Check Your Habits - One Change You Can Make on Earth Day

Those of us who enjoy outdoor action and adventure sports understand the value of protecting the Earth, and often see firsthand changes that are happening to climates and ecosystems.  Our wilderness areas provide us with snow to shred, trails to explore, mountains to climb, and clean water to surf.  Because of this, we encourage all of our shred sisters to take a look at five small steps that you can make to make an impact! 

It may seem daunting, but the first step is to take a look at different areas of your life and what steps can be taken to be better for the earth.

Analyze Your Drinking Habits

Many of us have already ditched single use bottled water in favor of a nice reusable water bottle, but drinks contribute to human waste far beyond water.  From your morning latte to your evening bottle of beer, the beverage industry relies on single use containers to sell beverages to consumers. 

These facts were taken from carryyourcup.org, and represent just a small part of the impact the beverage industry has on the environment. 

• Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, and 5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour.

• In 2006, only 24.7 percent of plastic beverage bottles were recycled representing only 1.11 million tons recycled of the 4.47 million tons of bottles sold.

Make a list of all of the beverages you drink in a week that come in any kind of container - from a gallon milk from the grocery store to grabbing a soda at a restaurant.  Don't forget to consider other waste related to the beverage, including disposable plastic lids, straws, and single use creamer and sugar packets. 

Ask Yourself: 

• Is there any way to purchase this beverage in a reusable container?
• If not, are you buying it in the packaging that's easiest to recycle? 
• Of all of the available beverage containers, aluminum cans are the most energy efficient to recycle, and can be recycled again and again.  Glass is also a good candidate for recycling.
• Avoid plastic and paper products where possible. Although plastic can technically be recycled, that has recently proved problematic.

Rethink Your Habits - Reusables to Substitute for Things You Use Most.

1. Reusable Hot Drink Cups

Most coffee shops allow you to replace their paper cups with a reusable one - so you can cut your coffee waste with one quick purchase!  As a bonus, many shops will give you a discount for bringing your own cup.

We love this Hydroflask mug - it comes in bright colors and gives you the feel of a traditional mug, but with a great lid and the durability of stainless steel. 

Shop our partner Backcountry.com for this and other great mugs, perfect for outdoor lifestyles!

2. Grab a Growler

We love packing our beverages for camping into a growler, as it reduces the bottles and cans we bring to the campground.  And with the rising popularity of growler fill stations, you can keep your fridge stocked with these reusable bottles as well! 

Growlers aren't just for beer anymore, either!  Although they're a great option to cut the waste generated by your craft beer habit, we've found some other growler fill beverages in our local area, including kombucha and juice.  They're also big enough to be perfect as a backup water bottle to pack in your car on adventures, and eliminate convenience store stops for extra beverages.

We love stainless steel growlers with a vacuum lid like this Stanley one - they last forever and the lid helps keep your fizzy drinks fizzy. 

3. Skip the Straw - or Bring Your Own

Do you really need a straw with that?  If you can handle just drinking your beverage straight from the cup, just do that.  No straw beats a reusable straw any day. 

But if you just love your straws, we suggest keeping some reusable ones stashed in your car, purse, backpack or wherever - so that anytime straw temptation hits, you're prepared! 

We love these multi packs of cute copper straws - they're fun, easy, and copper is 100% recyclable! 

4. Come Prepared to Sterilize

But what if the water isn't any good?  If you live or travel to places where the drinking water is questionable, you can still skip out on the single use plastic by purchasing a filter or water UV sterilizer.  We especially love the UV variety because they're so compact, lightweight and portable! 

You can bring this on any trip, whether it's camping on the wilderness or backpacking through South America... or make use of it if there's an issue with your local drinking water. 

5. Hydration Drinks, Energy Drinks and Soda

As athletes, we realize that just sticking to water isn't always enough. We all sometimes use hydration and energy drinks to get us through a big day.  We haven't found a solution that completely eliminates plastic for these types of beverages, but we love these small containers of fizzy drink tabs, or other drink powder that comes in canisters. 

You can drop these in your own water bottle, leaving you with one small bottle to recycle instead of 12 large ones.  Check out some of these drink tablet options and see if there's something that could replace your favorite hydration beverage! 

Have you found a product or tip that helps you eliminate waste from beverages? Let us know in the comments below!