And while we’re on the subject – try to buy things made of recycled materials, because recycling only really works if recycled materials are being put to use.
Eat Green
OK, this is not part of the 3 Rs you’re familiar with – in fact, it’s not an “R” at all. But choosing foods with 100 percent natural ingredients and that are non-GMO is a smart way to care for our planet as well. GMO crops lead to “super weeds’ and “super bugs” that can only be killed with toxic chemicals – the long-term impacts of GMO foods on our health and on the environment are not fully understood, which is why Lifeway has submitted all of our products to the Non-GMO Project.
What do you do to honor your Mother Earth each day?