While the 1970s brought us a host of interesting cultural artefacts, among them bell-bottoms, platform shoes, the Vietnam War, and roller rinks, the “Me” decade brought with it one notable event. In 1969, John McConnell, a peace activist, proposed to the National UNESCO Conference a global day of celebration of our planet’s beauty and to foster peace on Earth. Earth Day was born and the first celebration occurred on March 21, 1970.
Nearly 50 years have passed since that premier Earth Day and there’s so much more that each of us can do today and every day to steward the planet on which we live. However, there are easy (and might I even say fun!) actions you can take to make the planet cleaner and safer for you and the next seven generations.
The Three R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
While the history of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is murky, it’s clear that the practice has worked to become a mainstay in the American psyche. People young and old know the phrase born out of the Seventies also, but most don’t practice all three R’s. So, let’s start practicing what we say each Earth Day with the first R–reduce.
One simple act you can take to reduce every time you go shopping at the store is, do you really need that plastic or paper bag? Many times, we go to a retail store and purchase one or two items and walk out with two or more bags. Some retailers have a practice of double-bagging items that simply don’t need to be and bagging items separately when one or less bags are needed.
Another straightforward option is to bring your own shopping bag wherever you go. There are two options here: you can buy your own reusable shopping bag to take with you wherever you go, or don’t use a bag. If you purchase a gallon of milk, do you really need a bag to carry that to the car, and then from the car to your home? If you do, then by bringing your own bag for it, you’re saving the planet one bag at a time.
If you want to geek out and learn how recycling works, check out this great explanatory video from SciShow below.
Use a Glass Bottle for Water
As Annie Leonard illuminates in the Story of Bottled Water video above, bottled water costs approximately 2000 times that of tap water, loses consumer taste test after taste test, and is less regulated than tap water. (Oftentimes, bottled water companies simply take tap water, add some minerals for taste and then, you guessed it, they bottle it and sell it to you for exorbitant prices at retail.)
For your wallet and your health, pick up a reusable, glass water (or BPA-free plastic) bottle from your local retailer. By carrying around your own water and refilling it at the tap at the office or home, you will save significant amounts over what you’d normally pay for bottled water, and you’ll be drinking cleaner water. The added benefit is to the environment. Drinking from your own glass bottle means bottled water doesn’t need to use oil to manufacturing and delivery, and plastic bottles don’t end up in landfills around the globe (since about 77% of plastic bottles don’t get recycled).
Even better, take time to install a water filter in your home and request the same at your office. A new trend is self-serve water bottle filling stations in the community, allowing you to easily refill your glass bottles. The National Park Service has sought to adopt as well. The Grand Canyon National Park is one excellent example of how the park service is seeking to transition from plastic water bottles to reusable, glass bottles. Recently, the Administration has rescinded the directive to implement the transition but several national parks had already implemented the self-serve water bottle filling stations.
Change your Light Bulbs to LED
Back to your wallet, it’s estimated that Americans use about $330 per year in electricity costs for lighting. And, with incandescent light bulbs, that means we’re replacing them roughly every year at a cost of a dollar or two per bulb, or about $30 per year. The price of this has changed over time as compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs have become more popular and consume about half the electricity as incandescent bulbs.
At twice the price, and them lasting more than six times the lifespan of incandescents, it is an easy cost-benefit analysis to switch to CFLs. But, CFLs contain mercury, a highly toxic element to your health and our environment. So, as engineers realized this, the lighting industry and government regulators continue to advance CFLs even though they aren’t the best for us or the planet.
Well, the times are changing and technology has garnered a new option for upgrading your lighting at home while saving the environment this Earth Day. With new light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, you can get a bulb that can last six times that of CFLs, cost one-half of the electricity, and has no toxic elements.
With an investment in getting your light bulbs changed this Earth Day, you may not need to change many of your light bulbs for decades, and you’ll be contributing to helping your environment at the same time.
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Keep in mind that while others are unaware of the impact of their actions on the planet, every year more and more generations are being raised to understand the importance of protecting our environment. With small actions, taken consistently in your everyday life, we can turn the tide of polluting the Earth to one of stewarding it for many generations to come.