3 things you can do today, 3 reasons why you should
1. Bike or walk
Leave your car at home. If you can stay off the road just two days a week, you’ll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds (721 kilograms) per year [source: EPA]. Combine your errands — hit the post office, grocery store and shoe repair place in one trip. It will save you gas and time and get your heart rate going.
2. Reusable stuff
Water bottles, grocery bags, sandwich bags, and more. By using reusable items daily, you are able to make a BIG impact on trash in your own home. If you use a water bottle for one year you are saving the planet from over 365 plastic water bottles (drinking one bottle a day, hopefully you drink more water than that. One reusable grocery bag can save hundreds upon hundreds of plastic bags from entering our oceans. Package your lunches in washable containers. Similar to plastic grocery bags, sandwich bags, and snack bags can be replaced with reusable containers.
3. Energy conservation
Lots of little things make a big difference in conserving energy. Buy appliances with ENERGY STAR labels for the home and office. Carpool to work. Turning off and unplugging items in your home and work. All these things help reduce air pollution.
The EPA has great tips to help reduce air pollution
https://www3.epa.gov/region1/airquality/reducepollution.html
Why should we do any of this?
1. Our landfills are in trouble
The rate of waste disposal in the modern day is increasing at an alarming rate. This rapid increase translates to accumulation and subsequent overflowing of landfills. Space for waste disposal can run out if a solution is not found. Cities situated near oceans have been polluting the water for many years due to landfill overflow. The oceans cannot entertain this habit anymore. The only way is recycling. As much as 60-75% of waste occurring in landfills can be recycled. This technically means that if everyone made a point to recycle, we would have 65-75% less land for waste moving forward.
Did you know
Up to 1100 pounds of waste is able to be recycled every year per person. That represents a half a ton per individual. This means a family of four can minimize waste by more than two tons each year just by the easy task of recycling.
2. Helping Wildlife
Increased use of recycled products puts a break to the exploitation of natural resources like forests, rivers, lakes and wetlands, which are natural habitats for wildlife.
3. Stop the spared of deadly diseases
Poor disposal and accumulation of waste in landfills leads to the emission of toxic and infectious gasses. If these gasses are inhaled over time, they may lead to wide range of respiratory diseases such as asthma. Also, if the toxic liquids draining from landfills find way into water sources, infectious diseases like diarrhea, typhoid, and dysentery could spread.
Conserve energy future has great tips and resources to help answer any questions
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-landfills.php
Ultimately finding ways to help our earth is not too hard. There are many companies that thrive on saving the earth. These companies promote clean energy. Clean energy is energy renewable energy. Its made with no pollution, it is energy that is created from the earth’s natural resources. Driving electric vehicles, or solar-powered homes makes a HUGE impact on the environment. Tesla, Cree, and Enphase are a few companies that thrive on renewable energy. One local company, Inty Solar, is passionate about our earth and making sure that solar power is attainable for everyone.
