Earth Day is chock-full of festivals and events where you can learn more about the environment, but there are plenty of resources St. Louis for helping you lead a more eco-friendly and sustainable life the other 364 days of the year. Still, eco anxiety is running high—can one person really make a difference? How can you get started? In celebration of Earth Day, this guide breaks down five small ways you can lead a more environmentally friendly and sustainable life.
GROW YOUR OWN FOOD
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If you’ve ever wanted to get started growing your own garden, now’s the perfect time to try it. But where to begin?
Seed St. Louis is an organization dedicated to empowering people and communities to grow their own food, and it provides services to help. On its website, find a range of guides, from a 2022 seed-planting calendar to instructions for building your own raised garden bed, and an entire tips and tricks section on topics like how to read a seed packet. Seed St. Louis also offers a variety of classes; dig their event on May 6 about growing summer crops.
Chief Executive Director Matt Schindler believes planting a garden not only provides you with nutritious produce but also improves the environment.
“At a very basic level, just planting a garden helps absorb more water into the soil,” Schindler says. “You have less runoff, and less waste and fewer chemicals going out into the water system. You’re greatly reducing the things that will end up in the Mississippi River. We need to realize that the water has to go somewhere. Therefore, if you plant a garden, that soil will absorb the water, both for the plants, but also to keep it out of our watershed system.”
Try these other local resources for gardening or support these organizations helping communities grow healthy food:
A guide for city residents who wish to establish a community garden
COMPOST YOUR FOOD WASTE
More than 70 billion pounds of food waste are dumped into landfills each year according to the Environmental Protection Agency—and that’s a big problem. Food waste doesn’t break down in landfills due to the lack of oxygen, causing the waste to release methane, a greenhouse gas.
One antidote is composting, or combining plant and food waste along with organic materials to make fertilizer. Rather than throwing the waste in the garbage and allowing them to sit in landfills, composting, which has become increasingly popular over the past few years, provides the opportunity to give those castaways a new life.
You can compost food waste in your backyard or under your kitchen sink, but local companies also offer pickup service. One is New Earth Farm Residential Composting. For $18 a month, New Earth Farm will drop off a composting bucket at your home and pick up your food scraps biweekly. You also get access to fresh compost twice a year. For $12 a month, you can drop off your food scraps at sites like Bar K, Alpha Brewing, and the old Tivoli theater for New Earth to compost for you.
“Once I started doing composting, [friends] were like, ‘Woah, I can’t throw food scraps away anymore because I realized they’re a resource,’” says co-owner of New Earth Farm John Cline. “I think the transformation, the view of ‘This is trash’ to ‘This is a valuable resource that just needs to be put in the right place’ is really what inspires people, and I think it’s a little bit simpler than recycling.”
Try these other options for composting:
Other sustainability and composting resources via Washington University
SHOP WITH SUSTAINABILITY IN MIND
Shopping practices play a large role in living a life that is environmentally friendly—the plastic waste from water bottles, deodorant, or toothpaste can accumulate quickly. Shopping for these essential items can actually be a first step in becoming more conscious of one’s habits.
Refill shops like Dharma + Dwell in Webster Groves are making it that much easier. The sustainable lifestyle and refill shop specializes in selling package-free products and refillable items. Items like dish soap or detergent can be refilled in store, while items such as shampoo or deodorant bars are sold package free, cutting down on the single-use plastic that one accumulates when buying these goods in other stores.
“The entire intent of the store is around promoting a more circular economy,” founder Jordan Blackhurst says. “Rather than using something and getting rid of it, the intent is to keep that particular item in use as long as possible.”
Outside of the refillable or package-free items, Dharma + Dwell also sells other items that aid in living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, such as reusable coffee filters, washable paper bags, and toothpaste tablets.
“I think the impact is more around, ‘How do you help educate our community members to make different decisions or decisions with the least amount of negative impact on the environment,” Blackhurst says. “It might start with something like the packaging on a shampoo bottle with the intent that the next time that individual might start to think about other potential negative impacts that they have on the environment.”
Try these other local sustainable shopping options:
EAT MINDFULLY
The production of food is unfortunately linked to climate change and global greenhouse gas emissions. We all have to eat, but there are practices that can be used to keep negative environmental impacts to a minimum.
Angela Flotken, writer of The Better Have blog and Instagram has dedicated these platforms to helping others live healthier and more sustainable lives. In large part, Flotken discusses minimizing environmental toxins that many people are exposed to each day, whether they know it or not.
One subject that Flotken has spoken about in The Better Have is maintaining a diet that is more plant-based.
“When we connect back to the earth it has so many benefits for us and for our planet,” Flotken says. “By eating more plants we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and many other diseases. Plant protein generally requires less land, water, and energy to produce. I encourage everyone to focus on whole, minimally processed foods and limit animal products.”
Rather than maintaining a diet that explicitly mandates what foods should or should not be eaten, having a more mindful diet allows for flexibility and the opportunity to try new things with more of a trial-and-error mindset. Instead of changing a diet cold turkey, one can experiment with actions like shopping the perimeter of the grocery store to avoid processed foods; using healthy fats like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and avocados; or choosing to have one vegetarian meal a week.
AVOID FAST FASHION OR SHOP SECONDHAND
When speaking about sustainability and how to live a more environmentally friendly life, the topic of fast fashion is bound to arise. Aided by the use of toxic dyes and cheap textiles that are associated with fossil fuels and global warming, and further compounded by the intent to produce large quantities of clothing that reflect current trends, fast fashion results in tremendous waste.
In an age of consumerism, there can be pressure to adapt to new fads and trends that can fluctuate every couple of months. The simplest action that can be taken is wearing what you already own and taking care of your timeless basics. The idea of maintaining a capsule wardrobe relates to this mindset. With a capsule wardrobe, one’s closet is composed of interchangeable items. As a result, there are a variety of outfits that can be created. These are often classic pieces that are likely not going out of style anytime soon. When this is done effectively, you don’t have to own an excessive number of clothes. Additionally, minimizing the number of items you own might mean you can buy higher-quality pieces, which are usually more environmentally friendly. Locally, at Ardently, for example, 85 percent of merchandise is made of natural or recycled material.
Another way to avoid supporting fast fashion or to give back is by shopping and donating at secondhand clothing stores. Donating to these stores is also a great option. Rather than ending up in a landfill, unwanted clothes are given a new life.
Try these local secondhand stores:
Retro 101 / Cherry Bomb Vintage
