Eco-Friendly Habits for Families

Teaching your family healthy habits (like drinking enough water) should include habits that are healthy for the environment too! April is Earth Month, and with Earth Day on April 22nd, now is the perfect time to start thinking green as a family. Creating a more sustainable lifestyle for your family can be easy when you make small everyday changes. Plus, you might get some fun family activities out of it too!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The three R’s are the core of a sustainable lifestyle and can be taught to children of all ages. Here’s what you can do:

Reduce the amount of waste your family creates. This often means trying to cut down on non-recyclable waste, but it can also mean using less water, for example, by taking showers instead of baths.

Reuse or repurpose anything you can. One example is opting for a reusable shopping bag when going to the store, but you could also repurpose an old T-shirt by turning it into a shopping tote!

Recycle as much as possible. First, make sure you know what and how to recycle in your area. Next, have an easy-to-access recycling bin in your home. You can teach young kids to recycle by having them help identify and collect light recyclables around the home.

With the three R’s in mind, your family will have a great foundation for building eco-friendly habits.

Conserve Water & Electricity

With a lot of people in the house, simple habit changes can go a long way toward protecting the planet while also lowering your monthly bills. Try these conservation tips in your household:

• Remind everyone to turn off the lights as they leave a room. Installing motion-sensing light switches can also make a big impact in your energy consumption.
• Unplug electronics whenever they’re not in use. Chargers for phones, laptops, and video game consoles are the first things to be forgotten in an outlet.
• Whenever possible, turn off the A/C and open a window to circulate air instead. Keeping blinds and curtains closed on sunny days can also help keep your home cool.
• Make sure to turn off the tap while brushing your teeth.
• Save more water when doing the dishes by completely loading up the dishwasher instead of washing in the sink. Washing dishes by hand is one chore you can feel good about skipping!
• Wash laundry in cool water instead of hot water. Not only is this better for your clothes, it also saves a ton of energy!

Start a Family Garden

Kids love getting their hands dirty! Gardening is a great way to teach young children responsibility, healthy eating habits, simple biology and appreciation for the Earth. Allowing your kids to be involved in the entire process from selecting the seeds to harvesting the produce will keep them fully engaged and help them internalize the lessons you learn together.

While any type of garden is good fun for kids, consider growing fruits and veggies. An edible garden can help you save money and limit the amount of fossil fuels you use driving to and from the store. As an added bonus, picky eaters might be more willing to try fresh vegetables that they’ve grown themselves!

Tip: Compost your kitchen scraps to create free, eco-friendly fertilizer for the garden. Earthworms can help break down the compost faster and make the process more fun for the kids!

Join the Primo Lifestyle

Changing the way you and your family drink water can make a big difference. When you start drinking Primo water, you’re not just enjoying purified, great-tasting water, you’re also helping reduce the number of single-use plastic bottles that end up in landfills. Over the course of its 40-use lifetime, one refillable 5-gallon Primo water bottle can save 1,100 single-use bottles. Every time you exchange or refill your empty bottle, you’re doing something good for your family and for the planet.

Sometimes the simplest changes make the biggest impacts. Start by making it your family’s goal to add just one of these eco-friendly habits or activities to your routine. We’ll continue to help you on your sustainability journey by providing clean, great-tasting bulk water to keep you and your family hydrated and ready to make a difference!