Happy Wednesday, fellow Environmentalists!

Let’s chat for a minute about land pollution.  We talk a lot about water pollution, but let’s take a break for a beat and shift gears.

Land pollution comes in MANY forms:

     ➡️ Littering
     ➡️ Landfills
     ➡️ Agriculture
     ➡️ Deforestation
     ➡️ And more!

Land pollution doesn’t just mean putting CRAP in or on the ground that doesn’t belong there, oh no!  It includes the degradation (making worse) of the earth’s surface!  😱

🤔 you may be asking yourself, “But, how can I help?”  That’s easy.  I try my hardest to come to y’all with SIMPLE, COMVENIENT solutions to help with these kinds of issues.

👏🏼SMALL 👏🏼 CHANGES 👏🏼 CAN MAKE 👏🏼 A 👏🏼 BIG 👏🏼 DIFFERENCE! 👏🏼

✅ Start a compost bin/pile
✅ Research how to PROPERLY recycle in your community, and DO IT!
✅ Stop littering!
✅ Pick up trash/litter, even if it’s not yours.  The “it’s not my job” mentality has no room here!
✅ Commit to buying less single use items and more recyclable, reusable, or non-plastic items
✅ Get taking.  We can’t hide from these issues.  There’s no doubt about it.  Talk with your family and friends.
✅ Be kind.  We don’t get anywhere by talking at (or yelling at, for that matter) anyone.  Have open, honest conversations.  Honesty, is realizing that some of us won’t change our lifestyles unless it’s convenient to do so.  Being honest gives us an opportunity to address the REAL issues that underline our inaction.  For example, convenience is a must?  Ok, research ways to incorporate change into your life with little to no impact on your daily life.

See my video about products I have purchased and tried to learn more about incorporating eco-friendly things into your everyday lives.

Remember, the earth will be just fine - with or without us.  It’s HUMANS that need to fix the problem we created, so that we can continue to exist.

#BeTheChange #SheedysForTheEnvironment #TheRealLifeEnvironmentalist #ThereIsNoAway #NoMorePlastic #TenOnTuesdays #PickUpYourTrash #NoLittering #SaveTheHumans

Convenience... Combatting the Use of Disposables On The Go

Whew!  The past month has been a blur here in the Sheedy household.  I have been out of town taking care of my grandmother and travelling to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and niece for my niece's first birthday! 

We have been called to last minute meetings, been running from one end of town to the other for appointments, and trying to stay on top of our work responsibilities.  All of this running around really made us realize how much convenience plays into our busy everyday lives.  I thought I would share some tips and ways that I handled being away from the house and still trying to be environmentally conscious at the same time!

I walked out the door without my reusable straw on more than one occasion (like these, here).  This is a simple fix - I simple don't use straws when I grab a drink to go.  At restaurants, I ask the server to not bring straws to the table.  I have also started asking for "no lids" on my drinks when I go through a drive-thru.  This takes a bit more responsibility on my part - to not be the clumsy person I usually am.  I am much more careful when drinking in the car.

I also take my own cup with me, whenever possible.  Rtic is my favorite brand of stainless steel cups, like these.  I also frequent restaurants that will allow me to use my own cup instead of wasting a disposable one. 

I have made several unplanned trips to the grocery store this week - and have left my reusable bags at home.  Luckily, my local grocery store, Kroger, has paper bags.  I always ask for paper bags instead of plastic in these kinds of situations.  The other store I shop at, Costco, does not place your items in plastic bags, but reuses the boxes that their inventory comes in.  When I stop at a convenience store and only have a few things, or am taking my purchases directly to the car, I just carry everything to the car instead of placing them in a plastic bag. 

When ordering food at a fast food restaurant, I opt out of plastic ware if I can avoid it or if I am heading home, where I can use my own flatware. 

I have an SUV, and keep a tote of supplies in there in case I walk out the door without some of my essentials; things like extra reusable bags, an extra cup or two, extra reusable straws, etc. 

