Educated by Earth Month

Earth Day. April 2021. Team challenge. $250 donated. 25 pounds of trash removed from the ocean.

Every so often, I collaborate with three coworkers to plan a month-long charity challenge for our team at work. In celebration of Earth Day, our April 2021 challenge focused on being environmentally friendly. I made a list of 23 "green" tasks each team member could complete once and eight of us joined in each pledging $0.25 donations every time someone completed a task. We decided to support 4Ocean, a nonprofit that removes a pound of trash from the ocean, rivers, and coastlines for every $10 given, and works to stop plastic pollution before it happens by educating people about choices and behaviors that lead to pollution.

My goal was to complete all 23 tasks - an average of one per work day in April. I succeeded, but along the way something unexpected happened: I started to care more about the environment. Now don't get me wrong; I wasn't careless before... I previously had habits of recycling, turning off lights when I left rooms, and other things of that sort. But one of the tasks - to learn about any topic related to being environmentally friendly - took me much further than I foresaw. Maybe it was the YouTube algorithm doing its job of keeping me on its site, or maybe I was avoiding a household chore at the time, but I stuck around to learn way more than I had set out to.

I listened to professionals talk about microplastics, the United States' historic practice of selling used plastic waste to China, our over-abundance of plastics waiting to be recycled, and the way plastics degrade chemically when they're recycled. I was shocked to learn that most plastics can only be recycled 2 or 3 times before the quality has decreased beyond the point of reuse. The life span of plastic's usability is quite short and yet we continue making more and more for unnecessary purposes! There is a huge plastic problem in America that cannot be solved by recycling. The root of the issue is that we need to be more responsible with our materials decisions. Just because something is quick and cheap to make doesn't mean it's the best choice. Watching these videos gave me a new sense of urgency about our waste problem. I want to help reduce it!

So what can I do that I haven't already been doing? I'm going to be more proactive about unplugging appliances (like my Kitchen Aid mixer) between uses. I recently purchased a retractable clothesline to run the length of my basement so I can hang clothes to dry. I now go out of my way to buy products that have fewer plastic wrappers when possible. I read the info on my county's recycling website and will use this new knowledge to recycle my broken microwave at the correct facility, save and recycle materials the recycling truck doesn't collect, and educate my friends. I believe sharing what I learned with others is a huge step along the road to reducing our waste problem because widespread understanding of the problem will help us share the burden. Just this week I shared what I learned about the lifespan of recycled plastic with three friends, and they were all surprised and eager to stop contributing to the problem.

A major effort I'm making to be environmentally friendly is in my crafting. I'm being even more careful about using every little scrap of paper for my paper projects (still recycling the tiny, unusable pieces) and going out of my way to upcycle trash and recyclables into pieces of art. My current project is to turn plastic and glass jars into decorative potion bottles, but one of my favorite upcycling craft projects so far is a necklace box I covered with old Starburst candy wrappers! The colors makes it fun, and the Starburst pattern gives the box new dimension it didn't have as a white box.

I'm now saving empty jars, bottles, spice containers, boxes, and toilet paper tubes but also taking a second look at anything that's about to be thrown in the trash to see if my creativity can give it a new life. I know I'm only one small drop in a bucket toward solving our nation's (and world's) waste problem, but as this progress and attitude is shared with others, soon my one drop will become buckets and buckets until we make a wave that changes the world.