Today, Thursday, April 22 marks Earth Day. Earth Day is a day to raise awareness to everyone about climate change and global warming. The theme changes every year and this year it is “Restore Our Earth.”

Even though Earth Day is a day meant to better the environment, it does not mean that we cannot do it any other day. There are quite a few activities that you can do today that you can also put into your everyday life. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Courtney Rodrigues, my sister and a member of the community, enjoys making DIY items out of items within her household. One of her biggest hobbies is growing plants and gardening. 

“I save all the containers for plants, egg cartons, and seeds from vegetables to repot all the seeds from my vegetables in my kitchen.” She then continues, “We get the five dozen packs of eggs from Costco, then I label each carton and see which ones will grow.”

Besides reusing egg cartons, she also refurbishes wood. “Anything we’ve taken apart, any wood that’s salvageable we either reuse it or we send it to the high school for the kids to use it.” Some of the items they have made with wood include shelving, benches, and planter boxes. They have also reused glass to make pots for succulents. 

Rodrigues also goes through marketplaces such as Facebook Market, eBay, etc. to refurbish furniture and even sell anything she does not need anymore.

“I pass [items] along to the next person. We sold our bricks, wood, and even dirt to those who will also refurbish the items.” 

Cleanup, Donate, Plant

There may be many times where you’re driving or walking and spot a piece of garbage lying on the ground. Picking up some of these small pieces of trash can do a lot for the community. Brian Smith, a member of the community, does this when he goes camping. 

“We would send the kids out with garbage bags and they had to go clean up around us.” He then continued, “Always leave it cleaner than you found it.” Even when they walk trails, they keep a trash bag and gloves on them to pick up as they go. 

With the garbage you collect, you can either throw it away or turn them into eco-bottle bricks. Eco-bottle bricks are plastic bottles compacted with plastic, trash, anything that is hard to recycle or decompose, into a brick that is used for building. Lindsey Ouk, another journalist within The Signal, has an in-depth article explaining how to make them and where to donate them.

While we need to clean up as well, we also need to give back to the Earth. There are many sites to look up that allow you to donate trees, whether it would be for national parks, your community, or even places that suffer from fire damage during the summer. 

Hopefully, these ideas may help you give back to the Earth on Earth Day and every day after as well. Thinking about and implementing some ideas could help make a difference to our Earth.