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Age 21 Pronouns she/her Wordpress leader SMSG Campaign

Affordable Sustainable Home Guide

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How to Make Your Home More Sustainable & Eco-Friendly

Sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start when wanting to make some changes in your home. Whether it’s redesigning your living room or cleaning out your closet, sometimes you need some help with knowing where to start! Fear no more, the Envirojunkies are here to help you make your home more sustainable without feeling overwhelmed and without having to spend a ton of money! 

Kitchen

Your kitchen is one of the most impactful places when it comes to sustainability in the home. There are so many little things that you may not even realize are affecting your carbon footprint in a bad way, but they are easily fixable! Here are some of the top sustainable kitchen tips: 

  1. Do not buy disposables or single-use items. These things include plasticware, throwaway cups/straws, and so on. The best way to keep your kitchen sustainable is to avoid the disposables completely and always use reusable items. Plus, you save money by reusing!
  1. Do not throw away jars or other containers that your food items from the store come in. Hello? Why would you ever throw away jars or other containers that will surely come in handy later?! Always save things like this because they can easily turn into your favorite storage containers! 
  2. Replace your ordinary paper towels with eco-friendly ones. At the end of the day, a paper towel is a paper towel and all kinds do the trick! So, there are plenty of eco-friendly paper towel brands that you can find at your local grocery that will definitely make your kitchen far more sustainable than the ordinary ones ever will! 

Laundry room & Bathroom 

Whether you live alone or live in a  big household, we all feel like doing laundry is such a big part of our routine as we do it so often! This is an obvious reason to make some changes and choose sustainable options when it comes to all things laundry. The same goes for your bathroom, choose the sustainable, eco-friendly products over the others.

  1. Make or use natural laundry detergent. This is so easy to do or find in the store and it really helps to reduce the amount of non-eco-friendly products you use in your home. Plus, natural laundry detergents to the job just as well, if not better! It is also cheaper than buying the fancy detergent so why not?!
  2. Use wool drying balls. These are a great product to use in your laundry room if you are serious about changing things up to be more sustainable! Wool drying balls are better because they do not contain any of the harsh chemicals or toxins that your average dryer sheet does. 
  3. Buy eco-friendly toilet paper and bathroom napkins. Just like the paper towels, eco-friendly toilet paper does the job just as well as the others so why not? 

Overall Household 

These tips apply to places all over your home and they really do make an impact, so get to it! 

  1. Use energy-efficient lighting. Having to replace your lightbulbs in the house is already a pain as they seem to lose their shine so quickly anyway, so why not make the right choice and switch on over to LED lights. They are proven to last longer than other bulbs, making your home way more energy efficient than it would be if you continued to do those switch-outs so often. This is also a great way to save some money! 
  1. Make your own cleaning products or buy eco-friendly ones. Keeping your house tidy certainly requires a lot of product, but why not make your own? Or, another great option is to go ahead and just buy some eco-friendly products. Next time you find yourself in the cleaning aisle of the grocery, grab those eco-friendly products instead of your usual Lysol. Plus, the eco-friendly ones tend to smell better and clean better, so it’s a win-win!
  2. Recycle and reuse. This is obviously a given, but we just wanted to go ahead and remind you just in case! 

Now that you have your easy & affordable guide to a sustainable household, it’s time to get to it! Let us know what tips work for your home and definitely tweet us @envirjunkiess to show us how you’ve made your home more eco-friendly! 

Tags #sustainablehome #greenhomeguide #ecofriendlyhome #sustainabilitytips 

https://thethirty.whowhatwear.com/sustainable-home-tips

https://flygrn.com/blog/sustainable-living-tips

Earth Day 2021: 3 Fun Things to do in & Near ATX

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Get excited about earth day!

