Your Amazing Eco-Friendly Life Tips – And the Aveda Giveaway Winner!

I might be the slightest bit biased…but I’m convinced that you Afrobella readers are the best community ever. Your comments are always intelligent and insightful, friendly and funny. There’s so much love here. And SO much great information. Take for example my recent Aveda Water Warrior giveaway. I asked for you guys to either tweet, or leave an environmentally friendly tip in the comments. And you left 69 comments of environmental enlightenment! SO many of you reuse, reduce, and recycle. I LOVE it!

Here are the best tips I got from you, that would be relatively easy to implement in everyday life.

Jeannine m — Next yr my son will be taking a litterless lunch to school for Kindergarden (reusable snack bags, cloth napkin, water bottle)

Bree — I brought a tankless water heater which is conserving water buy heating the water as it is used, versus keeping a giant tank on hand for days. I also do most of my shopping vintage, and we don’t use any aerosol cans.

Toni — I use public transportation and walk everywhere. Also, I have all the windows open for a breeze instead of turning on the A/C and keep showers at about 5 minutes.

Osha M – I support eco friendly companies when they are available & have recently transitioned from a pescetarian to a vegan. By limiting or abstaining from meat consumption, less of our limited resources would be consumed.

Chrissy D.M – I’ve also made a financial contribution recently to GreenPeace to help their organization. I am committed to GreenPeace’s fight against nuclear power plants in the U.S. and throughout the world, as well other forms of energy (like coal power) which cause sickness and increased rates of cancer and pollution.

I encourage everyone to do support environmental organizations dedicated to preserving our planet. We have two oceans that are toxic and polluted (the Caribbean from oil, and now the Pacific from radioactivity), and an entire northern hemisphere. The oceans cannot dilute all the damage we do it, nor can the ecosystem. The Earth is still our planet and mother to many. We share this planet with other life forms, and have to care for it, because it’s the only home we have.

Destiny – TRYING to teach the kids to turn off everything behind them and not use anything if they don’t need it. We switched to water filters last year instead of bottled waters. Of course we switched all our lightbulbs over a few years ago and we try to buy all eco friendly soaps and detergents. Also, recently we started trying to download movies instead of buying them to reduce waste and packaging.

LaNeshe – Someone on a blog today mentioned how shopping online increases waste, because of the packaging materials and the use of oil for deliveries, which I hadn’t thought of. So going forward if I can get it at a store, I’ll get it at a store, rather than ordering online out of laziness.

Queen Eye Cee – I strive to be conscientious of my carbon blueprint; that why I became vegetarian 6 months ago, use reusable grocery bags, use fluorescent light bulbs, use strictly eco-friendly household cleaners and when showering I turn the water off while lathering my body and brushing teeth…

Nicole – My city does provide curbside recycling so every Tuesday I have two containers full of recyclables. I sometimes take my own bags for grocery shopping but when I forget I make sure to take the plastic bags back to my local grocery store because they have a recycling container for bags. My washer died last month and it used at least 40 gallons of water per load. So I an definitely using less water. I did some research and decided not to buy another until I can afford to get one that is energy efficient. My family eats a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and we try to stay away from packaged processed foods.

James Whitboard – The heat coming in from the Western exposure of the house was driving up our cooling costs inside.Here in Arizona it’s over 105 degrees everyday for 3 months!! We planted shade trees and put up special screens to reduce the energy use to run the air conditioners. Next, Solar Panels!!!

Shones – I make my own eco-friendly (and inexpensive!) powder laundry detergent using four ingredients: Ivory bar soap, Borax, Washing Soda (not baking soda), and my favorite essential oil (usually sage).

The recipe for a batch is 1:1:1, and I always double the recipe. I use a cheese grater to shred two bars of Ivory soap into a bowl. Ivory works better than Dove for this because it crumbles more easily. Next, I pour the shredded soap into a plastic container with a tight lid. Finally, I add two cups of A&H Washing Soda, two cups of Mule Team Borax, and a few drops of sage essential oil to the mix. I seal the lid, shake it vigorously, and voila! — enough powder detergent to last my husband and I about 2-3 months.

Nicki – We are no longer buy cases of water. We’ve purchased a water filter and everyone has their own reusable water bottle.

Kellie – I use my leftover cooking water from veggies and potatoes and use to water my plants – they love the nutrients. This works for coffee grounds and crushed eggshells.

LOVED your insights and your comments. So many tips to try myself! I wish everyone could win this prize…but I had to choose a winner at random. And that winner is:

Erika C., who says “On Earth Day 2011, my hubby and I helped my mother plant a tree and also planted one at our home. Also I started getting our children involved in recycling, they are so involved they will constantly remind me “not to through that recycleable away Mommy”. I’m so proud of them for paying much attention to help our Earth.”

Good for you, Erika and congratulations! Thanks to everyone who entered here and on Twitter.

And don’t forget – if you buy a 2011 Light the Way™ soy wax candle and enter the code AFROBELLA at checkout, then Aveda will count each purchase towards me possibly joining them on their very special annual trip to India this fall, to see exactly how their fundraising efforts help those in need.

The candle is exclusively available in Earth Month, so if you wait until May 1 – you’ll have to wait a whole year before you can buy one.

I’m still a Water Warrior even though Earth Month is almost over, and I’m going to add so many of your eco-friendly tips to my life! Look out for Aveda giveaways in the future here on Afrobella – and other awesomeness coming soon!