By Steve Davies,
Healthy Planet Columnist
For me, spring is officially here when Earth Day is here. It’s the time when I, like so many people, start to get outside and enjoy nature. Earth Day 1990 was part of my inspiration for taking care of nature. By 1991, I was working for the Missouri Public Interest Research Group as an organizer for St. Louis Community College at Meramec, helping to continue to educate others on how to make a difference for our planet.
Fast forward to today and I’m still trying to help educate others on how to make a difference, this time, through articles about how to reuse, reduce and recycle all that we can.
I know sometimes that those three R’s can be a bit much. For example, some stores use plastic bags that can indeed be recycled but, I also know, that’s also not always the case. In fact, some of those bags have no number on them at all. Whenever I go shopping, I always make sure to reuse my own bags.
Next up is reducing and I think that this one can be a little harder than the others. Something that I enjoy for example, is tea and so I prefer to buy tea bags instead of bottled tea. I can simply make a large batch of it and then pour it into small glass bottles that I’ve acquired over time. That way, I only have the tea bags and in fact, some brands use bags that you can also compost.
Now last, when I do go shopping with my reusable bags for things I need these days like dish soap or juice, I look for those that are made by environmentally friendly companies and if they do use plastics, they are only 1’s and 2’s as these are the most commonly recycled plastics today. If you turn the bottle or container upside down, you can usually see what the number is. Of course, for me, what I like to do is look for items that come in glass or metal.
So, as my son and I continue to pick up trash wherever we are, recycling what we can and doing our small part, we will also continue to hope that others do so as well. That way, when I’m out in nature taking pictures, I can take pictures that, hopefully, are only of nature and all the beauty that it offers. Of course, if I do find trash while I’m out, I’ll make sure to pick it up.
For questions or comments you can reach me at thprecycler@yahoo.com