On Earth Day, the focus is typically reactive: promoters urge consumers to recycle their waste and give away things they don’t need so they can be reused.

While these are great ideas, the most effective way to help heal our environment is to consume less. If your recycle bin is overflowing with plastic bottles before the end of the week, it’s likely a sign you’re consuming too much. Not too much water but too much plastic. So instead of recycling your waste, make less of it. Drink water from the tap from a cup or bottle you already own.

The same attitude can be applied to many aspects of consumerism. Do you find yourself donating bags and boxes full of clothes and other unused items to charity? While the donation feels good, maybe you don’t need to purchase so many material goods in the first place.

Americans need to learn how to live on less. When we think ‘reduce, reuse, recycle,’ we usually react to the ‘recycle.’ The first and most important concept on the waste hierarchy is reduce. If everyone learns to reduce more, reusing less and having less to recycle will naturally follow.

If we can train ourselves to survive on fewer materials, the automatic result is less waste being produced.

After a giant boom of overconsumerism where everyone bought the biggest SUV they could find and built homes with more rooms than the White House has and generally went on consumer overkill, it’s time to step back and cut down.

Virtually everyone is guilty of buying more than they actually need, and the best way to combat this habit is by being conscious about what goes into your cart. The economic crisis should be convincing enough for consumers to buy less and realize exactly what they need to survive on. Try to consider if you actually need everything you buy, and decide where you can cut back before you reach the checkout.

Residence-hall living is also a great way for students to realize what little they need to live. Students who live in the residence halls are provided with very little space in which to live, forcing them to pick and choose what they can bring to campus and what they have to leave behind.

Use these ideas as prompts for switching to a lifestyle that consumes less. Reduce how much you consume but don’t just do it for Earth Day. Changing your lifestyle will help everyone live more comfortably.

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