I won’t spend too much time on talking about Earth Day. I am sure everyone is already being bombarded with articles, events and rants related to this topic. There shouldn’t have to be an Earth Day, we should all be contributing daily. Here are a few easy things you can do today & preferably every day!

1. Eat a vegetarian/vegan meal (I know there are meat eaters amongst my readers so I wanted to mention it). If meat eaters made a commitment to eat vegetarian meals 2-3 times a week, they’d be making a BIG difference.

2. Leave your car at home. Walk, rollerblade, skateboard, take public transit or cycle to work as much as you can. If you must take your car, try to get at least 4-5 people to drive with you.

3.  Bring your own containers and mug. If you like to drink take-out coffee and food, bring your own containers and mug.  I recently discovered that the Starbucks tumblers never leak, i haven’t found another one quite so amazing. I got it for free after telling them I forgot my own mug, couldn’t find one at the dollarstore therefore they decided to give me a large soy latte and the mug, free of charge. Not sure how I scored that.   Here it is: http://www.starbucksstore.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=181473 

4. Host a craft party and make cool stuff using recyclable items or make your own green homemade cleaners to share!

5. Donate money to a non-profit organization such as WWF, Greenpeace or a local organization which helps protect the environment.

6. Pick up trash: Walk around your local park or neighbourhood streets and pick up trash! Clean up our nasty streets

7. Plant a Tree:  You can get really cool Tree Growing Kits here: http://www.jonsteen.com/prostores/servlet/Search?category=Grow+Kits (USA)
http://www.treecanada.ca/site/?lang=en&page=shop&action=details&vid=2 (CANADA) -$1.50 per kit!

8. Unplug everything in your  house that you don’t use on a daily basis. You wouldn’t believe the savings and energy saved.

9. Eat dinner by candlelight while listening to the radio (I use my Eton crank radio but you can use any radio with rechargeables) Make sure to turn off all the lights and electronics in your house too. (I am trying to do this daily in the evenings). Think Earth Hour Do you know that if you unplug your tv sets at night while you’re sleeping, you would save 296,000 kwh per day?

10.  Make your own cheap & easy worm composter :  http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYONE!!

PS: Winners of the Earth Day Contest will be contacted tomorrow. I will be picking winners tonight. If you haven’t already entered you have till midnight EST. See earlier post for how to enter!