Ways to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day at Home

COVID-19 is causing anything from mild inconvenience, to economic devastation, to potential life threatening illness.  In this challenging time of shut down and stay-at-home orders, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day with parades, conferences, and group gatherings isn’t possible.  Despite being confined mostly to our homes, we can still observe Earth Day 2020 and use it as a springboard to making better choices for our own health and the health of our planet.  Here are some ways that I’m honoring the earth today and plan to for years to come.  I hope you’ll join me in making these steps!

Participate in Recycling Efforts  

I regularly contribute to my municipal recycling stream by recycling only what is allowed by my municipality and cleaning recyclables of food residue.  Recently, I called my borough waste collector and found out that they do take aluminum foil as long as it is clean, so anytime we cook with foil or get take-out wrapped in foil, I give it a little scrub in some soapy water and let it dry out before recycling.  It seems a little ridiculous, but aluminum is easily recyclable and I feel good about not throwing it away.  With the increase in food takeout we have been doing to support local businesses, we have had several pieces of foil each week go into the recycle bin instead of the trash.  If you are unsure about what can be recycled, visit your municipality website or give them a call.

Besides municipal recycling streams, companies are increasingly offering take-back schemes for a variety of household products.  Terracycle partners with many companies to recycle things from deodorant containers to Brita filters and rewards points for each shipment that can be redeemed for charitable causes including clean water, land preservation, and feeding the hungry.  I am currently collecting waste for several recycling programs:

• Tom’s of Maine Natural Care program collects plastic toothbrushes, soap wrappers, floss containers, deodorant sticks, and mouthwash bottles and caps.
• Gillette Razor program accepts all brands of plastic shaving razors.
• Just yesterday Terracycle announced that BIC has started a writing implement recycling stream so I immediately signed up to collect pens, mechanical pencils, highlighters, and gluesticks.  I probably have 50 dried up dead pens scattered around the house, hiding in the recesses of the junk drawers and the old school bags. 

  

• REI, Terracycle, and Subaru have also teamed up to recycle snack bags and wrappers.  Clean snack bags (I just rinse them with water or wipe up any residue) can be dropped off at REI stores.  Even though most stores are closed due to COVID-19, I have a growing stash of snack wrappers in my basement ready to be recycled when things reopen. 

If you are interested in contributing to these recycling programs, please leave a comment or contact me using the link on this website!  With kids home from school, now is a great time to collect snack wrappers and dead pens and dried up gluesticks.  The more of us who recycle, the better it is for our environment and our communities.  

Install a Rain Barrel to Conserve Water

Camel’s Hump Rain Barrels is a local Chester County company that recycles barrels from the olive industry and turns them in to beautiful red rain barrels.  This is my first rain barrel but I am impressed with the quality that I have observed so far – the barrel is food grade so I don’t have to worry about using it to water my vegetables, it holds 58 gallons, there is a brass spigot that won’t corrode, each fixture has hose thread for attaching overflow hoses or one barrel to another, and the lid and overflow ports are screened with mesh so bugs and debris stay out of the barrel.  With a few downspout elbows, screws, and a short piece of hose ordered online, I was able to install my rain barrel a few weeks ago.  I have two planter boxes full of onions (that was all the plants I had at the time!) and have watered them and my compost pile daily from it without ever turning on our hose water line.  I hope to install one or two more barrels that will water my future raised bed gardens throughout the summer.

Grow My Own Food and/or Shop Local

Food is often grown far away and transported to your supermarket using energy-intensive refrigeration and transportation.  Of all the salad greens sold in the U.S., 75% come from California, which is a long way (almost 3000 miles) to keep that cold chain transportation going to the northeast.  Many greens like lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, and arugula are easily grown in containers and can be grown whether you have a big yard or none at all.  I have decided to try and grow foods we most often get from the store, including broccoli, zucchini, onions, lettuce, bell peppers and tomatoes, to name a few, and lessen some of the fossil fuel inputs required to bring foods to our area.  I just set up an indoor greenhouse in my basement for my seed-starting trays that I am in love with, complete with heat mats and grow lights on timers for low-maintenance seed starting.  We intend to create raised beds this year but I could expand my indoor setup with a few fluorescent lights and grow more food indoors if I wanted to.  I’m also making more of an effort to buy produce and meats from farmers I trust who are using regenerative farming practices and treating their animals humanely.  The local Farmer’s Market has been great for that so far, and I may look into joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program depending on how successful (or not) my garden is.

Go on a Wildflower Walk

Earth Day is also about celebrating the wonders of nature, and in spring Mother Nature rewards us with tremendous displays of color painted on intricate blooms.  Going for a spring wildflower walk in the woods is like a scavenger hunt, keeping your eyes peeled for the beauties hiding under dappled shade and other foliage.  This post shows a variety of native wild flowers that can be found in the southeastern PA region.  While we should still be practicing social distancing, we can get out and enjoy our open spaces responsibly and enjoy the colorful bounty of spring.  You don’t have to go far – some can be found right in your backyard or nearby open space.  

Make Greener Choices in the Bathroom

Given the difficulties with buying toilet paper in the last few weeks, I’m really trying to conserve TP by counting my squares and resisting my childhood tendency to unravel the entire roll with each wipe. But there are more ways to be green in the bathroom than just reducing excessive toilet paper consumption.  I’m also trying to use less water by flushing less often when going #1 (if it’s yellow let it mellow!) and have been saving 3-4 flushes per day, which saves 5-6 gallons of water each day when using a 1.6 gallon per flush toilet.  We have an older toilets with a larger flush volume, so I may try the trick to place a brick or some other large object in the toilet tank to fill the toilet with less water per flush.  We have also gotten some feedback back from members of our gym who have installed bidets and are loving them, so that may be in our future…

What changes are you making in your life this Earth Day?  I would love to hear your ideas and goals!