Imagine a world without trees or plants. What if the rain forests, and all of the exotic plants and animals that call it home, suddenly no longer lived? It seems impossible, but that was a real fear to some, especially one man in particular over fifty years ago. In 1962, Gaylord Nelson decided something needed to be done to protect the environment from air and water pollution. The work that he started led to what we now know as Earth Day. Founded in 1970 as a day to educate and promote public participation regarding environmental issues, Earth Day is now celebrated worldwide and is sometimes expanded into Earth Week, a full seven days of events focused on green awareness. Celebrated annually on April 22nd, Earth Day, reminds us to take time to appreciate the true beauty of Earth’s striking natural features.

On average, a typical American produces more than four pounds of garbage a day. Over the course of a year, that is more than 1,600 pounds of garbage per person. Some HOAs have size limitations and other rules about dumpster rentals so be sure to check the rules first.

Multiply that by about 300 million and you can see the toll that all that trash has on the environment. It’s not hard to understand that something drastic needs to be done about all of that waste. The concept of reducing, reusing, and recycling has been around for decades, but more needs to be done.  Of course things have changed from the past five years, with a large population drifiting towards “dry” and “wet” waste segregation. However, despite all the measures taken, a good amount of the population, still suffer to understand the importance and techniques involved in waste disposal. An article on How to Get Rid of Old Furniture in Austin provides a piece of information on the different ways to dispose off wood and old furniture. 

Earth Day is a great way to ‘go green’ and encourage yourself and others to take pride in Mother Earth and promote a cleaner environment for now and future generations

Statistics state that on average, United States organic waste is the second-highest component of landfills, which are the largest of methane emissions. The U.S. wastes 30-40% of its food supply, more than 20 pounds of food per person every month. Almost half of the food in the U.S. goes to waste – approximately 3,000 pounds per second.The recycling rate has drastically increased from less than 10% in 1980 to more than 34% in 2011, and it continues to increase each year.

Our world is in imminent danger and it needs our help. Our job is to make an effort to preserve its natural resources by taking action now to eliminate littering and pollution and inspire people to reduce, reuse and recycle. How can we, as caring students of Padua Academy  encourage others in our school community and everywhere we go to take more pride in our environment? Freshman Charlotte Bischof exclaimed, “My family recycles all plastic materials we consume each day. We have a separate recycle bin where we place items like water bottles, newspapers, and magazines to help the environment.” For starters, we can decorate posters as daily reminders to reduce, reuse, and recycle and post them around the school. We can also carpool to and from school to save gas and reduce air pollution. Freshman Claudia Matthews stated, “I occasionally carpool with some of my Padua softball teammates on the way home from practices and games.” We can adopt a highway and organize a day to clean-up the litter by the side of the road. Many people think that the simple action of recycling is not an effective way in saving the environment, but in truth, if everyone takes just a little bit of responsibility, then together we can protect the environment and save the planet for generations to come.