By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief
Some of us could benefit from listening to the youth of the Palisades, who recently participated in a nationwide strike for the climate, led locally by Palisadian-Post Junior Reporter and Paul Revere Charter Middle School student Éva Milan Engel.
Here are a few simple ways to cut-down our footprint at home:
Recycle
It seems simple—but many people skip it.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works compiled a list of recyclable items, including empty aerosol containers, newspaper and magazines, cardboard, corrugated boxes, glossy paper, junk mail, aluminum cans, glass bottles and jars, and frozen food boil-in-bag pouches.
Things that people mistake for being recyclable include ceramic pottery, cups and dishes, windowpane glass or mirror, plastic wrap, frozen food boxes, books, paper towels, tissue paper, paper plates, light bulbs, and Styrofoam. (For a complete list, visit dpw.lacounty.gov.)
Makeup Wipes
Instead of using makeup removing wipes, switch to a reusable cloth to clean your face at the end of the day. Alternative products that can be used to wipe makeup away include Vaseline, oil (olive, avocado or coconut) and baby shampoo.
There are other benefits from shying away from one-time-use wipes: Routinely incorporating them into your regime can cause breakouts, irritation and allergic reactions.
In addition to cutting down on trash created, rewashing and reusing a cloth is more cost-efficient as well.
Straws
With more and more places not handing out plastic straws, the time has come to invest in a metal straw, which can be used at home or while dining out.
We can all agree: Paper straws have a long way to go, but a stainless steel straw, which are durable and can be reused over and over again, will help cut down on the 500 million disposable straws that are used every day.
Stainless steel, which does not rust over time, are often the reusable straw of choice because glass straws are easy to break (especially when handled by kids) and bamboo straws are harder to clean due to an uneven surface.
Solid Shampoo + Conditioner
The top reason to switch to shampoo and conditioner bars are that they do not require any packaging—making them better for the environment than bottled versions.
In addition to cutting down on packaging, the products are more concentrated than traditional shampoos and conditioners—allowing people to use less product per application.
The bars, which are compact in size, saving space in the bathroom, are also great for travel, as users don’t have to worry about spillage or liquid restrictions.
Broth
In the kitchen, collect vegetable scraps, bones and leftover herbs in the freezer until enough ingredients are acquired to make broth.
Any collection of scraps can be combined to make a broth, but some popular combinations include chicken broth (salt, thyme, garlic, chicken, carrots, onions, celery and pepper), beef (rosemary, beef bones, garlic, onion, red wine, salt and pepper) and vegetarian (salt, pepper, garlic, potato, mushrooms, carrots, celery and parsley).
Cut Out Cutlery
When ordering in on an app, make sure to decline plastic cutlery.
Palisadian Sheila Morovati is campaigning through Habits of Waste to encourage food delivery services to not automatically send cutlery with orders and instead make it so that users have to opt-in.
“Right now you see there’s 40 billion pieces of plastic cutlery going into our oceans each year, and I believe that HOW is really here to come up with system solutions to give people the chance to do better,” Morovati told the Post.
Uber Eats recently adopted this policy and will no longer include single-use cutlery with orders unless specifically requested.
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