Welcome to the second edition of my Eco-Friendly Blog Takeover. If you missed Week One, it featured submissions from three bloggers who shared their thoughts and tips on waste reduction and eco-friendly living.

This week, four more great writers are sharing their tips. Please take some time to explore their work to see what they’ve got to offer.

If you’d like to participate in a future post, I’d love to hear from you.

Without further ado, let’s hear from today’s guest bloggers.

Kathryn from Staying Afloat

As a marine biologist, I have a long-standing passion for our oceans and a deep-rooted hatred for single use plastics. With spending so much time near and on the water, I’ve seen the ugly effects of pollution (are there any pretty ones?) and always encourage folks to be more mindful of their daily habits when I can. As a beach town resident, I have a list of recommendations for minimizing your footprint on your next beach vacation:

1) Skip The Straw

Or BYOS (bring your own straw!) and request your beverage come without one when ordering out.

2) Use Reusable Containers

There are so many options these days (cups, containers, bags) you’ll be glad you brought them! 

3) Leave Only Footprints

Carry out what you carry in when leaving the beach and make sure you aren’t leaving ANYTHING behind. 

4) Properly Dispose Of Fishing Line

Loose, unwanted lines can be a serious threat to wildlife, pets, and humans, as they can become easily entangled.

5) Switch Up Your Sunscreen

There are chemicals in your average everyday sunscreen that are harmful to the environment. When you consider the compounding effects of the millions of beach goers that swim in the ocean every year, it adds up!

6) Ride A Bicycle

Don’t forget a helmet and a lock!

7) Don’t Feed The Sea Gulls

Wild animals need to learn to forage for themselves. Plus more gulls around leads to more potential to get pooped on, and nobody wants any part of that. 

8) Leave The Plastic Toys At Home

This one is tough, especially if you are traveling with kids. But there are actually some really great alternatives out there.  And don’t forget, you can build sand castles and sand creatures by hand to your imagination’s delight!

9) No [Cigarette] Butts About It!

If you haven’t made the switch to an e-cigarette, maybe consider it solely for your beach visit. Especially if you aren’t in the habit of properly disposing of your butts. 

Read more about our eco-friendly beach tips here: 10 Tips for An Eco-Friendly Outer Banks Vacation

Starla @OurWellnessDeployed

You can find Starla on Instagram @OurWellnessDeployed

We’ve been on a simplicity journey the last few years. Slowing down to enjoy life’s moments together and to live with less clutter. We are being conscientious of reducing waste and focusing on living more eco-friendly lives. While we have a long way to go, we have definitely made strides in our commitment to simplicity.

One of the areas I’ve felt called to simplify and reduce waste is in our homeschooling. There is just so much stuff out there targeted at kids and home learners. Workbooks, craft supplies, science sets, games, books and the list goes on. It adds up quickly and so much of it cannot be reused or recycled. Here are some of the things we have done to reduce waste in our home school. I hope they encourage you as you go through this season of learning at home.

Go Digital

Many curriculum packages offer digital downloads. Instead of printing all those pages consider casting the pages onto your television or viewing them on your tablet or computer screen. If needed, print the workbook for your children and cast the teacher’s guide on the screen.

There are great learning games out there that are not only educational but are a lot of fun for kids. Instead of printing or purchasing countless worksheets, consider getting an app that is teacher approved and recognized by homeschooling communities. Apps don’t replace working on assignments or lessons together but they are a great way to augment all the book work. 

There are online planners for both students and parents where you can plan lessons, include links to resources and do your reporting for grades and work. You can also get calendars that you can share between family members and in your learning groups. 

Reuse Learning Sheets

Have you heard of Dry Erase Pockets? These are a great resource for reducing waste in your home school. You can take pages from workbooks or other printable lessons and put them into the pockets.  Using a dry erase marker kids can complete the sheets, you can review and then wipe them clean. The thing I really like about these is that you can reuse the pages over and over again until your child is ready to move on. An example of this would be tracing letters until your child is comfortable doing them free hand. You can also put in a blank piece of paper and write math problems, spelling words and so on. 