Earth day is one of our favorite days over here at Envirojunkies! This holiday is such a great way to really celebrate, show our appreciation for our Earth, and promote living a sustainable lifestyle. Austin, Texas is one of the top green cities in the state, so of course there are plenty of fun, COVID safe, events that are taking place all around the city in celebration of Earth Day! Here are a few that are totally worth participating in: 

Earth Day 2021 Run/Walk Challenge 

This year will be the 3rd annual Earth Day run/walk challenge held right here in ATX! However, unlike years past, this virtual event takes place during the entire month of April. The idea of this challenge is for participants to document their runs/walks throughout the month and once it reaches Earth Day, the goal is to see how many miles collectively add up. Then your miles will be converted to show how many times you made a trip around the Equator! ! SOO cool right?! The Equator is 24,901 miles, and last year’s earth day run/walk challenge total was 51,023.592 miles. Clearly, so many folks in ATX participated in this last year, so it’s time to do it again! For the Earth! Also, at the end of the month you get a finisher T-shirt for finishing the challenge, which is awesome!

2023 Earth Day Challenge (24,901 Miles)

Earth Day Outdoor Yoga

(VUKA – Bouldin Creek, 411 west monroe street, austin TX 78704) 

Release your stress and celebrate Earth Day at this awesome outdoor yoga event! “AdZENtures” has teamed up with the local non-profit, Treefolks, to put on an awesome, fun, and covid safe event to celebrate the Earth! Even better, all proceeds from purchased tickets will be donated directly to Treefolks, so they can continue their great work in saving, preserving, and planting more trees here in ATX! Don’t worry, even if you cannot make it to the event, you can still donate to Treefolks! Get your ticket now!

https://adzenturesyoga.com/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/outdoor-yoga-for-earth-day-tickets-148810039835

 Earth day festival (Round Rock) 

Round Rock is just outside Austin, so it is close and this festival is definitely worth the short drive! This event is free for anyone, and all ages are allowed to go! This Earth Day festival is geared towards coming together as a community to clean up the Old Settlers’ Park creek area, as well as spreading awareness about the importance of maintaining a healthy Earth. Not only do you get to help clean up the park creek area, but there are also so many other activities at this festival that will keep the fun going! Plus, the first 400 people to arrive will receive a free T-shirt!!! Do your part by participating in this amazing event for Earth Day, 2021! 

https://www.roundrocktexas.gov/event/earth-day-festival-2021/

Now that you know what kinds of events are happening in the ATX area in celebration of Earth Day 2021, it is time to PARTICIPATE! These are not the only events taking place either, but at least now you have an idea of a few amazing activities that the ATX community does to highlight our amazing Earth. Sign up ASAP and get excited for Earth Day 2021! 

Beginner Composting Basics

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Did you know that when you combine our food scraps and yard waste together, they make up more than 30 percent of what we throw away in the trash? I mean seriously, 30 percent! This is such a high percentage, which could be totally reduced by composting! We can do better than this, plus there are so many cool benefits that come from composting, so, that’s why I’ve put together a basic guide for anyone looking to start up this great hobby! 

Compost Storage 

There are two types of composting, indoor and outdoor. For indoor composting, it is best to buy an actual composting bin. Many places like target, Walmart, and Amazon all sell composting bins and have plenty of options. The main tip if you use indoor composting is to make sure to keep the area clean and manageable so that it won’t attract any pest. As far as outdoor composting goes, you can use a variety of things to make a bind, wooden planks, bricks, whatever works for you should be fine. Just make sure that you choose a dry, shady spot for your compost. 

Getting Started

To get a compost bin started, there are three things required, browns, greens, and water. Browns include things such as dead leaves, tree branches, and twigs. These things are in charge of providing carbon in your compost. 

Greens are pretty obvious. Materials such as grass clippings, vegetable scraps/waste, fruit scraps, and coffee grounds are all part of the green category. Green materials provide nitrogen for your compost. 

Water is important for composting because the moisture is there to help break down the organic matter in the compost. 

Benefits of Composting 

There are many benefits to composting. First, composting plays a very positive role in our ability to naturally enrich our soil by helping the soil retain moisture and to limit plant disease. Because of all of this, composting reduces the need to use chemical fertilizers, which is absolutely necessary. Composting also promotes and encourages the production of beneficial bacteria and fungi. 

