Earth Hour demonstrates just how easy it is for people all around the world to reduce their energy consumption. Earth week is coming (April 18th to 25th) and I hope everyone is still challenging themselves to change a habit and help the earth. Start using those reusable mugs we all have hidden away on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard. Many local coffee shops will give a reduced price when you use your non- disposable cup. Going out for dinner? Take along a glass bowl (with a lid) to bring the leftovers home, don’t let the restaurant give you styrofoam. Take your reusable grocery bags shopping with you, keep them in the car so you won’t forget. Make an extra effort. Small changes are what we can do everyday. But don’t stop there. Feeling a little more radical? I’ve started leaving the overpackaging at the store. After an item is paid for, just leave behind the packaging. Eventually, with encouragement from all of us, and complaints from the retailers, the manufacturers will stop the overpackaging. This is the beginning of “extended producer responsibility”, a plan that requires the manufacturer be responsible for an item for its entire lifecycle and a big step toward zero-waste. It doesn’t hurt to be responsible for our own small piece of the planet.
We hope everyone will participate in some way in making Earth Week (also National Pitch-In Week) a huge success.