Make every day Earth Day

It’s Earth Week and we want to shout out some awesome and simple ways to easily reduce the impact you leave on the environment! 

• First thing is first, find out how big your carbon footprint is. There are many resources for this, but we prefer using the WWF’s survey for this. We really think it’s important to be forced to confront how much energy expenditure is necessary for each part of lives. It’s easy to notice how much you’re driving because you have to fill up your gas tank, but it’s harder to realise how the food you choose to eat affects the environment. 
• Always remember to properly dispose off light bulbs and batteries! These can leech harmful chemicals into the environment in landfills so set aside a gallon-sized Ziplock bag in your pantry or closet for used batteries and bulbs to take periodically to your hardware store or other facility for proper disposal. 
• Use more DIY cleaning products. It’s remarkable how many of the cleaning products are completely unnecessary. A bit of vinegar or baking soda (but not together!) can do amazing things, and are much safer for children to come into contact with. Not only will you cut down on the manufacturing of these cleaning chemicals, you obviate the need for their plastic containers as well. 

• Air-dry your laundry. It’s getting closer and closer to summer, so try to air dry your laundry more often. In fact, unless your clothes absolutely need to be dry within an hour, you can probably afford to hang them up and wear them in a few hours. 
• Switch to reusable facial pads. Cotton only covers 2.4% of the world’s cultivated land but uses a disproportionate amount of pesticides and insecticides, 6% and 16% respectively. You can toss these in with your laundry and use them for makeup removal, toner and essence application. 
• While we’re on the topic of skincare, did you know you don’t really have to use any facial pads for your hydrating toners? Try the 7 skin method where you apply a watery toner in layers on your face to achieve a hydrated glow. Simply apply to the palms of your hand and pat onto your face. Please, please don’t do this with acid or alcohol toners though.
• There’s a lot of hype about going straw-free or switching to metal straws, but what about cutlery? You can get a travel cutlery set for super cheap online and never have to sneakily grab an extra set for the nearest fast food joint to eat your lunch. Our favourites are the cute Korean sets with chopsticks, spoon and knife!
• And of course, if you’re a journal addict we always recommend using Karst Notebooks. A Karst notebook uses 60% less energy in production compared to a comparable pulp-paper based product. We also use solar energy and plant a tree for every notebook sold! 

If you have any more awesome tips, let us know on social media. DM or tag us and we’ll be sure to share your tips with the entire Karst community later this week!