One Small Change: 5 Easy Ways to Make Greener Choices This Earth Month

Person viewed from behind standing at a wooden table with small potted plants and gardening tools, with the words ‘One small change’ on a blue background.

What’s one small change you can make towards sustainability?  

Earth Month is a great opportunity to look at how our everyday choices impact the world around us. From the products we buy to the habits we practice at home, small decisions add up in ways we don’t always notice right away.  

At London Drugs, we believe in a world of greener choices—where all it takes to get started is one small change. Whether you’re exploring eco-friendly products, building sustainable living habits, or making more environmentally friendly decisions, Earth Month is the perfect time to begin your journey toward sustainability. 

Why “One Small Change” Matters

Green swaps should be simple, sustainable, and easy to maintain. If you take an all-or-nothing approach, it can quickly become overwhelming. 

The goal is to find manageable ways to build into your routine—small shifts that align with what you already do. You might walk instead of driving short distances or keep reusable bags in your car for grocery runs. Building on those habits and pairing them with accessible green products and sustainability programs at London Drugs makes it easier to keep going. 

5 Easy Greener Swaps 

If you’re not sure where to start, these simple swaps make it easy to incorporate more eco-friendly products and environmentally friendly habits into your routine: 

 

  1. Go Reusable

Single-use items are convenient but contribute to landfill waste. Switching to reusable options, like Stasher sandwich bags, reusable grocery bags, and Papaya Reusable Paper Towels, are some of the easiest and most impactful green choices you can make.  

 

  1. Choose Refillable & Low-Waste Products

Switching to refillable or low-waste options helps reduce waste over time and supports long-term sustainability. Try eco-friendly cleaning products like Tru Earth Laundry Strips or plant-based cleaners from Method 

For personal care, simple swaps like Dr. Bronner’s soaps or Native bodycare can reduce unnecessary packaging while supporting more environmentally friendly ingredients. Unbleached parchment and food wraps from If You Care, or everyday paper products made from bamboo, like Caboo tissues and paper towels, can also help reduce your environmental footprint.  

 

  1. Shop Greener Options

Checking labels for responsibly sourced ingredients or lower-impact packaging can make a big difference over time. Look for everyday items like plant-based beverages from Oatly, responsibly sourced coffee from Level Ground, or snacks from MadeGood. These small choices support broader environmental sustainability while making it easier to stick to your goals. 

 

  1. Recycle More Effectively

Contamination and improper sorting often prevent materials from being recycled. Rinse containers, sort items properly, and take advantage of expanded sustainability programs. London Drugs accepts items that don’t always go in curbside bins, making it easier to make environmentally friendly disposal decisions. 

 

  1. Adjust Small Daily Habits

Consistency creates impact. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth, washing laundry in cold water, and unplugging unused electronics can all reduce energy and water use.  

 

Support Your Journey with London Drugs 

Making greener choices is easy with the right support, and London Drugs offers several ways to get started. 

London Green highlights products that meet environmental standards, so you can shop confidently for green, eco-friendly alternatives. London Green’s sustainability programs make responsible disposal simple and accessible, with in-store recycling programs that accept a wide range of items, including: 

  • Electronics and small appliances 
  • Batteries and light bulbs 
  • Ink and toner cartridges 
  • Phone cases 
  • Medications and health products 
  • And more! 

These programs go beyond typical curbside recycling, helping you manage waste more responsibly. Select locations also feature refill stations, like the Store 56 Refill Station, where you can reuse containers for everyday essentials and reduce single-use packaging. 

Together, these initiatives make it easier to take your first step—and keep going. 

How to Participate in Earth Month This Year

Choose your one small change by picking something realistic and compatible with your routine. Focus on consistency over perfection, and give yourself time to adjust before adding something new. Remember: each small step contributes to a bigger shift toward sustainability. 

You can also inspire others by sharing your journey. Post your #OneSmallChange on social media to help spread awareness and encourage others to make their own green choices. Tag London Drugs on Instagram to be part of a growing community working toward a more environmentally friendly future, one small change at a time. 

A World of Greener Choices Starts with One Small Change. 

Widespread, imperfect action is far more powerful than a handful of people doing everything perfectly. Real change happens when many individuals take small, manageable steps toward environmental sustainability. 

