In honor of Earth Day, let's celebrate a healthy planet and reflect on ways we can reduce our impact. Here is our Top-10 list of actions you can take at home to celebrate Earth Day:
- Get outside and enjoy our beautiful local nature areas like our beaches, parks, and hiking trails. Riding a bike rather than driving a car is a wonderful way to enjoy the outdoors and reduce your gas budget. Always make sure to leave our open spaces cleaner than you found them!
- Reduce food waste by "shopping your fridge" before you go to the store, storing your food properly, paying attention to expiration dates, eat left-overs first, compost at home, or participate in E.J. Harrison's food waste recycling program by adding bagged food waste to your yard waste barrel.
- Buy some air-cleaning house plants for your home. Adding some "plantmates" to your house is a great way to bring the outdoors in and bring some life indoors.
- Collect your hazardous waste in a plastic bin, and make sure to sign up for our monthly Household Hazardous Waste events.
- Shop second-hand before you go to the big box stores for new clothing, furniture, books, games and more! You can save on your pocketbook and help reduce waste.
- Shop our local Green Businesses, our farmers market, and the mom-and-pop stores in Ventura. Supporting our local economy is an environmentally friendly activity.
- Perform a home energy audit to explore opportunities to reduce energy use and save money on your utility bills. LED lighting, air sealing, and insulation are low-hanging fruit!
- Get a proposal to add solar and battery storage to your home to see if it is the right opportunity for you. Rebates and incentives will be declining in years to come.
- Shop around for an electric plug-in or hybrid electric vehicle. There are still rebates and tax breaks available for making the switch. They generally require less maintenance and if you have solar, you can drive on sunshine!
- Remember to always reduce waste as much as possible, repair things when they break, reuse your items to give them a "second or third life", and recycle when it's time to say good-bye. Knowing what is recyclable is important when we are shopping at the store so we can reduce single-use at the source.
