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Community Corner

Pick Five Activities to Protect the Earth

Website asks individuals to join global push to help the environment by making small, easy to keep commitments.

Earth Day is quickly approaching and is less than two weeks away. Founded in 1970, Earth Day, April 22, is a day to promote awareness and protection of the environment.

Picking five Earth-preserving green activities that you and your family can do together is a fun way to celebrate the holiday together and to teach the importance of protecting the Earth’s resources.

 At EPA.gov/pick5, you and your family can choose five actions that you will commit to for the year to help save and protect the Earth’s resources. The actions/commitments that you can choose from aren’t really difficult things to do, but when multiplied by hopefully a great number of people, those small actions can make a big difference for our planet.

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 Make a commitment to save the Earth

The actions that you can choose from are divided among six categories: water, air, land, energy, waste and advocacy. For example, to help preserve water, you can choose to “Dispose of solid and liquid wastes and medications safely.” To help keep our air clean, you could “plant a tree. Or plant many trees.” For the land category, you could opt to “use pesticides safely,” and “reduce or eliminate where possible.” To conserve energy, you could “find alternate ways to reduce use of diesel and other fuels for transportation, production and energy," while under the waste section, you could recycles metals, plastic and paper. Meanwhile, under “advocacy,” you could start a recycling program at your place of employment.

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 My family’s choices

I went to EPA.gov/pick5, and these are the options that I chose for my family:

1. Water: “Use only the water you need, and reuse when possible.”

2. Air: Buy locally, or grow your own! Reduce air pollution caused by food and goods transport. (My daughters and I started vegetable seeds indoors the weekend before last, and we already have trays full of cucumbers, dill, basil and peas sprouting. Our tomatoes haven't sprouted yet, but hopefully, they will soon.)

3. Land: “Learn about composting, try it out!” (For my family’s vegetable garden this year, I am looking to use our own compost.)

4. Energy: “Save energy at home. Choose energy-saving appliances if they’re available. Look for Energy Star!”

5. Waste: Reduce. Cut back on the amount of 'stuff' that could later end up as waste.” (For example, I could use cloth napkins instead of paper ones and use fabric cloths when cleaning instead of using paper towels.)

6. Advocacy: “Talk to a friend about Pick5.” It looks like I already have this one covered!

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