On the 22nd of April, the world will celebrate the 51st anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22nd every year since 1970, and the purpose of the event is to highlight the significance of environmental protection and the state of our planet after decades of uncontrolled pollution.

Just like last year, it’s likely we will be spending Earth Day staying safe in our homes, as we battle the spread of COVID-19. But this gives us more time and motivation to take part in conservation action, however, we can in our homes.

Here are five easy ways you can do your bit for the environment by changing a few habits within your home.

Support Eco-friendly Companies
It’s 2021, so it’s likely there are a variety of local eco-friendly businesses that you can support. As a buyer, you have the purchasing power to avoid buying plastic, non-recyclable products, and instead support environmentally friendly companies that offer eco alternatives to your everyday products such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, carrier bags and soap etc. This ensures the money you spend has a positive impact on the world.

Alternative Travel
One of the most obvious ways to help the environment is to consider your choice in travel. It’s very common now for most commuters to walk, bike, or use public transportation as a healthier way to get to work. This reduces the amount of fuel you are using and therefore reducing the number of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, and let’s not forget cycling and walking every day is a great exercise habit to get into.

Recycle and Reuse
Things like juice cartons, jam jars, or anything made out of plastic and glass can be either reused within your home or recycled for better use. Within your home, most of these types of products can be cleaned and reused as storage jars, plant pots, or even to hoard all of the extra pennies you are saving by recycling!

Recycling plastics and other materials help reduce waste and harmful emissions from landfills and will therefore decrease your carbon footprint.

Reduce Food Waste
Food is just the best thing, isn’t it? Everyone talks about how much food we eat, but how about the food we don’t? In the UK, 6.7 million tonnes of food is wasted per year, which costs a total of £10.2 billion every year. But if everyone around the world just saved one-quarter of the food they now waste, we could end global hunger – it’s crazy!

The best way to manage your food waste is to consider reducing your weekly shop, keeping an eye on the food you throw away, save the leftovers, or even create a compost pile. When eventually we can visit restaurants and our friends and families for dinners, consider taking some leftovers home with you instead of letting it be thrown into the bin! There are plenty of small actions we can take that make a huge impact.

Watch Your Water
Getting into the habit of using water-saving techniques can save your money and will divert much less water from our rivers and bays, which helps keep the environment healthy significantly. Saving water is easy; just by spending less time in the shower, and reusing any leftover drinking or bath water for your plants or for cleaning, can make a huge impact on your water usage.

Treat every day like it’s Earth Day!