What are some of the ways you try to stay environmentally conscious on the go? 

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things....

Playing a little bit of catch up here over the next few weeks!  Here is a Facebook Live video going over some of my favorite environmentally friendly products.  

So many people tell me that being environmentally conscious or being "green" is too overwhelming and completely out of their reach.  Making a change for the better doesn't have to happen overnight.  Changing small things throughout your life, a little bit at a time allows you to adjust in a way that doesn't seem overwhelming and allows you to change your habits and adjust to them.  After these changes become your new habits, add a few more changes in.  

Doing your part to make the world a better place and making a change to help clean up the mess we, as a society, have made, can be as easy as making a few changes here and there.  

I have linked the products I mentioned in the above video:

Erase Your Face makeup removal towels: https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=asc_df_B…/…

Shampoo Bars: https://www.lushusa.com/h…/shampoo-bars/

Bamboo toothbrushes with boar hair bristles: https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=asc_df_B…/…

Bamboo Toothbrush holder: https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=asc_df_B…/…

Bite toothpaste: https://bitetoothpastebits.com/

Deoderants: detailed video coming soon!

Travel straw: https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=asc_df_B…/…


Thank you for stopping by! 

The Real Life Environmentalist - Take One

Happy Wednesday, y'all!

Silver Falls Trail, Ohanapecosh,
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

Welcome to my first blog post on The Real Life Environmentalist!  As many of you know, I am incredibly passionate about bettering the environment and making conscious efforts to do my part to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Here, I plan to share practical ideas, tips, and tricks that we can all do to help clean up the environment and better the planet that we call home!

For my first post, I would like to give some insight into why I am passionate about the environment and making a difference in the effect that humans have on it.

Our planet is so beautiful and such a wonderful place.  We MUST start taking better care of it, and NOW.  We cannot keep procrastinating and putting it off.

Sunset Beach, North Shore,
Hawaii

I am an avid lover of nature.  I love all different types of terrain, from mountains to deserts, islands and beaches, forests - I love it all!  I also love to photograph scenery in the places I have been.  I love the untouched views and breathtaking sights that nature provides us.  Standing on mountaintops with my feet on the bare earth, or on the beach with my toes in the sand - I definitely go barefoot everywhere that is socially acceptable, and many places where it is not 😜 - it seems as though the vastness and beauty of nature is unending, perpetual, invincible.  The reality is that it is not.  We are encroaching on that beauty every single day, more and more, at a faster speed every day.  The more we as a society focus on convenience, greed, and disposability, the worse this problem gets.

Balancing Rock, Big Bend National Park,
Texas

Recycling is a problem - many cities don't have adequate facilities, so the recycling programs often result in the "recycled objects" ending up in the dump and landfills. Check out this New York Times article from May 2018 that goes into more detail.  Many citizens also don't take the time to check their local recycling program's requirements and restrictions, so items that are not recyclable are placed in recycling.  Some programs have had to discontinue the service due to equipment issues and/or higher costs as a result of improper recycling behaviors by participants.  Take a moment to check with your recycling program to see what the allowable recyclables are.

Grandview, Texas

Littering becomes increasingly worse with the higher population counts, of course.  As more people inhabit the planet, the more trash ends up where it doesn't belong.  Oceans, fields, roadsides, etc. end up littered with trash.  Ultimately, many of this trash ends up in the oceans (71% of the Earth's surface is water).  We will explore the effects of trash pollution in waterways in a later post.  One of my favorite charities, 4ocean, is dedicated to the cleaning up of our oceans.  We can help further this cause by actually properly disposing of trash and recyclables before they have the chance to enter our planet's water.




I will continue to share more with y'all as I continue this blog.  I will share videos, tips, tricks, and more.  Thank you for hanging in there through my first post.  I look forward to sharing my adventures through being The Real Life Environmentalist with y'all!