Earth Day won’t exactly be the most idyllic spring day this year, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed.
There’s always the traditional Earth Day activities, like planting trees and flowers or picking up litter in your neighborhood. (If, instead of doing your outdoor celebrations Thursday, you wanted to put them off until Friday, when the weather is a little nicer, we wouldn’t blame you.)
Then there are less traditional ways to observe Earth Day, like taking time to examine your foodprint (the environmental impact of growing, transporting and storing food) or your use of non-biodegradable materials, such as plastics, or your recycling habits. Because as lovely as planting a tree is, creating sustainable and environmentally friendly habits has a far greater impact on our planet.
Sustainability happens at the intersection of individual and corporate choice. We know how hard it is to escape plastic: It’s everywhere, especially in the time of COVID, when everything was — and to some extent, still is — designed for single use to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Grocery stores had to reject reusable bags and stick with plastic ones. Restaurants survived on plastic containers. Coffee shops had to go back to single-use cups. So on and so forth.
Unfortunately, we lost a lot of the progress we’d made toward more environmentally friendly practices.
But even before COVID, it was nearly impossible to avoid plastics. Nearly everything we buy is packaged in it; our clothes and shoes are made with it; our household supplies are made with it. Plastic is everywhere.
As consumers, we can be more cognizant of what we purchase and where. We can decline a plastic drinking straw. We can opt for reusable bags at stores. We can ask about BYOC (bring your own cup) policies. We can choose products that use little to no plastic packaging. We can choose tap water over bottled water. We can make a greater effort to use decomposable paper products instead of plastic ones. And, of course, we can make the effort to recycle (properly, mind you) whenever we can. (Refer to our Earth Day article on April 4 for what can be recycled and how.)
We can also patronize businesses that employ environmentally friendly practices and refrain from supporting businesses without sustainable policies as much as possible.
This is where we hit that intersection of individual and corporate choice. When, as consumers, all our choices for a product we need comes with plastic, then we don’t have a choice at all. But we can encourage the businesses we support to make the changes we want to see. Locally owned stores will be more likely to accept customer feedback, but even big chains can be persuaded to make adjustments if enough patrons make suggestions. So don’t hesitate to call or write or email big box stores and let them know about the sustainable changes you’d like to see. And when you can, back it up with your wallet by not spending money there until modifications are made.
And when businesses don’t want to listen, we can turn to our elected representatives. Sometimes change requires greater pressure than can be applied strictly by consumers, particularly when there are few to no alternative options for a product. Sometimes we need legislative action.
As Earth Day brings into focus all the facets of modern life that negatively impact the environment, reach out to Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin and Rep. David McKinley and tell them to support legislation that encourages companies to implement environmentally friendly and sustainable practices.
