Even when you're shopping, take simple steps to be an ecoc-chic shopper.
The United States is full of shop til you droppers, which is evidenced in the $4 trillion per year spent on consumer goods, which is four times per person than any other country in the world. It's okay to shop, but all of this shopping produces 4.54 pounds of trash per person per day. So it's not about stopping your shopping. It's about shopping smarter.
It's not about changing your whole life. It's taking the small steps that make a big difference.
- Buy Products with Little or No Packaging. To help avoid creating more waste, buy products that have little or no packaging. When you buy fresh vegetables, don't use those little plastic bags that just end up in the trash anyway.
- Buy in Bulk. Buying in bulk not only helps you to save money, but it also helps to reduce household waste by 10%.
- Use Recycled Toilet Paper. If every household used just one roll of recycled toilet paper instead of regular toilet paper, it would save almost 5 million trees.
- Bagging It--Make the Right Choice. Obviously, using cloth grocery bags is ideal, but if you have to make the choice between paper or plastic, choose paper. You can fit more in a paper bag, which means less bags. Paper bags are more easily recycled than the plastic ones.
- Go to the Farmer's Market. Shop for your fruits and vegetables at a local farmer's market rather than the supermarket. It helps to support your local farmers and it also reduces the amount of energy to produce the food and to transport it—by a total of about 14-17%.
- Buy Milk by the Gallon. Buy the biggest container of milk you'll use rather than buying a bunch of small containers. After you drink all of the milk, recycle the containers.
- Go Organic. Buy organic foods when you can. It reduces your exposure to pesticides by 90%. If 1% of farmers converted to nonchemical agricultural systems, 26 million pounds of pesticides per year would be eliminated from the foods we eat and the environment.
- Trash Bags. Try to find and use trash bags that are produced from recycled materials. If you have to use plastic bags from the store to carry your food and other products home then repurpose them as trashcan liners. It saves you money from buying trash bags and eliminates them from ending up in the trash unused.
- Consider Shopping Secondhand. Whenever you are going to buy something, consider buying secondhand. From furniture to clothing, there are some great secondhand and gently used options to choose from. it saves you money, saves energy and save materials. On average, Americans buy about 50 new pieces of clothing per year. If every one out of ten Americans purchased one secondhand piece per year instead, more than half a gallon of gasoline could be saved per person, which is enough to fly all of the residents of Hollywood to NYC for Fashion Week.
You don’t have to change everything you do in your life to be a more eco-chic shopper, but if you modify your habits, it can help to save the world—one shopping bag at a time.
The copyright of the article Be an Environmentally Friendly Shopper in Green/Simple Living is owned by Kristie Lorette. Permission to republish Be an Environmentally Friendly Shopper in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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