EarthDay In The Hood

Recycle Reinvest
Feb 1, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Mar 13

Some would say Earth Day is mainly a white person thing. An annual global event, observed on April 22, that celebrates the environmental movement and raises awareness about pollution and ways to defeat it.

I disagree this day as well as others in America is what you make it. As Americans we have the privilege of embracing or not embracing new things and manipulating it to our liking as we see fit.

For those who live with environmental problems every day—mostly low-income, minority, and indigenous populations in America and around the world—every day is Earth Day.

But for those of us who need some insight keep reading!

Reduce-

Legend has it that sustainable living is only for the rich. Making environmentally conscious choices has been inaccurately stigmatized as an option only available to wealthy people.

Through my experience, it’s quite the opposite. Here’s why. . . Instead of thinking “what things do I need to buy?” think “what can I reduce?”

The easiest way to cultivate a sustainable lifestyle is to reduce your consumption of toxic products, from brands with unethical business practices, and opt for products derived from the earth.

This shift in consumerism focuses on pairing down, so it doesn’t present a financial barrier to sustainable living.

While some sustainable purchases initially cost more, you’re investing in something that lasts a much longer time.Maybe its time to do a waste audit.

Living Green Insight

Go green while saving money. ...
Drive less. ...
Minimize air conditioning and other energy costs. ...
Reuse products. ...
Switch to do-it-yourself natural cleaning products. ...
Start your own garden or visit a community garden. ...
Shop your local farmers market. ...
Make some smart upgrades to your home.

Reuse Plastic Bottles:

Start collecting used 20 oz. plastic drink bottles from your house, community, and turn them into bug hotels for your garden. Using transparent bottles for construction, rather tin cans, will allow students to see what’s happening inside of each “room.”

Before beginning your hotel design, encourage students to become familiar with some of the beneficial insects in your neighborhood they hope to host; this will guide them in selecting the materials they include in their hotels.

Prior to building, be sure to familiarize your students with the critical contributions of insects in your garden.Plastic bottles are something that most of us use every day as water containers. But there are many ways of giving a plastic bottle a second life. Don’t recycle — reuse them! REPURPOSE- There are so many ways to repurpose items around your house, it just takes a little bit of creativity (and a little help from the internet) to perfect any DIY repurposing project. If you start implementing these principles into your everyday life, the difference you will have on the environment will become exponential.

Once you’ve perfected them, start sharing them with your friends and showing them all the ways they can easily reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose. Who knows, maybe you’ll pick up some new tips along the way!

Have an old t-shirt? Instead of throwing it away, cut it up into squares or rectangles and BOOM, you’ve got yourself new wash rags.
Have an empty milk carton? Poke holes in the top of the cap and you’ve got yourself a DIY watering can.
If you have any old jewelry, remove it from its base and hot glue a magnet to the back for new and improved fridge magnets.
Reinvent your old CDs into cool coasters for your coffee table.

RECYCLE -

Tennessee throws away $180,000,000 of recyclable materials every year. Recycling saves energy by processing fewer natural resources.

Recycling improves air & water quality (for example keeping plastics out of rivers). Recycling extends the lifespan of landfills (many of them are nearing capacity).

Without exception, recycling is the top action society can do to simultaneously improve: the environment, the economy, sustainable manufacturing and to prevent waste from going into oceans. Recycling is in a crisis in the U.S. due to public confusion about recycling. U.S. recycling levels are currently 21.4% (recent EPA funded Yale University Study)When U.S. recycling levels reach 75% it will be the environmental and CO2 equivalent of removing 55 million cars from U.S. roads each year.When U.S. recycling levels reach 75% it will generate 1.5 million new jobs in the U.S. (net).