London Drugs is here to support your journey with eco-friendly products, accessible sustainability programs, and simple ways to build more sustainable living habits into your daily life. Shop greener choices and see what you can recycle at London Drugs.  

 

 

How to ‘Green’ Your Photos This Earth Month

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… Re-live.

This April, do more for Mother Earth than just turning off the lights. Earth Month is a great opportunity to start making greener choices that will last a lifetime. Display your wedding or vacation photos on sustainable surfaces, and they will survive years to come, look great, and give you peace of mind that you’re helping the planet.

Don’t forget about recycling your old photos, either. Diverting those from your trash will make you feel like a sustainability superstar!

Bamboo Prints

Being environmentally friendly never looked so good. Our bamboo prints are made with 90% bamboo, a highly renewable resource, making it a great option for ‘greening’ your photos. The fibrous texture of the bamboo gives your images an incredibly unique look, with vivid shades, a crisp matte finish and maximized resistance to aging. The next time you’re choosing a print surface, try this durable, nature-approved solution guaranteed to stand the test of time.

Recycling Your Old Photos

Digitally saving and restoring your photos is without a doubt the best way to ensure memory preservation. As technology grows and changes, converting to digital can free up space in an attic of old shoe boxes, and reduce the risk of harsh damage due to temperature, humidity and dust. But what do you do with your hard copies after your holiday, honeymoon, or first day of school is saved to a disk or USB? As long as they’re digitally printed copies, you can likely recycle your old photos with the rest of your mixed paper recycling.

Not sure if your photos are of the digital print variety? Do a simple tear test! By tearing a corner of your photograph you’ll notice that it either tears clean, or in layers. Consider a clean tear a green light to recycle the photo.

If you also have old metal film canisters kicking around, those can be recycled too. In addition to your small appliances, batteries, laser cartridges and old photos, we will accept metal film canisters through our What’s the Green Deal? Program.

Let us at London Drugs help you reduce your memory footprint!

Enter for Your Chance to Win a Burt’s Bees Lip Kit

Celebrate Earth Day with us and show some 🖤 to the lipstick that loves you back!

These Burt’s Bees lipsticks are hitting our shelves late spring! Want to be one of the first to try them? Enter our Twitter contest for your chance to win this amazing lip kit, valued at over $180!

Enter for your chance by:

      1. Heading to this post on our Twitter feed
      2. Giving it a Retweet
      3. Following @LDBeauty_

Contest closes April 26. 3 winners will be chosen at random to receive 1 Burt’s Bees lip kit. Winners will be announced on Twitter on April 27, 2017, and will receive a DM from us. See rules and regulations here.

Earth Day Giveaway: Win an Emani Cosmetics Prize Pack

We’re celebrating Earth Day with Emani Cosmetics, and you could win a prize pack of their most popular eco-friendly products!

Emani Cosmetics is a line of eco-conscious beauty products that are vegan, gluten-free, cruelty-free, and natural. The formulas are also 100% talc-free, paraben-free and free of petrochemicals and other irritants. Plus, their packaging is even made of recycled and biodegradable paper. They’re the perfect way to eco-fy your makeup routine for Earth Day!

Here’s how to enter our Emani Cosmetics giveaway:

  1. Follow @LDCosmetics on Instagram
  2. Leave a comment on one of the Emani Earth Day Giveaway Instagram posts

The Emani Earth Day Prize Pack includes: 1 Emani Primer Serum, 1 Emani Organic Soy Mascara, 2 Emani Lip Shine Lip Glosses, and 1 Emani Sculpting Pressed Blush.

 

Contest closes at 11:59AM PST Sunday, April 24, 2016. The winner will be chosen at random. One winner will be chosen from all Instagram entries.

4 Eco-Friendly Beauty Brands to Try this Earth Month

April is Earth Month, and while many will celebrate by making the effort to recycle a little more, start to compost, or help clean a park, how about making some sustainable choices when it comes to your makeup routine too? Our Beauty Advisors have chosen the best eco-friendly beauty products and tools from London Drugs that will make you feel good about what you’re putting on your face.

