Earth Day: Celebrate All Year Long

Welcome to Earth Day! What started over 5-decades ago has evolved into a worldwide celebration. Earth Day began to bring awareness to the issues threatening our planet’s health, focusing on how we can preserve and protect our natural resources.

Make it Easy! Your Earth Day activities might be as simple as: 

• Learning more about recycling and composting
• Committing to keeping our planet clean and thriving
• Discussing topics like global warming and pollution 

We each have the power to build a healthier planet for our kids and grandkids, and with just a few tiny tweaks to our daily routines, we can effect huge change! 

FUN FACT:  We celebrate Earth Day on April 22, not just in the U.S but globally. It’s incredible to think that the entire world will be celebrating the health of our planet on the same day. Talk about unity!

And the best part? Earth Day activities are fun, build healthy lifelong habits, and also happen to be educational : )

You can easily participate from home with your kids and grandkids.

• Visit a national park. Many national parks are now offering virtual tours. Why not make the most of staying home? You can fly over the Grand Canyon in the morning and look up at the giant trees in Sequoia National Park in the afternoon! Pretty cool, right?

• Start a garden or plant a seed jar. Teach your family about growing things and how good it is for the air and earth. BONUS benefit... homegrown fruits and vegetables are so flavorful, your kiddos might even learn to love eating healthy! 

• Make a bird feeder. Encourage your local feathered friends to visit with fresh birdseed and a birdbath, then make a game out of how many different birds you can identify. 
  

Earth Day doesn’t have to be limited to home-based activities.

You can raise awareness at your workplace with a few fun team building activities:

• Gift each employee a reusable straw or coffee cup to cut down on waste, and challenge them to use one or both for an entire month.
• Share copies of earthday.org’s Action Toolkit so your co-workers can choose how they want to get involved
• Start a contest to see who can recycle the most plastic or paper. The winner gets a reusable coffee cup or a shirt made from recycled plastic.
• Offer to compost coffee grounds collected from your office break room. Good for your garden too! 
  
  
  

FUN FACT: Did you know you can compost more than just food scraps? Yep! Shredded paper, yard and grass clippings, leaves, sawdust, dryer, and vacuum cleaner lint are all compost-worthy.

 Volunteer to support environmental activities all year long:

• Pick up trash through your state’s Adopt-A-Highway program or in your neighborhood. Invite your friends and neighbors to join you too. Your community will be spiffy clean, plus you’ll get some exercise and get to know your neighbors.
  
  
• Get involved with an environmental protection group or nature protection program. Check online for organizations that have educational programs and activities.
  
  
• Host an educational program or activity in your community. Local organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Girls and Boys Club, or scouting organizations are often looking for activities to host.
  
  
• Shop and support environment-friendly businesses such as jewelers who use ethically sourced metal and stones (like Kristen Mara!), small grocers that promote reusable bags and containers, and boutiques that sell carefully curated items made by producers aiming to reduce carbon footprint.

Click here to check out one of my best sellers, cast in certified 100% recycled silver and bronze. 

 
Celebrate Earth Day at home every day:

• Wash and reuse plastic baggies and choose reusable storage bags or containers. Many options are available, including silicone bags and beeswax cloths that are ideal for storing food and keeping it fresh. I love Bees Wraps!

• Choose eco-friendly toiletries, including shampoo and conditioner bars that eliminate plastic containers.  Two of my favorites: Treefort Naturals and HiBar.

• Wherever possible, choose glass containers over plastic. I love picking up a crate of seltzer in glass bottles each week from our local, eco-minded bottling company Hosmer Mountain.
  
  
• Don’t toss your scraps! Start a composting practice for your vegetable and fruit waste, and also coffee grounds or loose tea.
  
  
• Use reusable bags for grocery and other shopping. Nearly every store now has these available, and it’s fun to collect all the different ones!

FUN FACT:  When glass is recycled, it’s turned into new, usable glass. Not the case for plastic bottles which get recycled into something else. Whenever a product is packaged in a plastic bottle or container, all new resources went into making it, which puts more pollutants into our air and water.  

Taking care of our planet doesn’t start and end on Earth Day. Make it an ongoing practice to do your part.

Even if you commit to just one or two things (which is my favorite way to make change) small steps add up quickly. Every little bit counts!

Imagine a healthier and well-loved earth, thriving for generations to come. It’s so worth it!!

Take a peek inside my studio to see how I practice ethical sourcing by using recycled metals: Click here >>