Are you Planet Friendly? (Free Gale!)

Happy Earth day everyone~!
Get a free gale (special rare participation currency) for leaving a comment on here c:

What do you do that makes a positive impact on the planet?
OR if you want to make a change, what will you start doing?

Ah, happy earth day!

As for me, I would love to take part in reducing the amount of wasteful packaging. I'm considering becoming one of those people who brings their own containers to the store, because this annoys me so much. Something food is packaged three times over, in plastic, paper, and plastic again! We've gone way too far when only one of those wrappers is necessary. I am constantly walking up and down to the garbage containers with cardboard and plastic that is wasteful.

I hear more and more people complain about it, so I do hope this will be the next step now that our country has upped recycling in personal homes a lot.

That would be a great step Epi! 

As a cashier, I hate the amount of plastic bags we waste at just the checkout alone. Though we don't have any produce or meats, just on regular products at the store. Very few customers bring their own little tote bags, and I can't understand why. You can buy them for $1 at most places, they look nice, they can carry a lot more than regular bags, and a surprisingly heavy load. Instead I'm wasting bags when people buy one item that they're about to use anyway. If half the people switched, it could make a big difference!

Best of luck with your goal~!

We recycle quite diligently here (my partner and I). We take all our plastic bags (that aren't used as our trash bags) back to our grocery store since they recycle them. Same with egg cartons since they take those too. (We're quite lucky about that.)

We also pick up trash on the street if we happen to be walking by any (that we can safely pick up). At my apartment complex, people can be dicks here so we usually end up cleaning things up a bit. A few days ago I picked up a Gatoraide bottle and brought it back to our place to recycle, haha.

I also have been trying to push 'Take 3 for the Sea' which is something Australia coined. It was made for their beaches, for each time you go to the beach, leave with three pieces of trash, but it can be applied anywhere.

We keep our air conditioner on high during the summer and low during the winter so it's on as little as possible.

Those are the only things I can think of immediately that we do.

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@Epi/Pepper
I've heard the production of those bags are super wasteful though So while it saves on plastic waste, it doesn't really help in other areas.

Honestly, our farming and agriculture is where pollution is at its worst. I wish I could stop eating meat, but my diet doesn't allow for it To help make up for it, my partner and I buy the more free range/happy animals stuff. (Which is unfortunately more expensive, but I'd rather my money go there than...ugh...those other places.) I have heard of people trying to make meat from plants. I think it's called...Beyond Meat??? But I haven't been able to find any to try :c

@Kami: I've never heard of 'Take 3 for the sea' but I love that idea! I will start doing that too, since I'm at the beach regularly.

Actually, my best friend's father-in-law is working on cultured beef at the University of Maastricht! It's hard to get the right texture, apparently. I would still prefer to eat bio- or free range animal friendly meat for now though

@Pepper: Oh, I can understand that frustration. Since january my country taxes plastic bags so you cannot give them away for free in stores anymore, people have to buy them for a small fee. That's a huge step forward, even though it causes a lot of grumbling. But people will soon get used to it, and Dutch people love their savings so people immediately started bringing their own bags XD

@Epi One of my followers on Deviantart told me about it, it's a fantastic idea!

That's cool I've heard getting the texture right is the most difficult part. Meat seems to be more about the texture than the taste. What sucks is that their website says that my grocery store stocks it, but I went all over that place and could not find it x/ I really want to try it just to see how close they got though.

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Bringing ones own bags from home is different than what I thought ya'll were talking about xD In the US, it's becoming more popular for grocery stores (and other places) to sell these standard shopping bags: https://www.google.com/search?espv=2&rlz=1C1LENN_enUS489US489&biw=1366&bih=667&tbm=isch&q=reusable+grocery+shopping+bag&revid=442405765&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-_tq596LMAhWF7CYKHV_IBIIQ1QIIHw

Those are the ones where I've heard production is rather toxic for the environment. Unfortunately I can't find any articles about it at the moment since every Google search I try is about buying them Ugh.

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Have you guys heard about these?

http://discoverynews.tumblr.com/post/142457157611/the-future-now-eco-friendly-and-delicious

I hope these get big. Plastic utensils are awful! I also despise styrofoam. Honestly I think I hate styrofoam the most out of anything. x/

Oooh, I heard of those! A brilliant idea, I hope it becomes huge Who wouldn't love edible utensils?

Although I've never seen plastic utensils as a big problem here, because people rarely use them, it would probably make a difference in a country like India if they use so many 0_0

Think about the kids too, I'm sure they'd love them xD They'd also be an interesting addition to soup, haha.

Plastic utensils are everywhere in the US, same with styrofoam ;o; It sucks. I'm glad they're not as much of a problem for you guys though.

I don't do anything too spectacular, I don't think. I just make sure to pick up trash I see around my local town and every year I plant trees in the forest my grandparents own. It's a nature walk, so people are allowed to take their bikes and dogs through, but no cars are allowed. It's really nice. We even grow fiddleheads that we harvest and sell. My family owns a sizable farm too, so we plant all our own crops (corn, sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, rhubarb, green beans, etc.) and even make our own bread. It's not much, but not having to buy from grocery stores is our small contribution. ^^

@Kami: I think it has more do to with how everything is so much more expensive here than in the US. Not so much that we're all enlightened and doing good for the planet, alas. But hey, whatever helps.

Same thing with how the idea of 'free refills' does not exist in Europe. That boggled my mind about American fast food chains. It's purely a cost thing. XD

@Disney: Aw, that sounds like a lovely place to grow up. I always wished I was born on a farm as a kid. Growing your own food is pretty great.

@Disney That's super cool! I wouldn't mind tending to a garden, if I had a place to, but it seems like more work than I'd be able to afford x'D

@Epi We make everything cheap and affordable to the point where people buy the shit out of it. Free refills don't cost these companies much of anything, because people keep coming back and buying so much of their other products. (Plus it helps make them addicted.) Granted, not every place has free refills, typically that's only the fast food joints. If you go to more higher class restaurants, they'll most likely charge you. I hate how we do food in the US x'D We have too many problems! I would love it if we could be more like some European countries or Canada.

I use reusable bags at our local grocery store. When we go camping, we absolutely follow the "leave no trace" rule, we follow that rule for courtesy and to preserve/respect nature!