7 Truly Affordable Ways to Save the Planet

Does it ever seem to you that going green means spending a lot of green?

While some earth-friendly products have a higher price, there are affordable ways to protect the environment. Some don’t cost anything at all. Many save you money in the long run.

You can turn trash into treasured gold with home composting.

Kitchen scraps such as carrot peels, onion skins, and moldy bread are known as organic waste. In the right conditions, they will biodegrade. Organic waste that rots in a landfill produces methane gas—a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.

Home composting is not complicated. Collect your food scraps (not including animal products) and layer them with yard waste such as leaves and grass clippings. You can even add compostable packaging to the mix--our nut butter bomb and truffle compostable wrappers, for example.

Toss it all in a pile, a trench, or build a bin with leftover scraps of wood. Turn the pile every few weeks.

Give it a couple more months and………voila! You have a no-cost soil amendment for your garden.

 

Individually wrapped granola bars, cookies, and chips create a mountain of unrecyclable waste.

When possible, buy “family-sized” snacks. They are cheaper and use less packaging than individual ones. Some grocers have bulk bins for things like grains, beans, nuts, and candy. Bring your own containers or opt for brown paper bags.

Industrial agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases. Planting large fields of monocultures disrupts ecosystems and degrades soil.

Grow a portion of your own food and you’ll:

• be able to eat produce that’s fresher and more nutritious.
• have a lower grocery bill.
• reduce your carbon footprint.
• contribute to healthier soil.

You don’t need a large space to grow your own food. High-intensity gardening allows you to grow a lot of food in a small space. Every tomato or pepper you grow is one that didn’t have to travel in a truck to get to you.

 

As any home cook will attest, grocery shopping without a meal plan is a sure-fire way to waste money and food. You buy more than you need and still get to the end of the week without the right ingredients for dinner. Before you know it, you’re ordering take-out (cha-ching!) and throwing a bunch of to-go containers in the trash.

You may even find that meal-planning makes hosting dinners easier. Perfect timing for having friends over for dining al fresco.

Be sure to include a few of our grass-fed milk chocolate bars in your plans—everyone loves happy cows and good chocolate.

Diving in to help in a community clean-up doesn’t cost a thing.

Picking up trash is oddly satisfying. It’s like cleaning your house—not fun, but it feels so good afterward. Plus, you know that you kept a bunch of trash out of waterways and the ocean.

Have you priced paper towels lately? In most stores they are over $2.00 a roll. A family of four can easily spend $10-15 per week on disposable paper towels. That’s over $500 per year. Yikes!

A better alternative? Reusable paper towels. We’re partial to bamboo, as it is fast-growing and requires comparatively less water to grow.

 

Both chemical and eco-friendly cleaners can get pricy. A cheaper, more eco-friendly alternative? Make your own.

You don’t need to be a potion master to handle this homemade cleaner. You need just four items.

• One empty spray bottle
• Tap water
• 2-3 squirts of liquid dish soap
• Several drops of orange or lemon essential oil

 That’s it. Your done. It lasts for months and costs next to nothing. Use it on countertops, toasters, and appliances. You can even use it on a tile or linoleum floor.