April is Earth Month and this year’s theme for Earth Day is “Restore the Earth.” So in the spirit of restoring our beautiful planet and allowing it to breathe, here are a few sustainable swaps you can go for to take the first few steps into a more sustainable lifestyle. 

Use Glass Jars

Plastic Tupperware is one of the most common household items, but after a while, they have to be swapped for new ones. By having to constantly renew these, we increase our carbon footprint. Try using glass Tupperware or glass jars to store things in your kitchen and around your house. These never go bad and are 100% reusable!

Get a Reusable Bottle 

Having a reusable water bottle has more than one benefit. You save money by not having to buy water bottles every time you are thirsty, you avoid the chemicals that are released by plastic into your water and having a bottle with you at all times reminds you to drink water throughout the day. There are various brands that keep your water cold for up to 24-48 hours, like Swell, Hydrapeak, Rtic, HydraPack and Simple Modern, among others. 

I have one of each of these brands, in different shapes and sizes that I use for water, coffee and juice. I swear they will even hold the ice for a long time if you add some to yours. They are all so convenient and easy to bring with me wherever I go because I can just pick the one that best fits my needs depending on where I go. 

Swap plastic bags for reusable ones! 

Plastic bags are one of the ocean’s worst enemies and one of the most useless forms of single-use plastic. Reusable bags are often bigger than your typical plastic supermarket bag, so it even saves you time on trips from the car to the house. All you have to do is make sure to keep your reusable bags in the car and bring them with you into the store on your next trip! 

Turn off the water while you shower. 

Usually, when we shower we leave the water running while we put on shampoo, soap and conditioner, which ends up being a bigger waste of water than we realize. Turn off the shower while you are not standing under it, to avoid unnecessary waste. 

Get reusable utensils and straws. 

Plastic knives, forks, spoons and straws are a huge cause of pollution. They end up in the streets, rivers and oceans. By swapping to reusables we can reduce our carbon footprint by a lot. Here is a complete travel-friendly pack of utensils from Amazon for $11. 

Make sustainable choices and start making a change so that together we can restore the earth!