The Earth Day Hullabaloo Is Over; Now What?

So, you participated in Earth Hour and you went to an Earth Day celebration. Perhaps you've tried taking the bus or bringing your own bags to the grocery store, or maybe you've started recycling. And that is GREAT!

What a wonderful start, or addition to your already eco-friendly lifestyle!  Whether you're an eco-newbie or an eco-veteran, it's all about taking it one step at a time.

But what step should you take next?

Once people start to "get it" I have exactly one suggestion for their next eco-move: "Put your money where your mouth is."

Make sure your purchasing power is used, as much as possible, to support a sustainable and healthy lifestyle. You can do this by:

-Making sure that once you run out of your personal care products, you replace them with eco-friendly alternatives. See Skin Deep's Cosmetic Safety Database for more info.

-Buying products that are eco-friendly. Cleaning supplies, clothing–you name it. And make sure that it actually IS green–that it just doesn't say so. It's getting "trendy" to be green, and many are capitalizing on that without doing their eco-friendly part.

-Supporting products and businesses that are environmentally minded. For instance, I drink orange juice every single morning (I'm pretty grumpy without it!) and it's always always Tropicana Pure Premium, no pulp. But now? Now my orange juice cartons are helping save the rain forests because Tropicana teamed up with coolearth!

And Origins? They are already committed to being as environmentally friendly as possible, but now they've given us a place to recycle the cosmetics containers that our cities and municipalities won't accept–and we get goodies in exchange!

Many, many companies have similar efforts going on. Support them. Tell them that as a consumer you like what they're doing!

Earth Day may be over, but now there are 364 more days for you to practice until the next one rolls around! Keep up the good work!  Next year will be the 40th "official" Earth Day, so I'm certain it'll be quite the celebration.

An original 5 Minutes for Going Green post. Want to know more about Carrie and her photo-taking, engineering, pun-loving, greener-every-day ways? Check out her photos and blog.

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And remember all of our Earth Week giveaways are open until Sunday, May 3rd at 7pm EST, and all you have to do to enter is comment on the giveaway post(s) with a valid email address; if you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for?