Make Every Day Earth Day!

It’s wonderful that there’s a special day designated as Earth Day, which we’ll celebrate this week.  But at our organization we believe that EVERY day is Earth Day!

You can make one small change today that would make a significant difference – plastic bags, for example.  It’s easy to come home from the grocery store with several plastic bags, both from produce and from check out bagging, even if purchasing just a few things.  Food Lion estimates that if one household brought one reusable bag for each shopping trip, it would eliminate over 120 plastic shopping bags per year!

The common single-use plastic bag is lightweight and easily blown around parking lots and out of trash cans. They are the modern day tumbleweed.  They accumulate in the landscape, block storm drains, and can be very dangerous to wildlife.  If you have been saving some, you can use this search tool to find a location near you that accepts plastic bags for recycling.

Yet plastic bags can be easily eliminated by swapping reusable mesh bags for produce bags.  Here’s an Etsy store in Virginia that sells many sizes and styles of produce bags and other useful items.  Looking for a place to buy reusable checkout bags?  Most grocery stores offer them for sale near the checkout area, and I bet you can find a bag with the logo of your favorite sports team or college online.

If you’re already using reusable plastic bags – thank you!  You are doing a great service for scenic Virginia and aquatic and other wildlife.  Are you ready to take it to the next level?  If you want to know how to get your zero-waste journey started, Keep America Beautiful has the resources and tools to do it.

You can make every day Earth Day, starting with today!