This Thursday, April 22nd is the 40th anniversary of the first “official” United States Earth Day celebration, which was April 22, 1970.
I am not a crunchy hippy or an Earth Day “pro”; I just try to do the best I can by making conscious decisions everyday to do my part in taking care of our environment.
Quite honestly, I haven’t done everything that I could be doing to help. There are some easy things that I should be doing. Things that I have been meaning to turn into habits. Things that I have put off due to pure procrastination. So, maybe I’ll make a few changes starting now.
Recycle. Don’t hate me. I know this is a big one. I just haven’t made recycling garbage a habit at home. I never bothered to get a recycling bin. This has been eating away at me for years. Ok. Get a recycling bin is on my list of things to do this week.
Use my reusable shopping bags. I have so many reusable shopping bags. All I need to do is get them into the car, so that I remember to bring them into the store along. Again, other things have taken priority. I so want to use my reusable shopping bags though (I have some really cute ones). Ok. Put reusable shopping bags into the car is on my list of things to do this week.
Those are my top priorities this Earth Day. There are other things that I already do, like using our cloth diapers more exclusively, turning off lights when leaving the room, not littering, and recycling ink cartridges, clothing and other material items.
We’re already big into reusing things. I shop on local yard sale sites, Craigslist, EBay and Amazon when there is something that I really want to buy, especially baby items. I don’t mind buying gently used toys. I’m all about giving back and listing them for sale when we’re done with them. I also donate to Goodwill a handful of times every year.
Since Hailey is now more conscious of things like recycling and conserving energy, I know we’ll make a great team. She will be my inspiration. I think this week, we’ll try to focus on eating healthier food and buying locally. There’s a local farmstand that I’ve been meaning to go to for a very long time. Guess what? It opens for the season on none other than, April 22nd. Earth Day. Perfect.
I think we’ll take a walk around our outside area and pick up debris. We went for a walk over the weekend and I was so disgusted by all of the garbage blowing around. This is something that truly irks me. I don’t like my neighborhood looking trashy (slight pun intended).
Oh, want to know what else I do? Whenever I buy a six-pack of pop that is attached by those plastic rings; I cut them up when I’m ready to throw them away. This is something that I have done for as long as I can remember. I think about sea life and them getting caught in those rings. Have you seen Happy Feet? Nuff said.
On that note, I saw some Tweets last night about a whale that washed up on shore near Seattle. The gray whale had a bunch of trash in it’s stomach. How sad and avoidable.
You know, I really dig Earth (again, slight pun intended). I want to do what I can to make this place livable for my kids and their kids and their kids and so on. I’m trying to set a good example for our little people.
Here are some links from Yahoo! Green that you can refer to while you’re helping take care of our Earth:
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Day 20 – NaBloPoMo
I love the idea of setting just a couple small goals in honor of Earth Day. A few little changes are the first step to making a big difference. I’m going to start a paper recycling bin (which my little “artists” will gladly, unknowingly contribute to on a regular basis) and start buying more organic food. Thanks for the inspiration!
I thought I was the only one who struggles to get those reusable bags in the car! Love the pic of your kiddo and artwork.
I’m proud of you Amy. I feel as though your following in my footsteps. I do all of the above. If everyone did just a few of those suggestions what a better place this earth would be. Love you !!!
I love your honesty and the clear, achievable goals that you signed up for. I feel like admitting the things you don’t do green nowadays is almost like admitting that you don’t bathe your kids! But if we all could get off our soap boxes and just embrace the little things we do, then we would all be motivated to do more.