Today is Earth Day, a day of recognition that began in 1970 to celebrate our Earth and find ways to help the environment.
What are some ways you can celebrate Earth Day? Here are a few suggestions:
- Spend the day making your home more energy efficient. Replace old insulation around windows and doors and change older light bulbs to the newer, energy-efficient bulbs. Not only will it help the environment, it should save you a few dollars in energy costs.
- Plant a tree. Besides looking beautiful and providing cool shade on hot days, trees help scrub the air and provide clean oxygen.
- Participate in a cleanup. Take part in a city, county or organization’s cleanup. Or just walk around and clean up the neighborhood.
- Use less plastic. Ditch the plastic grocery bags by taking your own bag to the store for groceries. Do without the plastic straws. And go for products that use more environmentally friendly packaging, such as cardboard.
- Reuse and recycle. Most cities in our area have recycling programs, or you can often find recycling bins near area groceries or at local recycling centers. Take advantage — you can significantly reduce the amount of trash you throw out each year by recycling aluminum, plastic and paper/cardboard. That reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills.