 Eco Tools

Eco Tools

You can eco-fy your makeup brushes too! Eco Tools’ line of makeup brushes are earth-friendly from top to bottom. The handles are made from bamboo, a low impact material that is highly sustainable, and the metal ferrule is created from recycled aluminum. Eco Tools’ synthetic brush bristles are also 100% cruelty free. Even their brush cases are sustainable, made from natural cotton and hemp, or reusable and biodegradable EVA plastic.

 

Burt's Bees

Burt’s Bees

Burt’s Bees has been a long-time favourite of lip balm lovers, but did you know their products are made from 97% natural ingredients? Plus the majority of their packaging is made from recycled content! They’ve also trimmed excess packaging by as much as 50% on some of their packaging. Burt’s Bees has even committed themselves to a policy of sending zero waste to landfills at their plant – a big move to help lighten our carbon footprint. If you haven’t given their brand new 100% natural lipsticks a try yet, Earth Month is the perfect time!

 

Physician's Formula

Physicians Formula Organic Wear

Physicians Formula has created an Organic Wear line, which promises 100% of the total ingredients are from natural origin. All of the products are also free of harsh chemicals, synthetic preservatives, parabens, GMO’s and synthetic colours and fragrances. Each product boasts its own eco-friendly features, from 100% recyclable mascara brushes, to certified organic ingredients (like this bronzer). The Organic Wear line is also 100% cruelty-free!

 

Make the switch to these ‘green’ beauty options, and your skin (and our planet) will thank you!

 

 

Going Green: Harness the Power of Kids

Green recycle kids

Keeping the earth in great shape is a job for us all, young and old alike. And when it comes to recycling, kids can go green with no problems at all–with just a little guidance. Here are four ways to help your kids be kind to the planet–while having a total blast.

Make it a game: can it be recycled? Reused? Composted?

Make it a game: can it be recycled? Reused? Composted?

Host A Clothing And Toy Swap

Collaborate with other parents to recycle outgrown clothes and toys. Help everyone sort things by size or type (all the games and puzzles over here!) and see what treasures you can dig up. Afterwards, have some boxes and bags set up so you can drop off anything that didn’t find a new home at a worthy charity.

Make A Game of Post-Dinner Chores

Get your cleanup crew in gear with a cleanup sorting game: can it get recycled, composted or reused? Stoke competitive fire by promising a small prize or treat to the first to get everything put away. Track how much garbage you’re generating and see how your household improves over time.

Make Playtime Eco-Friendly

Is that garbage, or a crafting opportunity? Often old cartons and containers can be repurposed through glue, paint and a child’s imagination. One creative child we know transformed an old (and well-rinsed) laundry softener bottle into an Egyptian pharoah’s headdress, so the sky’s the limit here. Need some entry-level advice? Find those unmatched socks and take a look at this sock puppet guide from the masters of Muppetry, Sesame Street.

Families relaxing go green

Think ‘experience’ rather than ‘object’ at gift-giving time.

Think Green In All Things

When you’re planning a birthday party or a family vacation, brainstorm ways to minimize garbage. Consider giving experiences rather than things for birthdays and holidays. Go for bike rides or picnic in the park. Seek out environmentally friendly after school activities.

The best way to motivate your children to recycle is to demonstrate eco-friendly ways of living, and encouraging them to participate in green initiatives.

In general, creativity combined with a sense of fun make an eco-friendly childhood a snap. Before you throw anything away, consider if it could be reused or recycled in any way. By using fun and participatory activities, you can teach your kids how to recycle and tread lightly on this earth.

London Drugs aims to double recycling during earth month

Retailer applauds everyday green heroes who helped keep over 10 million pounds of waste out of landfills in the last year

VANCOUVER, B.C. – London Drugs today announced aggressive recycling goals for Earth Month aiming to double the amount of materials recycled in stores over April last year.

“More than 52,000 kilograms of waste including electronics, Styrofoam, cardboard and other materials were recycled in stores last April. This year we hope to see a 100 percent increase,” says Maury McCausland, Administrator of Retail Operations and Sustainability for London Drugs.

With many Canadians taking part in spring cleaning during the month of April it is a perfect opportunity for customers to collect their old electronics, light bulbs, batteries, cell phones and other recyclable items and drop them off at any London Drugs location.

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