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As we enter the late days of summer, we celebrate the Earth Element and all that earth brings to us in all her abundance. Sympathy, empathy, compassion are the emotions we need to practice to help ourselves deal with the anxieties of life today.
We have spoken a lot over the last few newsletters about how to do little things each day to ground ourselves, clear our energy, keep our balance. Deep breathing morning and night, taking time to connect with nature, stretching and smiling when we get up to start the day right and more.
We are surrounded by the concerns for our world and sometimes the sense that there is little we can do to help.
The reality is that little things done by many people can create ripples of change for our world too.
Focusing on Earth and how to help the environment, here are some small ideas that maybe some of us can do to help.
Plastics are a huge issue for the environment. Filling our oceans and landfills. Some movement has been made to reduce use and to recycle these items. Too often though, recycle doesn’t happen, there is confusion as to what can be recycled and where. We have seen laws passed to stop the use of plastic bags and yet, we walk out of the store with multiple plastic bottles and jugs in our reusable bags!
Luckily, there are more and more options we can start to use to reduce the number of plastic bottles in our homes and the more people choosing to use these options the more companies will start to change their practices. There is power in consumer choice. If you are able, here are some changes you can make.
Laundry: One of the largest unrecycled plastics are the large laundry soap jugs. And dryer sheets are some of the most microplastic and chemical filled laundry items.
Non-plastic and chemical/plastic free items that you can use in their place include:
1. Dryer balls – cotton balls and hard plastic balls can be used in the dryer in place of dryer sheets. They help stop static completely and also increase softness of the clothes. They are easy to find online on in stores.
2. Non-plastic, earth friendly and chemical free laundry sheets that come in recyclable paper cartons are available everywhere now. They take up almost no space, you put a half or whole sheet directly into the washer and they have been shown to clean very well and work on stains also. You recycle the paper package they come in. They come in scented and unscented, and most I have seen also make ongoing charitable donations of their products to homeless shelters and animal shelters. Some choices are:
a. TruEarth
b. Clean People Laundry Sheets
c. Earth Breeze
d. Arm and Hammer Power Sheets
Be sure to check for the Earth Friendly Pledge before you buy.
If you use both above, you do not need to use softeners and you will have a completely plastic free laundry.
Remember, little things done with love and care, make a big difference.
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