Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

First, I want to thank everyone that entered the Earth Day contest. I received some great ideas to protect the environment. Here are some of the responses that I received:

From Casey in Bristol, CT:  Recycle, carpool, ride a bike to the grocery store.

From Ginny in East Hartford, CT:  Use paper bags.

From Karen in Vernon, CT:  Picking up garbage that someone/workmate might have left near you. Don’t leave it for someone else.

From Sadie in Middletown, CT:  To reduce the use of plastic cutlery, people should purchase a travel set that also has a metal straw.

From Katie and Jacob in East Hartford, CT:  Throw away garbage instead of leaving it on the ground.

From Marlott in Hartford, CT: Recycle!

From Krissy in East Hartford, CT:  Use more everyday recycling like buy reusable straws.

Not only do I want to incorporate these suggestions into my life, I thought of some other things I want to do as well.

1. When there is a choice between an air dryer and paper towels in a public restrooms, use the air dryer. This will take some getting use to. Sometimes I feel that paper towels dry faster and more thoroughly, but it is impacting the Earth.
2. Reusable shopping bags!!! I see shoppers bringing their own bags to the grocery store and I look at the in awe. I bet they don’t have 100 plastic bags at home just taking up space. And later those 100 hundred plastic bags are going to be taking space in a landfill. What’s stopping me? The reusable bags are so much sturdier than plastic bags, and they look better, too!
3. Redeem cans and bottles for deposit. Now, I already recycle cans and bottles, but redeeming them for the deposit may be better. Since I raise money for American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the money I receive from the redemption, I can donate to the AFSP.
4. Reusable Straws. My iced coffees will taste just as delicious if I use a metal straw, won’t it? Plus I can probably find some cool looking reusable straws somewhere.

I’m sure there are many other things I can do for our planet, but this is a start.

Now, the contest. The winner of the Spread Love Reusable Shopping Bag is...

Congratulations, Karen!!!