Happy 51st Earth Day, fellow humans!
Earth Day is the largest secular holiday in the world and is celebrated by over a billion people in 192 countries. Here are 5 simple things from earthday.org you can start doing today to honor our home.
- Take reusable bags to the grocery store.
Did you know that 4 TRILLION plastic bags are used each year worldwide? And only 1% of these are recycled. That means we're sending a whole lot of plastic bags to landfills, where they will stay for lifetimes. - Switch to reusable water bottles.
38 billion water bottles make their way to the landfill each year and, unfortunately, only 30% of these bottles are downcycled. - Plant a bee-friendly garden.
Bees perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. 70% of our top 100 food crops, which represent about 90% of the world’s nutrition, are pollinated by bees. So, show some bees that they're bee-loved! - Give up the gum.
Chewing gum is made from synthetic rubber, which is plastic. Around 100,000 tons of this plastic is thrown away every year. - Stop getting junk mail.
Seriously, who doesn't want to stop unwanted junk mail? It's estimated over 5.6 million tons of paper junk mail is sent to the landfill each year. To eliminate credit card promotional mailings, call 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5OPT-OUT) or visit https://www.optoutprescreen.com/.
Want more?
- Here are some individual actions you can do and virtual events you can attend.
- Read Earth Day from Gale in Context for some Earth Day history.
- Watch Silent Spring, which discusses the book that brought environmental issues into public awareness.