Reduce

Cut back on use of plastic.

One of the easiest ways to help keep the earth clean is to reduce or cut back on single use plastics such as straws, plastic silverware, plastic water bottles, plastic lunch baggies and more. Many of your daily actions can be slightly altered to help reduce your impact on the planet. To reduce your impact on the planet you can opt for reusable containers when packing your lunch, a reusable water bottle that you can simply refill, use a paper straw instead of a plastic one, etc. Remember, plastics take hundreds of years to degrade in the environment. When a water bottle eventually breaks down, it turns into "microplastics" which are very tiny pieces of plastic that end up in our waterways and are then accidentally consumed by aquatic wildlife and fish. This is harmful to animals as they are mistaking the plastic for food and not getting any nutritional value from it. Plastic is made up of oil and other chemicals that are harmful to health if consumed. 

 

 

 

 Old Fashioned Human Power. Walk or ride your bike instead of having someone drive you to reduce air pollution and global warming.  

 

 

 

 Conserve Water. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth to conserve water resources. What are some of the other things you can do to conserve water? Calculate how much water you use by visiting this Water Conservation calculator from the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

 

 

Other tips:

 

• Switch Patrol. Make it a habit to turn off TVs, computers, and lights when not in use.

• Be a Thoughtful Shopper. Plan ahead. Remind the shoppers in your family to take their own reusable bags to the store to save paper or plastic grocery bags.

•Don’t Brown Bag it, Box it! Use a lunchbox instead of paper bags. Use reusable containers instead of plastic bags. 

 

Reuse and Recycle are next!