One Easy Thing - The Simple Action You Can Take to Help Fight Climate Change!

Apr 23, 2025

When I’m asked, “What is one climate action I can take to start making a difference?” I wish I had a simple answer.

But the truth is, it depends on a lot of things, like:

Where do you live?
What are you passionate about?
What skills, networks, and talents do you have access to?
How do you want to matter? In other words, what brings you joy?

However, there is ONE EASY THING we can all do that would start having a significant positive impact today. Let’s get into it.

*This post is sponsored by Mill.

Stop trashing your food

Did you know that food waste is the #1 thing in landfills?

Uneaten food makes up 24% of landfills, followed by plastics 18% and paper 12%.*

What most people don’t know is that food in landfills creates a ticking climate change bomb. Packed tightly without access to oxygen, food in landfills breaks down in an anaerobic way, leading to the production of a greenhouse gas called methane.

What’s worse? Methane has 80x warming power compared to CO2!

Not only are we wasting food that should be eaten, pouring unused resources, time, and labor down the drain, but we’re also significantly contributing to global warming with each uneaten potato or forgotten leftover dish we throw in the trash.

The good news is that although methane is a much more potent gas than CO2, it’s easier to get rid of. Unlike CO2, which “hovers” in the atmosphere years after release, methane evaporates quickly. In other words, the second we stop producing so much of it, one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases can start to decline.

Activate Your Climate Hero Power

Reducing food waste is one of our greatest opportunities to reduce climate change. And we can start today. What’s both shocking and empowering is that 50% of that wasted food happens in our homes, meaning we have the power to change this.

There are many ways to become a food waste climate hero:

Plan your grocery runs, and only buy food you actually intend to eat.
Don’t be afraid of leftovers - and be creative cooking up new dishes with what you already have (hey stir fry’s!)
Don’t fall for discount deals. If you won’t eat three of any given item, don’t buy three, even if the third one is “free.”
And for the things you do waste (there’s no way around this), make sure they don’t end up in your trash
Tyler Varsell, via New York Times

If you’re already a composting expert, I applaud and thank you for your heroism. If you’re new to the idea of separating your food waste, I invite you to give it some serious consideration. Composting your food is, in my opinion, the simplest and also the most rewarding climate action there is.

You can start today, the level of entry is low, and your trash won’t smell bad anymore (my husband’s favorite).

And, the best part, you’re both minimizing your negative footprint and maximizing your negative one at the same time. By reducing food waste from trash and allowing it to travel through its natural composting cycle, you create nutrients to help enrich the soil, hence closing the carbon cycle. There are so many wins!

Regardless of your current level of composting effort, let me introduce Mill.

Introducing: Mill

Mill is the odorless, effortless, fully automated food recycler.

Like a sleek and stylish garbage can, it’s even more impressive than it looks: it’s your very own food transformer. Toss in what you can't eat, and let Mill do its magic. You can keep filling it for weeks. And it never, ever smells.

Mill makes dry, nutrient-rich grounds that you can use in your garden, add to your compost, feed to your chickens — or Mill can get them back to a small farm for you.

What I love about Mill is that it helps me MAXIMIZE my positive climate impact in an easy, fun, and stylish way!

Let’s be real, we’re all busy...

And caring for the planet and the future shouldn’t feel like a heavy burden; it should be fun. So although there's no ONE solution to combat climate change, Mill makes it easy for my family to make a big impact, starting right at home.

Check Out Mill

*This post is sponsored by Mill. Use any link inside this article to get $75 off!

So, this Earth Day, quit trashing your food.

If you do it with a Mill, in a backyard compost, or with a service that picks up your food waste to compost it for you, join the easy and no-brainer climate solution that will allow you to drastically minimize your negative climate impact while - at the same time - maximize your positive one. Let the carbon cycle complete itself and be part of the regenerative revolution.

What are you committing to this Earth Day?

Some eye-opening stats...

Across the country:

Less than 5% of our homes' uneaten food is composted (EPA 2019).
Less than 12% of U.S. homes have access to municipal composting (BioCycle).
Each year, we use a Canada-size area of land to grow food that’s never eaten. (NRDC)

In New York:

Curbside composting has rolled out across the city — and fines go into effect on April 1st. Only 4.6% of all organic waste in the five boroughs was composted through the fall.

Globally: