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Bottle water maybe convenient but it is at no way eco-friendly. Here are my top 5 reasons to ditch bottled water:

1- Disposable plastic water bottles are not meant for multiple uses. Hence the word “disposable”. The #1 polyethylene terephthalate, or PET is fine for a single use, but reuse can lead to chemical leaching of toxins such as DEHA, a known carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter.

2- Making plastic bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, which is enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year (NY Times).

3- Buying bottled water is expensive. To drink the recommended daily amount of water using bottled water can cost an average of $1,400 per year, and to drink the same amount from the tap costs around $0.49 for the year (NY Times).

4- Tap water is fine to drink. 90% of tap water in the U.S. meets or exceeds EPA standards for drinking water.

5- At least 40% of bottled water is tap water anyways. That’s right…you’re paying big bucks on water that you could have just gotten from your kitchen tap.

What is genetically modified (GM) food?
Genetically modified food uses modern biotechnology or ‘gene technology’, which is also called Genetic engineering, which allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one plant species to another and then used to grow GM plants and food crops. Genes from animals and other plants are literally shot into the cells of plants to create “super crops” that are larger, more resistant to bugs, and have longer shelf lives. One example may be to take genes from a fruit fly and inject them into a tomato, attempting to make the tomatoes repel the flies. Now we’re eating the genes of that fruit fly, which is not Vegan-friendly.

Stores aren’t obligated to tell you if a fruit has been genetically modified. I know what you are thinking…how am I going to know if what I am eating is organic and truly Vegan?

All produce has a label on it with a few numbers, here’s a guide to what the numbers mean and which are truly Vegan & safe to eat.

Genetically Modified Fruit Labels
Code starting with the number 8
Example - 8879

Conventional Fruit Labels
Grown with herbicides & harmful fertilizers
Four digit code usually starting with the number 4
Example - 4489

Organic Fruit Labels
Five digit code starting with the number 9
Example - 97044

So next time you go shopping, remember these critical numbers and know how to avoid purchasing inorganic and GM fruits.

The average person uses 23.3 gallons of water per day when showering. If you shorten your showers, just by a minute or two, you can save up to 700 gallons of water per month. That’s a lot of water!

During the warmer months, keep your window draperies & shades closed during the day. This will reduce the amount of heat produced from the sun shining in to your home, thus keeping your house cooler without using the AC.

Don’t feel like washing your hair today…No worries, it’s ok, you’re helping the environment.

That’s right, oily, unwashed hair can destroy dangerous pollutant ozone. Scientists at Missouri University of Science and Technology discovered that dirty hair absorbs seven times more ozone than clean hair.

I know what you are saying…absorb the ozone? But I thought we needed to protect & save it.

According to the EPA, ozone is a gas that occurs both in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and at ground level. Ozone can be “good” or “bad” for people’s health and for the environment, depending on its location in the atmosphere. In the troposphere, the air closest to the Earth’s surface, ground-level or “bad” ozone is a pollutant that is a significant health risk, especially for children with asthma. It also damages crops, trees and other vegetation. It is also a main ingredient of urban smog.

Ok, so how does not washing my hair actually helps the environment?

The explanation is strictly chemical: The oil in our unwashed hair and skin contains double-bonded molecules, including triglycerides, fatty acids, and a substance called squalene, that latch onto the ozone (O₃), neutralizing it before we have a chance to breathe it in.

Unfortunately, though, it’s not without its drawbacks. The absorption process causes by-products like formaldehyde and other irritants.

Lighting accounts for about a quarter of all electricity consumed in the U.S. That’s a lot of energy. Let’s reduce that by turning off the lights when you leave a room, even if it is just for a short period of time. It’s the Green thing to do!

Paper or plastic? The famous grocery store question. I usually opt for canvas, but if you forgot your reusable bag at home, the answer is…well, I’ll let you decide.

Plastic Shopping Bags

• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic shopping bags are consumed worldwide.
• Plastics do NOT biodegrade. Rather, they photodegrade, a process in which sunlight breaks down plastic into smaller and smaller pieces.
• It can take up to 1,000 years for a high-density polyethylene plastic bag to break down in the environment.
• Plastic bags are on the top 10 list of most common trash items along the American coastline

Paper Shopping Bags

• Paper bags generate 70 percent more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
• 2,000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds, 2,000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds, making transportation of plastics cheaper & more eco-friendly.
• It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.

Buying organic products from your local farmer’s market should be a no brainer. It helps both the environment and is better for your health all at the same time.

That’s because organic produce is farmed without pesticides or herbicides. So, there are no nasty chemicals or toxics on your yummy fruits & veggies. OSHA, or Occupational Safety & Health Administration, warns that “(pesticides) are an industry hazard because they can irritate the skin, affect the nervous and reproductive systems, and cause cancer.”

Plus buying from local farmers means your food travels less distance, using less gas, and in turn produces less carbon dioxide emissions.

To help find local farmer’s markets in your area, check out Local Harvest or Farmer’s Market.