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Environmental Resource Guide - Virgin Radio
"In collaboration with Earth Care Podcast and Earth Day Party Podcast - Listen Now!
NOTE: “$” signifies a money saving option as well as eco-friendly.
FOOD:
- Exercise making meals using food you already have in the house ($)
- Take inventory of your fridge and pantry before grocery shopping
- Prep your grocery list based on ingredients you already have ($)
- Consider preserving items that are close to expiring ($)
- Re-organize your fridge to display items that need to be eaten first at the front of the fridge as a reminder ($)
- Meal prep at home to prepare for work and school rather than ordering out
- Compost food scraps ($)
- Reconsider "best by" dates and understand the difference between beset by and expiry ($)
- Shop at your local Farmers Market
Love Food Hate Waste: https://lovefoodhatewaste.ca/
CONSUMPTION:
- Try repairing broken belongings before throwing them away ($) (Check if your commuity hosts "Repair Cafe's")
- Try donating or reselling belongings you're no longer using
- Choose to shop secondhand whenever possible ($)
- Check if your community has a "Library of Things" ($)
- Join your local public library ($)
- Look for "little libraries" in your area ($)
- Check our garage sales ($)
- Join your zero-waste, free, or swap and trade groups if applicable ($)
- Host a "clothing swap" ($)
- Repeat outfits and avoid buying garments for a one-time wear ($)
- Spend time re-familiarizing yourself with your wardrobe before bringing new items in ($)
- Check if you have something similar before buying new ($)
- Ask: Can you make what you’re trying to purchase rather than buying new?
- Borrow from a friend, family member or neighbour whenever applicable ($)
- Consider shopping local and sustainably
- Consider low-waste gift options such as experiences, re-gifting or handmade items
- Stop buying things you don’t need! ($)
Fashion Takes Action Canada: https://fashiontakesaction.com/
DAY-TO-DAY
- Make your own coffee, tea and smoothies at home vs. Ordering out ($)
- Avoid running the tap for the entire duration of brushing your teeth ($)
- Avoid running the tap for the entire duration of washing dishes ($)
- Run the dishwasher on 1 full load vs. 2 half loads and skip the pre-rinse ($)
- Cut worn out clothing into reusable rags ($)
- Wash textiles in cold water ($)
- Air dry textiles rather than using the dryer ($)
- Consider using reusable dryer balls in place of single-use dryer sheets ($)
- Consider showers vs. Baths ($)
- Try making your own cleaning products ($)
- Turn down the thermostat and wear more layers ($)
- Seal up potential drafts in your home that will let cool air in ($)
- Put outdoor and decorative lights on a timer ($)
- Turn off lights when you leave a room ($)
- Switch to reusable, cloth napkins ($)
- Read proper care instructions on new items to extend their life ($)
- Make your own DIY toys for your pets ($)
- If you’re still receiving paper mail from a service, opt in to go paperless
- Try vegetable gardening and research which herbs and vegetables can be grown on a sunny windowsill!
- Search online to locate your closest e-waste and battery recycling drop off centres to dispose of responsibly
- Battery recycling near me: https://recycleyourbatteries.ca/find-a-drop-off-location/
- E-Waste recycling near me: https://recyclemyelectronics.ca/on/drop-off-locations
- Place a “no junk mail” sticker on your mailbox
- Take public transit when available
- Consider walking, biking, or carpooling to a destination
Zero Waste Canada: https://www.zerowastecanada.ca/
PLASTIC WASTE
- Bring your own reusable shopping bags when shopping
- Consider shopping at a bulk food store where you can bring your own containers
- Skip the single-use produce bags at grocery stores
- Bring your own reusable mug to coffee shops ($)
- When leaving the house, take your own personal water bottle ($)
- Pack your meals in reusable containers
- Store your reusable, to-go, items in convenient places to avoid forgetting them (Reusable mug, water bottle, bags, straw etc.)
- When updating your food storage containers, consider glass or metal
- Choose products with less packaging
- Try plastic free beauty products such as shampoo bars, condition bars and soap bars
- Before attending a concert or live sporting event, check if the venue permits personal water bottles ($)
Take the #FansChooseToReuse pledge and commit to help reduce single-use plastics at concerts: https://www.earthcareshow.com/fanschoosetoreuse
- Bring your own cutlery for takeout meals
- Get familiar with recycling guidelines in your local community
- Save and clean empty salsa, pickle, jam, sauerkraut jars etc. for future food storage ($)
Mind Your Plastics: https://mindyourplastic.ca/
Oceana Canada: https://oceana.ca/en/our-campaigns/plastics/
BIGGER PICTURE
- Join an environmentally conscious organization
- Volunteer with a climate related group
- Sign up for an environmentally focused newsletter
- Organize a community clean up
- Organize a recycling drive
- Organize a community garden
- Organize a community seed library
- Organize a community compost
- Ask about green policies at your workplace
- Write to your favourite local businesses and ask them how they’re addressing single-use plastics
Eco-Conscious Media Recommendation
BOOKS
For Nature Lovers:
- Reason For Hope: A Spiritual Journey - Jane Goodall
- Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating - Jane Goodall
- Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants - Jane Goodall
- Finding The Mother Tree - Suanne Simard
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants - Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Edible Ecosystem Solution: Growing Biodiversity in your Backyard and Beyond - Zach Loeks
Take Action:
- What Can I Do: The Path from Climate Despair to Climate Action - Jane Fonda
- All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis - Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Dr. Katharine K Wilkinson
- What If We Get It Right: Visions of Climate Futures - Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
- Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World - Dr. Katharine Hayhoe
- Whose Water is it Anyway? Taking Water Protection into Public Hands - Maude Barlow (Shorter read)
- On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal - Naomi Klein
Great Storytelling:
- Fire Weather: Making of the Beast - John Valliant
- Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet - Leah Thomas
- A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and Vision for the Future - David Attenborough
- We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of my People - Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson
The Facts:
- The Carbon Footprint of Everything - Mike Berners-Lee
- Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths and Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World - Ziya Tong
- Cobalt Red: How the blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives - Siddhartha Kara
- The Climate Book - Greta Thunberg
Documentaries, Films and Docuseries:
- A Plastic Ocean: We Need a Wave of Change
- An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Fight Like Your World Depends on It
- Before The Flood: The Science is Clear, the Future is Not
- Blackfish: Never Capture What You Can’t Control
- Chasing Coral: What Lies Below Reveals What Lies Ahead
- Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
- Don’t Look Up: Hollywood film “based on possible true events”
- Down To Earth: Zac Efron goes “green” as he travels the world in search of the secrets to good health, long life and a higher level of eco consciousness.
- Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning
- Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics
- The Water Walker Film: A short documentary tracing the roots, passion, and perseverance of young Autumn Peltier
- There’s Something in the water: A Global epidemic, a local catastrophe, the women leading, the resistance to end environmental racism
- True Cost: Who Pays the Price for our Clothing?
- YINTAH: A documentary on a decade of Wet’suwet’en resistance
Podcasts:
- How To Save A Planet
- What Could Go Right?
- Climate One
- Let’s Take This Outside
- Climate Curious
- The Repair Lab
- Unf*cking The Future
More podcast recommendations here: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/category/eco-conscious-181/