Earth Day, celebrated on April 22, is a day to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect our earth’s natural resources for generations to come.
Earth Day can be a day when people become more aware of the damage they are doing to the environment and become more cautious about the resources they use. Most of the harm to the environment is caused by fast fashion, things going to waste, or using poor or harmful energy sources.
“[With fast fashion,] there would not be [as] much of an impact on the environment [with] the use of cotton. There can be some impact from artificial fibers if there are high percentages of human created chemicals that are involved in their production," Zoology teacher Christopher Schmidt said.
Fast fashion and trends go and come, and a lot of people will switch up their entire wardrobe just to fit into changing societal standards. Not feeding into all trends and sticking to a basic, higher quality wardrobe would help reduce the global carbon emissions produced by fast fashion.
“Know what you are consuming and where it comes from. Do not depend on someone else to tell you what you should consume,” Schmidt said.
It’s important for everyone to know what they consume because it could potentially cause harm to the environment or to the physical health of the person. Being able to do research and figuring out what best suits the needs of the individual can be much more rewarding.
Another way to reserve and protect the earth is by being more willing to recycle and reuse things like bottles, food containers, plastic bags. Also an alternative to using plastic bags would be to use reusable grocery bags.
“I would advise you to find the cost benefit analysis of what you would like to recycle. Is the product you would like to recycle something you can recycle on your own via composting or reusing something for another purpose?” Schmidt asks.
Be mindful of whether it’s more expensive to recycle or if it’s possible to do it in compost piles, where the earth naturally shuffles through and processes waste. Reuse things like glass and plastic bottles and even grocery store bags. Send things like bananas, other fruits and vegetables, used tea, and even egg shells to compost sites, like Green with Indy and Earth Mama Compost.
“Know the product, the producer and how they produce the product. Make choices based on what you know of the earth and how it works,” Schmidt said.
There are a lot of harsh and dangerous chemicals that go into household products for everyday use. A lot of brands do actually steer away from using these things while still giving the home an efficient enough clean. Reading into the labels and knowing what the product consists of can lessen the risk of chemical poisoning or waste buildup in the environment due to harmful chemicals in plastic containers.
“Earth science should be a required course for all and rarely is,” Schmidt said.
Most times it will put lots of the environment at risk just by simply being unaware. Doing research and finding out what best suits the cause a person is looking to benefit can really help save the planet. Doing things like volunteering for clean up, reusing and recycling, planting trees, reducing the use of harsh chemicals, and many more could help the process of getting the planet back to good health.