Reducing your carbon footprint is essential to conserving our environment in our industrial society, and it's actually easier than you think! There are many small, yet important things you can do to help cut down on waste and litter in your daily life. I challenge you to try at least two or three things on this list for one week just to see how easy it is to contribute to environmentalism!

1. Say NO to Straws!

If you really think about the amount of straws that are wasted, it's actually pretty disturbing! Servers at restaurants and cashiers at fast food joints give a straw to every customer. Half of them go unused, and the other half are mostly unnecessary. Before your server puts your straw on the table or the cashier puts on in your bag, tell them that you can do without!

2. Turn the water off when brushing your teeth.

This seems like a small one, but it can help more than you think. We typically use about four gallons of water while brushing our teeth, but only 0.25 gallons if we turn the water off! If you continue this easy habit, you can save over 50 gallons of water in only one week!

3. Put your leftovers in reusable containers instead of plastic bags.

Using containers instead of plastic bags is probably something you already do sometimes. Everyone has tupperware in their cabinet, so commit to completely cutting plastic bags out of your life and store your leftovers in containers instead!

4. Shop in bulk bins.

This one seems like a more extreme form of conservation, but it really isn't! Most stores that have any sort of health food section will have bulk bins that carry anything from granola mixes, to pasta, to dried fruits, and some even more environmentally conscious stores will sometimes carry things like oils and even shampoo! This is a great way to get a lot of your grocery staples without paying for, and eventually throwing away, the cardboard or plastic packaging. I would recommend investing in some mason jars or nylon pouches to carry your bulk bin booty!

5. Cut down on your shower time.

Showering wastes a lot of water that just goes down the drain without being used. Every minute you can cut down on shower time will save a ton of water, and give you more time for other, more important matters, like getting your eyeliner wings even.

6. Try DIYing your own toiletries instead of buying them.

Making your own toiletries is a fun DIY and a good deed all in one! Typically, buying the ingredients to make things like shampoo, soap, and lotion will be cheaper in the long run than buying new stuff every time you run out. Plus, you can totally customize your toiletries with different smells and even healthy ingredients that cater to your skin and hair needs! Just plop your homemade goodies into an empty container that you've recycled, or into a mason jar and you're set!

7. Keep a garden.

Keeping a garden can be a little pricey and time consuming sometimes, but if you have the opportunity, even keeping a small bed of a few types of indigenous flowers can help immensely! Keeping plants that are native to your area not only aides carbon dioxide to oxygen production, but it can also help the bees. We've all heard about the bee epidemic, and it really shouldn't be ignored. This is the best way to help with this issue.

8. Stay away from face and body washes with microbeads.

Believe it or not, the microbeads that come in exfoliating washes don't actually absorb. These tiny pieces of plastic go down the drain and end up in the rivers and oceans. They can severely harm small marine life, which can sometimes be the most important marine life there is! Instead, opt for a non-exfoliating wash, or follow tip #6 and make your own with natural, biodegradable ingredients.

9. Drive Smart.

If you drive a car, this is something that will be easy to make a habit of. First of all, leaving your car running in the morning is unnecessary. Studies show that a typical vehicle only needs one to two minutes to completely warm up and be ready to drive. So get out and scrape that ice for the environment! You can also stay conservative when accelerating and decelerating. Make sure to give yourself ample time to speed up and slow down. This will greatly reduce emissions from your vehicle.

10. RECYCLE!

This may seem like the most obvious tip there is, but it really is the easiest and most important step that you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. Instead of throwing your paper, plastic, or glass trash in the garbage can, where it will be taken to a landfill, find the nearest recycling bin and toss it there! A lot of establishments have now started to move toward recycling bins instead of regular garbage cans, which makes environmentalism so much easier for you!