On April 22, 2009, people around the world celebrate Earth Day. This day is set aside to think about how we have affected the surrounding environment and what we can do to change it. However, these go beyond using bins for recycling for a day.

The popularity of Earth Day has grown enormously in recent years and is essentially the birthday for the environmental movement. To celebrate, people join forces around the globe in an attempt to change the collective consciousness of the world’s population about how we perceive and treat Mother Earth. Shifting a global perception may seem like an overwhelming task, but even very small action can set a chain reaction of global change into motion. Simple changes such as implementing recycling bins at home or work, becoming educated on planetary health, volunteering, and spreading the word can make a big difference.

Earth Day — How It Started

People once enjoyed their Sunday drives and basking in the resources pillaged from various ends of the earth. Until the 1970s, there was very little focus on the environment. That is until Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, finally had enough with wasting resources. He decided to stand up and suggest that the government and its people stop having a good time and start realizing what was really happening to the environment.

In response, 20 million people came together on April 22, 1970 all over the United States to demonstrate to the world they are tired of seeing their planet being destroyed. They demanded that officials start standing up and making the changes needed. While this had a positive effect, it wasn’t repeated again until 1990. That year, 141 countries participated in the event, increasing the use of bins for recycling and many other important steps.

Earth Day — Activities In 2009

The celebrations this year are helping people gear up for the event’s 40th Anniversary in 2010. The theme in 2009 is ‘The Green Generation Campaign, which will include a focus on three main concepts. The first Earth Day concept is how the world can move away from the use of fossil fuels. The second concept is getting individuals to live an environmentally neutral lifestyle. Lastly, it is transforming the economy and educational system into one that is green and environmentally responsible, which includes ensuring every household has access to bins for recycling.

Many of the major U.S. cities organized numerous events including concerts from some of the biggest names in the music industry. Other cities around the world including Tokyo and Manila also participated. Together, activities planned during the entire month of April presented people with a large variety of fun, awareness, and education. You don’t have to attend one of these events to be a part of Earth Day; you can hold your own event and use provided materials to educate others.

Getting Involved In Earth Day

Recycling bins are an excellent example of the many ways to get involved in Earth Day. Considering collecting a few bins for recycling to gather materials such as bottles and cans, or selling bins for recycling as a fundraiser. Helping others learn how to use recycling bins efficiently will also have many long-term environmental benefits. Additionally, get children involved by letting them decorate their own personalized ‘blue box’ recycling bins.

Earth Day is a great opportunity to make your daily lifestyle greener. Make a list of all the typical things you do in a day and include the resources and waste accumulated for each item. Once the list is completed, look at each line item and determine how to make each one ‘greener.’ This might include using natural light more often, using energy efficient appliances, using bins for recycling on a daily basis, or alternative transportation methods.

As one of the leading providers of recycling bins in Toronto, Earth Day is everyday for us at Waste Wise Products. Earth Day may only last for 24 hours, but the education and awareness should last all year around. Only then can we make a real difference.

Photo by Anna Duncan Art

Have you ever bought a bottle of water, juice or some other beverage? What did you do with the container? Many of us would say we dropped it in one of the nearby recycling bins, some would even say the garbage, a few of us will admit to throwing it on the ground. It doesn’t hurt anything, right?

The Problem With Plastic Bottles

The plastic bottles that make it to recycling bins are processed into new products, and that’s a different story altogether, but it’s the ones lying on the ground that are of concern. These make their way to our waterways where they are carried off by the current. They collect on beaches where children play and where animals live or come for a drink.

Lids float, and as birds, such as albatross, fly above, it sees them as food. The birds pick them up and take them home to their young to eat, which they do. As you see in the movie, thousands and thousands of these baby birds are dying with bellies full of bottle caps. What about the retainer rings? Those aren’t any better. Animals get them caught him their tails, necks, and bodies. These animals will die, become seriously ill, or lose limbs.

Bet You’ve Eaten Plastic!

What about those bottles that not only don’t make it to recycling bins, but also don’t even make it to the shore? Instead, they break into tiny pieces along the way. The small little pieces float in the water, creating a toxic soup. Fish ingest these little pieces where the chemical leaches into their body. We catch and we eat the fish digesting the chemicals along with it.

Why are these chemicals a concern? One chemical found in plastic is known as BPA, which studies have linked to prostate and breast cancer, uterine fibroids, and infertility. Children are not immune to these chemicals either; many cause learning and developmental problems.

Antimony is another plastic chemical that is known for causing nausea and dizziness, depression and even death if you get enough of it. Health and environmental experts believe that these toxins are a big contributor to a lot of the common illnesses and conditions. Recent studies have even suggested some of these chemicals attack Y chromosomes in the earliest stages of animal and human fetuses, causing a severe decline in the number of male children and animals being born. If this trend continues, we could essentially be looking at the end of humankind.

Putting An End To Plastic Problems

Stop buying plastic bottles. Stop throwing garbage on the ground. Stop ignoring bags and other pieces of plastic lying on the ground. Pick them up and get them into recycling bins so they can be reprocessed. Every piece that we save from reaching our waterways may save an animal or even us. Recycling bins are around, so be sure to use them.

No doubt about it, this is a serious problem. Our biggest problem is fixing it. The only way we can repair this is to stop promoting the use of plastics. If you do buy plastic, make sure you get something you can reuse. When it’s time to be thrown away, make certain it goes into recycling bins. Now that you know that the cost of a bottled beverage is far more than a couple of bucks, maybe that next one won’t be as tempting.