Supply Exchanges

Last year our homeschooling community arranged a supply swap. People dropped off books, lessons, activities and craft supplies they no longer needed and then came back a few days later and browsed the massive selection of items taking what they could use. It not only saved families a lot of money but it also prevented these items from ending up in the landfills. The leftover items were donated to a local community centre who were happy to get new books and supplies. If you are in a local homeschooling group on social media or meetups you can list what you have and what you are looking for.  You may be surprised how many families are willing to trade. 

Reuse and Re-purpose

Instead of going out and buying new furniture, fixtures, supplies and storage take inventory of what you have in your house. Can you re-purpose or reuse items? Do you have a desk that is collecting junk in the corner of a room? Do you have 1000 pens and markers throughout the house? Make a list of what you need and what you have and see if you can work with what you’ve got. 

Simplify Your Home and Bring in Less

As a military family facing regular moves and deployments we’ve learned quickly the importance of living with less. Less stuff equals less cleaning, less organizing and a lot less waste. When you bring less into your home you are reducing packaging, wrappers, junk that sits in drawers and you are showing your kids the value of living with less and having more time together.

Be Eco-Conscious With Your Supplies

I’ve been trying to think about the environment when I make purchases now. For example I no longer buy foam shapes for crafts because they cannot be recycled. We’ve switched to recycled printer paper and we make crafts for lessons with supplies from nature that we find on walks or in the yard. Have you ever used rocks to teach counting or made doll houses out of sticks and leaves? It’s actually quite fun and you can put the supplies back into nature.

By making little changes to start with you can have a big impact on reducing clutter in your home and waste in the landfills.

Suzanne Amey from Genuine VO

Many of us are aware of the environmental impacts of “fast fashion”, but did you know production of cotton has some of the most devastating environmental impacts?

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the production of cotton uses more water than all other agricultural commodities. The result is freshwater loss, soil contamination from pesticides and destruction of ecosystems.

Knowing these facts, I thrift most of my clothes, or take part in clothing swaps. Second hand clothing is usually just as good quality (sometimes better) than what you can buy new in a store.

Thrifting may not be for everyone and it’s harder with the current restrictions in place in most stores, but it’s worth giving it a shot.

(Suzanne Amey is a blogger and voice actor, and creator of The Practice Diary for Voice Actors, available on Amazon. Her blog is genuineVO.com/blog)

Rebecca at The Loaded Pig

I have always been very concerned with the environment (in high school I was nicknamed “the recycling girl”) so I try to live a greener life in a few ways.

Since I’m also mindful of my spending habits and food is a big expense, I try to waste as little food as possible. Several months ago, I started a compost bin to decrease my household’s contribution to landfills and generate soil for my garden.

Other small ways I try to reduce my impact on the environment include using reusable food containers and water bottles, recycling and keeping our electricity usage at a minimum (which is difficult during the hot south Florida summers). My boyfriend and I hope to one day live as self-sustainable as possible on our own land in an energy efficient house powered by solar. Until then we will continue to do our part in many ways to live greener lives. 

Many people think, and have told me, that their actions alone won’t have a positive impact on the environment so it’s not worth it for them to change how they live. Unfortunately, this egocentric thinking has caused many people and companies to negatively impact the environment. I think that if everyone did their part living a greener life, even in small ways, it would make a big difference.

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Thanks to my guest bloggers

Thanks to Kathryn, Starla, Suzanne and Rebecca for sharing their unique perspectives. Here are some of my favourite ideas. Don’t forget to click through and check out their work.

Leave Only Footprints. Carry out what you carry in when leaving the beach and make sure you aren’t leaving ANYTHING behind.

Kathryn, Staying Afloat

With Dry Erase Pockets, you can take pages from workbooks and put them into the pockets.  Using a dry erase marker, kids can complete the sheets, you can review and then wipe them clean. You can reuse the pages over and over again.

Starla @OurWellnessDeployed

Thrifting may not be for everyone and it’s harder with the current restrictions in place in most stores, but it’s worth giving it a shot.

Suzanne Amey, Genuine VO

I think that if everyone did their part living a greener life, even in small ways, it would make a big difference.

Rebecca, The Loaded Pig

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Look for next week’s Blog Takeover when we’ll hear from four more writers.

Which of these ideas resonated with you the most? Join the conversation below.