Earth Day tips to live more sustainably at home

Earth Day is a great time to consider how you can help out our planet. Whether it be by picking up a piece of trash on the side of the road, or committing to using more sustainable items, here are a few ways you can celebrate Earth Day at home.

Consider supporting local businesses that promote sustainability. Here in the Coachella Valley, It Refills is a great example of a small business that is working to reduce unnecessary waste. The company creates natural, vegan, recyclable, and compostable products like laundry detergent, soaps, and lotion. The Co-Owners, Miranda Lopez and Bazil Martinez were raised in Palm Springs, and started the business because they are passionate about bringing sustainable solutions to the desert.

“It can be very difficult to find clean products that are in single use plastic containers," said Martinez. "So we took it upon ourselves to either make the products, or we found experts all around local to the valley, and local to the West Coast who can make all those products as well.”

It Refills products can be found online, and at several of the farmers markets around the valley.

"What's neat about our store is you can bring your own container or you can purchase a glass container from us," said Lopez. "You can use anything that's clean as long as it has a lid. You can use orange juice bottle, a jam jar, anything like that, we'll weight it, and then we'll fill up your product. And you can just keep reusing it.”

They also make scrubbers for pots, pans, and cast irons, and they have plant and vegetable based alternatives for items typically made from plastic.

"Joining the zero-waste community, it's a little bit intimidating," said Lopez. "People think that you have to go all or nothing. But it really, it can just start with a few products at home one day at a time.”

Another thing you can do is learn how to compost. A local organization, Desert Compost, teaches you how to do it at home, even providing local residents with everything they need to begin.

"If you have an outdoor space, we will teach you how in two and a half minutes to compost in your backyard," said Preston. "If you don't have an outdoor space, then we encourage things like a Vermicomposting system, which is a worm bin. Mine lives in my laundry room and nobody would ever know it. But if you are not really a fan of worms and you don't really want to compost, then we would invite you to attend any one of our community composting sites and participate by bringing your food scraps there.” 

 “Composting does something quite wonderful," said Haley Preston, the founder and director of Desert Compost. "It draws carbon, which we have an excess of, and it pulls it down into the soil and fixes it there. And what loves to eat carbon? Plants."

Preston says composting can be daunting, but its beyond worth the effort. "It's this beautiful relationship of us healing our soil, so that we have healthy food and healthy bodies. And we're also healing the planet at the same time, because it's not going out to a landfill, where it emits a bunch of methane gas,” explained Preston.

 And she says every little action plays a big role in the environment.

"Never think that what you can do doesn't matter," said Preston. "It's actually our number one way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. So when you think about that, just you taking your banana peel and making sure it gets into the soil is going to make a bigger difference than maybe, you know, driving an electric car.”

Preston's organization also goes to schools, and teaches kids about composting as well.

"We are so fortunate to have received a grant from the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy that allows us to work with K through 12 schools and bring worm bins into the school's composting systems," said Preston. "We show schools just exactly how much waste is coming out of their mealtimes. We do that, and in terms of food that has been landfilled and food that can be recycled and turned into compost and we show them all of that. And then we show them the plastics that can be recycled and everything that could be conserved or reduced at the same time."

There are also simple, practical solutions that you can make by simply switching out some wasteful products. Consider swapping out some of your every-day items with ones that are made sustainably and with recycled materials to lower your carbon footprint.

BATHROOM

• Switch to bar soap. A bar of soap uses less packaging than liquid soap or shower gel, takes less water to produce, and - being lighter and smaller to transport – has a lower carbon footprint. Plus, it cleans as effectively, smells as good and frequently costs less than liquid alternatives. You can even buy shampoo and conditioner soap bars.
• Many of these same benefits can also come from switching out your toilet paper roll. By opting for tissue brands made from 100% recycled content, you can help reduce pressure on climate-critical forests and the threatened species that depend on them. NRDC’s new “Issue with Tissue” report and sustainability scorecard grades 145 different toilet paper, facial tissue and paper towel brands on sustainability, from “A” thru “F,” with brands that use 100% recycled content receiving the highest grades overall given their lower carbon footprint and reduced forest impact.

LIVING ROOM/ BEDROOMS

• Many of our home electronics continue to draw power even when they’re switched off – so unplugging your phone once it’s fully charged and switching to smart power strips are simple ways to significantly cut down on wasted energy around your home.

• Using a ceiling fan year-round can add up to a whopping 90% reduction in energy use, compared to running your air conditioner.
• Installing motion sensor lights and energy-efficient LED bulbs will save you money while also cutting down on your home’s energy use. Plus, LED bulbs use up to 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. When our light bulbs use less energy, that translates to less polluting fossil fuels used to make that electricity.

KITCHEN/ LAUNDRY ROOM

• Using a dishwasher and laundry machine is not only more convenient, but also saves on gallons of water compared to hand-washing. But wait to run both appliances until you have full loads that needs cleaning

• Whenever possible, reaching for dishcloths or reusable cloth napkins in place of paper towels will help you cut down on waste and costs, all while lowering your carbon footprint.
• Use recycling and compost bins in your kitchen. Doing so can go a long way in helping divert waste from landfills and cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, food waste is the most prevalent material found in U.S. municipal landfills, with greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 50 million gas-powered cars.

These tips and more can be found at Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).