17 Comments
Aug 29, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

My favorite go to tip is for those who menstruate; period panties!!! They are washable and I don't have to buy endless boxes of pads/tampons each year.

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Yes! Getting a menstrual cup was such a game-changer for me.

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Aug 29, 2023·edited Aug 29, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Thank you for this newsletter, as always. I know that there is a lot of data showing that recycling is not making a huge impact and in some cases (especially with plastic) it is not happening at all, even when we try...however, I am sort of obsessed with recycling. I sort all of my recyclables (and clean and dry them first) to either my local recycling center (where they are transparent about their process) or to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (Charm) in Atlanta, (where they recycle pretty much everything and are also transparent about it). I feel like in some small way I am keeping a lot of items out of the landfills, and hopefully making a teensy dent in reducing waste. In tandem with that, lately I have been better about beauty and personal care products--reducing the amount I buy and using ALL of what I purchase before moving onto something else. Another way I can reduce the amount of trash and consumption.

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Honestly, your recycling practice sounds kind of like a meditation. (And hooray for CHARM! They are great.)

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Aug 29, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Ah, I like that. It really is like a meditation. xo

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Aug 29, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Loved seeing an Atlanta CHaRM shout-out in this corner of the internet! Thanks to CHaRM, our household has also become obsessed with recycling. We have a whole corner of our garage dedicated to our various sorting bins that we then load into the car and take to CHaRM every month. That, combined with composting all our food scraps through CompostNow and trying to get as many of our groceries locally as we can through Fresh Harvest, has made me feel so much better about the impact I have on the environment.

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We are also a CompostNow family! Thanks for sharing these great ideas ❤️

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Aug 30, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Love this! I have a similar recycling station in my garage : )

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Aug 29, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Thank you for sharing this! As a mom to a 9-month-old, I have similar feelings of despair and fear about climate change and the world she will live in. I hope that by making daily changes, I will also be able to answer the question: What did my parents do to help the environment?

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It's such a good motivator!

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I have been following Marianne Williamson who as an author, in her own right has a huge following. She is running for president. She has posted “An Economic Bill of Rights: A vision for a Moral Economy. You can find it at https://marianne2024.com She is getting quite the following of younger people, and has let it be known just how much both of the last two administrations have NOT done for climate change even though they have paid lip service to them. I have met her in person a couple times, when she ran during the 2016 election period, and now. She may be small, but she be mighty! At this point, how much worse could a woman prez screw things up? If anything, I feel she is way more in touch with the living breathing Mother Earth than any male prez to date.

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Aug 30, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

A gentle suggestion: eating and consuming in general less (or no) animal products seems to help the earth a lot. And it's easy, and tasty, and healthy to do!

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Great suggestion. I eat a pescatarian diet and my partner is vegetarian. It’s really encouraging how much of a difference it makes!

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Aug 29, 2023·edited Aug 29, 2023Liked by Katie Hawkins-Gaar

Hi Katie.

I recently wrote about the climate crisis after experiencing the wildfires in Canada and seeing the massive wildfire that took out Lahaina (although haven't posted it yet.) The ONLY thing giving me hop at this point is the younger generation. The fact that your daughter and my grandsons are experiencing the world that is too hot and will force the change needed. I read with great interest the young people--teenagers, taking governments to court and WINNING! This is the game changer that we need. The young people that plant the seeds because they have hope. Thanks goodness for them.

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They plant the seeds because they have hope. That's beautiful. <3

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Thanks for the book rec and for writing about this Katie.

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Thank you, as always, for reading. xo

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