10 Sustainable Habits for Earth Day That Don’t Involve Consumerism

We can’t buy our way out of the climate crisis and need to build sustainable habits this Earth Day that don’t involve a lot of consumerism.

This post was originally shared in July 2019. It has been updated to reflect current times and was last updated on March 9, 2026.

When the environmental movement started to gain popularity especially in the 2010s at first it was exciting. Seeing reusable bags, reusable bottles, and other “sustainable products” becoming mainstream seemed like such a huge step and in some ways it was but not as much as I had hoped it would be.

The problem is big companies don’t want to sell you one of something and have that last forever, they want to keep selling you more and more products.

Suddenly reusable water bottles aren’t something you buy to reduce your use of single-use plastic water bottles but instead are a trend and you need the most popular brand in every color. And once that trend ends those bottles end up in the back of the cabinet, donated, or worse and new ones are purchased again.

This has happened with a lot of sustainable products, consumerism has made them anything but sustainable.

We’ve forgotten that the three Rs are reduce, reuse, and recycle, and they are in order of importance. We want to first reduce our need for things, reuse everything we can, and then when the first two aren’t an option, recycle. And no where in that list is “buy a lot more stuff.”

So this Earth Day instead of a list of things you can buy to feel more sustainable or on-trend, let’s talk about sustainable habits that get away from consumerism.

Sustainable Habits for Earth Day

A quick note about all of these tips. Not every sustainable habit will work for every person. Some seemingly wasteful items provide accessibility for a disabled person, food deserts can limit choices, home situations, financial situations, all come into play.

Do what you can because when it all comes down to it, we can’t shop our way out of this and while our habits our important individuals aren’t the biggest contributors to climate change, big corporations are and we need regulation changes to make the biggest impact.

Actually Use Your Reusable Products

With things like reusable water bottles, reusable bags, and other “sustainable” products that have been trendy lately you likely have a lot in your home already.

Make sure to put the items you own that can help you reduce waste where you will remember to use them. If you make the items easily accessible and have them where you will see them you are more likely to actually reach for those items instead of disposable options.

Be a Smart Grocery Shopper

Food waste is a big problem. Every year, Americans waste 33 million tons of food. This not only causes issues in our landfills but means more food needs to be produced. It’s also just like throwing your money away. Planning your shopping trips, sticking to your list, and meal planning are a few ways to prevent food waste.

Additional Resource: How to Reduce Food Waste

Drive Less

Plan your trips, bike, walk, carpool, or use public transportation. Even hybrids and electric cars have an impact on our planet, so we all need to drive less. And right now oil prices are rising so this will also become important for our budgets.

If you are trying to vote with your dollars using less fossil fuels is a big step. This is one most can’t get away from completely but we can reduce our use.

Eat Local

The food at your grocery store traveled 1,300 miles on average. A lot of energy is used to transport food. Check out your local farmer’s markets, coops and even your grocery stores may carry some local products. Even better, grow your own.

Current political situations also put us more at risk of shortages of different food items so becoming less reliant on food that is shipped from out of the US is important and the more local the better.

Stop Vampire Energy

Vampire energy is the energy your electronics use while they are turned off. Turn off your lights, anything that is turned off but still lights up is using energy. Plugging these items into power strips and turning them off when not in use will stop the vampire energy.

This tip will save you money on your electric bill, reduce your fossil fuel use, and also is often safer.

Be Mindful of Water Use

I’m going to say something about water use that you don’t want to hear, while reducing shower time and things like that is great if you want to do more for your water use you need to quick generative AI, reduce your consumption of animal products, and buy less stuff in general. All of those things use a lot of water.

So yes, please do turn off the faucet while your brush your teeth and be mindful of shower time but also consider the other major sources of water consumption that you contribute to.

Learn Mending Skills

Make Do and Mend was a common phrase during WW2 with booklets like the above given out as part of the war effort to help reduce consumer need of materials needed for the war.

We have lost so many of the skills that were used during that time to make things last. Learning those skills again is a great way to be more sustainable and also frugal.

Skills like basic sewing and home repair can go a really long way. These things used to be passed down but aren’t as much these days. Thankfully though with the internet you can learn these skills pretty easily.

One great resource for learning these kinds of skills is Craftsy. It’s a platform with all kinds of crafting related classes. And you can try it out right now for just $1.79 for the whole year.

Start Sharing With Your Community

The other day my dad needed to change out some lights and his ladder was a little too short so he came by and borrowed our ladder instead of buying one for a task he rarely has to do. Something simple like this used to be more common but we seem to see it less and less.

As we become more individual minded the idea of asking friends and family or even neighbors of borrowing things is becoming a foreign concept.

But not only would this help us buy less stuff it also helps us to create community. You can first check to see if you have a lending library in town, many public libraries have this. You can also check buy nothing groups, sometimes people offer items to borrow there as well. And of course ask friends and family.

One thing to be mindful of is to treat other people’s things when borrowing them with respect. If we want people to do this more often we need to return items in the same condition we borrowed them in.

Buy Less Stuff

Some purchases, like reusable bottles and reusable shopping bags, can help reduce waste but don’t get carried away. The very best thing you can do for the environment is to not buy new products. Ask yourself if you really need something before you buy it and when you can buy used.

Avoiding being in stores as much can also help reduce impulse buying. With grocery shopping use pick up services or plan shopping so that you can go less often. With other shopping work to use a list and stick to it.

Get Online Less Often

I guess as someone that makes a living from you being online and reading my site maybe I shouldn’t tell you this but scrolling less can help you be more sustainable.

This goes along with buying less stuff because the ads we see, yes even the ones on my site that help me make an income, are telling us to buy more things. The ones on social media tend to be the ones that work the best because the algorithms are so good at showing us things we like. Plus the influencers telling you all the things you HAVE TO HAVE and their perfect homes making you think you need more things.

Instead work on building some hobbies that are offline. These hobbies can also be useful things like gardening, sewing, and other creative activities. Just take some time to find things that help you stop scrolling and feed your soul in better ways.

Be Politically Active

Like I said at the start of this post, we need regulations to get us out of this! We need people in office that believe climate change is real and a big threat to all of us.

Some of the biggest things you can do for the planet is vote in every election for the candidates that are the most environmentally aware. And get your friends and family to vote.

Also try to find time to write and call your representatives. You can use 5 Calls to help make it really easy.

More Eco-Friendly Resources

Want to learn more ways to be eco-friendly? Check out these posts here on the site.

• 40 Frugal Tips for Sustainable Living
• The Best Eco-Friendly Cleaning Hacks
• Eco-Friendly Tips from 1950s Housewives

Looking for even more green living tips? Visit my other website Green Oklahoma. It’s not just for Oklahomans, it’s for anyone that wants to live a more eco-friendly life.