It’s one of those good news, bad news kinda things. This year’s International Coastal Cleanup day was so popular that the CleanSwell app crashed. Oops. The app is run by the Ocean Conservatory group, and is used by people around the world to record how much trash is being removed from the world’s beaches. This is utilized throughout the year, but is especially busy during the annual coastal cleanup up day in September.
After not being able to record my results, I reached out to find out why. The response that came back was that so many people were trying to do the same thing, at the same time time; and so it overloaded the app. They fixed it, and I was able to record everything. However, can we just take a moment to acknowledge that it crashed because on that day, so many people cared about the Earth that they got up early on a Saturday, and went out to clean up other people’s trash? The only thing better would be if someone hadn’t left it out in the world, in the first place.
The early results show that almost 18.5 million people volunteered, and it resulted in over 383 million pounds of trash being removed from the oceans, and shorelines of the world.
If you missed out, don’t fret, you can still help by cleaning up, in and around, your house. Many local communities will be hosting a large item cleanup event in October. Check with your city officials, or your local waste management company for details.
LEGO recycling truck recently scene at a local Target store. Picture by Salena Wakim, do not reuse, duplicate, or alter without permission and credit
With all that is going on in the world these days, one might be forgiven for letting Earth Day slip their mind this year. Sadly, many will probably overlook it entirely, but now we should be revisiting the importance of this day more than ever. It’s time we returned out attention to Earth Day.
I won’t list all the eco catastrophies we’ve had in the last 12 months. For one thing you’ve heard it all before, and for another, unfortunately there are so many the list really wouldn’t fit in this space. Suffice it to say, there’s been a lot, and as such, there’s even more work to do to fix the situation. Despite the heavy need, there’s still so many other problems right now, that eco awareness is both higher than it’s been for a while, and yet equally not being acknowledged in everyday activities on a large scale.
Increasing awareness amongst all the generations is key to fighting this problem, but that is easier said than done. Various organizations and businesses have noticed though, and are wading in to help. This includes companies like Kleenex issuing a special ‘National Parks’ themed packaging line, Disney releasing their Earth Day centric reusable bag line, and LEGO putting out a Recycling Truck builder kit (see image above).
The semiannual Drug Take Back Day will take place on Saturday 4/27, just at the tail end of Earth Week, in an attempt to prevent not only drug misuse, but also to prevent unwanted drugs from ending up in our waterways. The EPA has a variety of online resources to help you teach your children about the importance of the day as well. There’s also some free Earth Day templates for you to use on Instagram, to help promote Earth Day awareness. Many private citizens will be out doing beach, forest, and park cleanups this week too. I know it might seem like the message is getting buried under the avalanche of bad news coming at us from so many directions, but it’s important that you remember you’re not alone. Others do care, and we all need each other to pitch n and help, if we’re going to succeed in making it better. The UN just put out a statement saying that we only have approx two years left to really mitigate any future to climate related problems.
So, regardless if you celebrate by attending an event, working on spreading Earth Day awareness, or by taking stock of your own eco street cred, the important thing is that you do in fact celebrate it, and pitch in.
This is just a reminder that the annual Coastal Cleanup Day is just around the corner. Make sure to check out what cleanups are going on in your area, and if one doesn’t exist yet, then perhaps consider starting one of your own. You can even use the Clean Swell app to help get it all organized.
It’s back again. Earth Day is this weekend, and yet you wouldn’t know it from the lack of hype revolving around this super important day. After the last couple of years, it seems that in many places, Earth Day has been pushed even further out of mind than ever before. Sure, the corporations and retailers of the world are taking advantage of the opportunity to talk about how green they are. However, there seems to be precious few community events at all. If you are determined, as I am, to not let that stop you from celebrating this day anyway, here are a few ways that might be available for you to get your green on.
Check in with your local garden center. Earth Day weekend is often utilized as a great time to encourage people to start their gardens. Many garden centers will be offering free gardening classes, as well as sales to help get you started. If you’re new to the garden thing, may I suggest starting small (perhaps with containers), and pick heathy looking plants (and leave the seed option till you’ve developed your green thumb a bit). If you happen to live near an Armstrong Garden Center, then you’re in luck, as in addition to the gardening class on offer this weekend, they’re also giving away free lady bugs with any purchase.
If you’ve read my column before, then you know I love a good library. Many local branches will earn that praise this coming week, as they are usually the best option for finding free Earth Day activities. What’s on tap this week will usually include such fan favorites as Eco friendly kids activities, Earth Day themed movie showings, and some will even be sponsoring Earth Day faires. Check in with your librarian to see what they have planned.
Several cities will be sponsoring neighborhood eco-waste events this weekend too. Most of these are free, but double check if the signs don’t explicitly state that! Take the opportunity to correctly dispose of unwanted electronics. You’ll reduce your clutter, while making sure nothing bad comes from anything you’re ready to get rid of. Many component get properly recycled, repurposed, and/,or reused this way.
