By Steve Davies, Healthy Planet Columnist
So, with Earth Day coming up, I thought this would be a good time for me to maybe step back in time. That time starting in 1990. That was the first year I got involved in Earth Day and while my role was limited in the beginning, I later became the student organizer for colleges and universities all across the state of Missouri. It was also my first chance at seeing how students can make a difference for the environment.
Fast forward to now, and as a father with three kids, I’ve been given the chance to raise them with those same values that I saw in those students back then. To help them to become the same kinds of young adults, who also care about this planet. My youngest and I have taken many a walk the last several months in numerous parks here in the St. Louis area and even a few in Minnesota this past summer. There we Identified various trees, from those that are native to even those that are invasive. My middle child is a veterinarian, hoping one day to work with horses like the ones she worked with when she was young. My oldest, as I think I have said here before, lives with me and helps me with the three R’s here at home.
In between, I worked for the Missouri chapter of the Public Interest Research Group as a campus organizer on the St. Louis Community College at Meramec campus right after my Earth Day experience. Later I started my own recycling company called Sun Recycling to help small businesses recycle in the St. Louis area. Now I’m writing a monthly column for The Healthy Planet to help others reuse, reduce and recycle. I guess in a way, you can say I’ve come full circle. So, thank you Earth Day and here’s to Earth Day 2026.
For recycling questions email me at thprecycler@yahoo.com