adminEarth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which day events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It was first celebrated in 1970, and is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network and celebrated in more than 193 countries each year.
The first Earth Day was celebrated April 22nd of 1970 with an estimated 20 million people nationwide attending festivities. This grassroots event was spurred by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, who said “We only have one earth, so we need to take care of her.” He was disturbed that an issue as important as our environment was not addressed in politics or by the media.
The explosion of this grassroots movement eventually lead to national legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
Today is a great day to choose to make just one small change in your life that will be better for our earth.
Here are a few easy ideas.
- Use paper bags at the store or bring your own. That includes using reusable bags for produce or skipping the bag all together. There is no rule that says all your produce has to be in a bag. You can find produce bags on Amazon.
- Speaking of Amazon years ago I started going through their Smile link. Its the exact same Amazon BUT qualified products actually help you donate to the charity of your choice. Heres the link: www.smile.amazon.com
- Recycle every thing you can. Our city has a new plastic recycle system so we are able to recycle a lot of our plastics. Choose to not use plastic straws. There are some great straws also on Amazon.
- Choose glass or cans for drinks. Many plastic bottles don’t recycle and they take FOREVER to break down. And instead of buying bottled water get a reusable water bottle. If you don’t like the taste of your water use a filtered water pitcher.
Now I have some other ideas that are just a little bit more work but in the end they will have a great pay off.
- Use cloth napkins or bamboo paper products. Bamboo grows faster than other trees. Seventh Generation even has toilet paper that is 100% recycled. I haven’t tried it yet but I will next month. Another great TP company is “Who Gives a Crap.” They donate 50% of their profits to build toilets for those in need.
- Cloth diaper your children. I have twins and we cloth diaper about 90% of the time. Diapers take a LONG time to break down in the landfill (I think somewhere around 400 years).
- Buy second hand toys, and clothes. If everyone in the US bought one used item instead of new, we could save nearly 6 billion lbs of carbon emissions — which is the equivalent of removing over half a million cars from the road for an entire year.
- If you’re in the market for a new car look into getting a hybrid or a fully electric car. My husband and I own a Kia hybrid. That car has been one of the best buys we made. I only wish there was a car that was electric and big enough to haul all the stuff I have to.
Ok I’ve given you some ideas. What do you do thats “green”? I always want have more ideas to work into my own life. Leave me a comment about what you’re doing for Earth Day.