Finally, if you can’t find anything of interest around where you live, you can always organize something yourself. One app that can help you with putting together a neighborhood clean-up is Clean Swell. If you’ve ever done a beach clean-up then you might have already heard of this, as many organizers have started using it to record their participants’ progress. However, you can use it as a private individual too, and it’s free. I couldn’t get to any of the larger group clean-ups in the Fall, so I used Clean Swell for the first time to put together a small group closer to home. It was easy, and didn’t take long at all to set up. You can even do a local clean up for just you and your kids if you want. Just type in where you’re doing it, and then choose if you want to record as you go, or do what I did, and record it all at once at the end. The app keeps track of it either way, and you get to see your progress increase the more you participate.
Whatever you choose, just make sure to have fun, and of course, remember why it’s called Earth Day in the first place. Happy Earth Day Everyone!
Good new Eco-wariors, this year’s Coastal Cleanup Day 2020 is still on, but with Covid-19 necessary adjustments. Each state will of course decide how to best make these adjustments, but here in California, the event is being spread out over several Saturdays instead of just one, and the number of locations has been increased to allow for more social distancing.
Each year people come together to help clean our beaches, parks, shorelines, and coastal shallows. With an ever increasing amount of plastics, and other garbage, entering the oceans every year, this endeavor is more important that ever. Luckily, even the Coronavirus can’t stop dedicated individuals from doing their part, especially now that there won’t be the danger of large groups congregating together while they do it.
For details about how your local Coastal Clean Up is going to work this year, just do a search for what’s going on in your state, if you live in California though, you can just look here for the California website.
The turkey was great, the sales were nice, and the nap is long overdue. Thus goes the Thanksgiving holiday for many people. What is stirring world-wide criticism, is that despite encouraging thankfulness, it seems that this holiday is instead turning out to be more and more about consumerism; which in turn promotes waste. If that doesn’t sit well with you either, then there’s still time to do something about rebooting this holiday weekend to have true meaning once again. There’s a movement that revolves around this idea, you might even have heard of it before, #GivingTuesday.
This year #GivingTuesday falls on December 3rd, 2019. The idea is a simple one. You simply chose to give back to the world around you, with the goal of helping to make it a better place. To help explain the idea, the official site for the movement has the following opening statement:
“GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.”
If you’re wondering if anyone still truly gives back these days, well it seems that they really do. Thousands of people participated last year, and millions more give back every day, with or without the hashtag as an incentive. Even large organizations make giving back a standard part of their operations.
For example, after this year’s PMA Fresh Summit 2019, the various produce marketers exhibiting there, collectively donated the produce that had just the day before made up their beautiful displays. According to the official press release that followed, it was announced that “Fresh Summit exhibitors donated 228,400 pounds of fresh produce to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.“ Not too shabby a boost in fresh food supplies to local food banks that were starting to gear up for the holiday season. Mid-October finds many people beginning to worrying about the coming expenses they will encounter for Thanksgiving. Those who benefited from this donation would surly agree that being able to take advantage of the fresh fruits, vegetables, and even things like potatoes, garlic, and herbs was a wonderful result of an act of giving. You may not be able replicate such a large donation by yourself, but there are many other ways you can help out.
With the holiday season now in full swing, there are plenty of food and clothing donations going on in every community in the country. If you can add an item or two into the bin, you’ve begun the “giving” process (at it doesn’t only have to happen on Tuesday to count).
If you can’t give a donation like that, there is always a need for volunteers out there. Check with your local schools, libraries, or houses of worship for volunteer opportunities, and sign up if you can.
If “giving” time creates too much of a crunch in your life (hey, we’ve all been there), then there are still ways to help out, which don’t take much time, nor do they even require any money.
One example would be Carter’s children clothing store, and their PJs drive. Working in partnership with the Pajama Program for the past 10 years, Carters has worked to get warm PJs out to those children who are in need, in local communities around the nation. Of course monetary donations to the cause are welcome, but they aren’t necessarily the only way you can get involved. According to the instructions on the Donate PJs website, all you have to do is take a pic with PJ the penguin in your local store, then post it on Instagram @carters, and tag it with #lovecarterspjs. From there, Carter’s tallies the totals, and “for every donation or social share up to 100,000 jammies, Carter’s will donate a pj, too!”
It may seem like a small act of kindness, but if enough small acts are done by us all, then maybe something big can come of it. If you don’t have a Carter’s near you, check with your other retailers, you’d be surprised to find just how many of them are running similar donation programs. For example, Ralphs’ Community Contribution Program offers the option of adding a local charity or school to your Shopper’s club profile. All you do is shop as usual, and Ralphs will donate a percentage of what you spent to that organization (it doesn’t cost you anything but the time it took to sign up). Check with your local grocery store to see if they participate too. If not, Amazon also runs a similar program, check with their customer service for details.
If none of those suggestions appeal to you, then maybe you could help out with a local beach, or park cleanup instead. These go on year-round. Just google it, and see when your local groups have organized one in your area.
You can also help out with a Citizen Scientist project, just check out their list of those projects currently seeking helpers. Some can even be done right from the comfort of your own computer.
However, if you want an option that is literally closer to home, how about checking in with your neighbors to see if they need any help hanging those lights, instead of just waving at them as you drive by. Any little bit can help. Take a moment, and give it a good thinking over. What can you do to help out? For more ideas, check out the #GivingTuesday website. Find something that fits best with want you can handle right now, and pitch-in. So, how might you be #GivingBack today?
(Image courtesy of California Coastal Commission)
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