Finally, one of the biggest benefits is that by composting, it helps reduce methane emissions from landfills and drumroll please…..LOWERS YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT!! 

So, it is clear that composting is one of the best ways to really enhance your sustainable lifestyle and a great hobby to take up as well. However, it isn’t just a hobby, it’s growing in our restaurant industry. In fact, on the local end, many restaurants in Austin have started to switch to using compostable to-go containers, awesome right!? It is so important that we stay committed to continuously work towards a lower and lower carbon footprint and composting is an awesome way to do so! I mean, now that you know the basics, aren’t you SO ready to get started?! 

Sources

https://mashable.com/article/beginners-guide-to-composting/

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/basics/ultimate-beginners-guide-composting.htm

Life After The Blue Bin

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How your recyclables are reused, reduced, and recycled to remake other things.

Have you ever asked yourself, “well, im recycling but I have no idea what they are used for once they make it to the recycling plant…” Here’s the short answer, Recycling truly does our environment wonders. The simple reason for this is because by recycling, we are providing a way to reuse the same exact components needed to continue making certain things, rather than creating an extra amount of product just because we chose to throw it in the trash instead. 

Why is recycling so good for the environment? Recycling is important because we are reducing how much excess waste that we are throwing away. What would be the point if all we did was just continue to make plastics, cans, etc. and continuously throw them into the trash that then eventually makes its way to landfills, dumps, or the ocean, as we previously learned on Tuesday.  

Avoid making a new “batch” 

Recycling allows goods to be remade without having to make a whole new “batch” of the original supplies. But, that is certainly not all. There are so many things that we are able to make out of the common recyclables, so why wouldn’t you want to contribute!?

These are just some of the things that come from your recyclables: 

Many recyclables are used to make jackets. You know that polyester lining in your coats? Ya, this can be made by recycled plastic bottles! 

While cars seem to be all heavy, industrial, metal, that is certainly not the case. Little do you know, a lot of your car parts are actually often made of recycled bottle caps and other metal like containers! These recyclables are mostly used to make parts such as wheel liners, seat cushions, and splash guards. Pretty neat right? 

I think that we can all say that we’ve had our fair share of fun at the playground when we were younger, right? Well guess what – playground equipment such as slides, swings, and other similar equipment is made out of your recycled milk jugs! Yep, milk jugs! The majority of that plastic-like material you find on the playground is made of high density polyethylene, which is the same as that of milk jugs. 

One of the more basic items made from recyclables are toothbrushes. The plastic handle part is made from recycled yogurt cups! Do not worry though, the bristles are new!

So, our recyclables really do contribute to the creation of many things, some random and some are just the average good! Either way, we must continue to recycle because it truly does make a difference and allows us to be useful rather than wasteful. Keep it up y’all! 

Make sure to tweet us @envirojunkiess and share with us what other things are able to be reused, reduced, and recycled to make new things! 

Citations: 

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71088/15-surprising-things-are-made-recycled-materials

https://www.moneycrashers.com/what-to-recycle-list-recyclable-items-materials/

About us

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Welcome to Enviro Junkies, we are so glad that you are here!

We are Environmental Junkies and our number one goal is to build up all societies’ awareness through sharing information, ways for citizens to get involved, provide easy tips and tricks to live greener lives, and the list goes on!

Our world has suffered dramatically during the times of the COVID19 pandemic as loved ones have been lost, as our healthcare workers continue to work and persevere through the hardest hours of their careers, and as we have suddenly been spending more time in our homes than we ever thought possible.

We quickly realized that this was the right time to spread environmental awareness and to give all communities a way to get out of the house safely, and most of all, reduce a carbon footprint that supports and enhances not only healthy living, but also environmentally strong communities around the world.

We are so happy that you are here to join us in our endeavors to encourage smart choices for the environment at large!