You don't have to go cold-turkey to make a difference.
Going green doesn’t call for a life-altering event–you can make small changes everyday.
Once you become aware of the amount of waste we as humans use, you might be drawn to evaluate your own practices and become a little greener. The awareness can be a curse and a blessing. Realizing how wasteful your daily habits and routines are can soon make you feel overwhelmed. Now that you have the knowledge, what do you do with it? Where do you even start? Will you even make a difference?
Our experience
Before our realization of waste, we shopped for groceries with nutrition and cost in mind. We looked at ingredient labels and price tags before putting anything into our carts, shopped around the perimeter of the store (where the healthiest options are located), and bought organic when we could afford them.
Adding a whole new stipulation to our purchases–eco friendliness–put another challenge in front of us. Prior to a few months ago, we had been huge Aldi advocates–cheap prices, bring your own bags, organic options, and a speedy shopping experience. But now, after seeing the amount of packaging we came home with, from real-food items, we started to question our initial assessment. Plastic wrapped fruits and veggies didn’t make the cut for eco-friendliness. With all these stipulations–health, cost, package-less, well-sourced, organic, convenient–we were driving ourselves crazy and shopping was becoming overwhelming.
After many minor freak-out moments, we decided to take a step back and start small. We would make good decisions where we could and not beat ourselves up for every non eco-friendly purchase we made. After all, our system is designed for convenience, which usually means garbage for your body and the environment. More often than not, it’s less convenient to make greener choices. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to go green, it means we have to be a bit more creative. :)
Where should you start?
The truth is, you don’t have to go cold-turkey. You don’t have to go through a life-altering event to make a difference for our planet. You can make small swaps every day that make a huge impact over time. Ask for ‘no straw’ with your next coffee, carry a reusable waterbottle, or bring your own shopping bags to the store.
Think of it like your health, sustainable habits happen over time–not over night. As you make small changes over time by swapping unhealthy choices for healthy you create behaviors that stick and an overall healthier lifestyle.
Cheers to becoming greener, one day at a time!
