Celebrating Earth Day
The first Earth Day was celebrated over 40 years ago on April 22, 1970. It was founded by Gaylord Nelson, a US Senator from Wisconsin, after seeing the impact of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. At that time it was the largest oil spill in US history and still ranks at number 3, behind only the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez oil spills. It was Mr. Gaylord’s vision to have a “national teach-in on the environment” and energize the public to protect the environment by addressing water and air pollution concerns. Over 20 million Americans participated in that first Earth Day celebration uniting many in a common cause that had been previously fragmented over several specific environmental concerns.
This year, Earth Day celebrations will focus on the effort to end world plastic pollution. Not only is the plastic unsightly in our oceans and detrimental to both ocean and animal life but it has also entered some of our food sources leading to health issues. The campaign this year includes four main parts, one of which is, ‘educating people worldwide to take personal responsibility for plastic pollution by choosing to reject, reduce, reuse and recycle plastics’ which is in alignment with our ‘Save a Plastic Tree’ campaign.
More than two years ago, as we became more aware of the negative impacts the single use bags were having on the environment, we began our ‘Save a Plastic Tree’ campaign. It is simple, if you say ‘no’ to a bag at check out you may sign up for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the store. We draw the first week of every month from all entries for that month. Over time we have noticed a dramatic reduction in the number of single use bags people are requesting when they leave the store and we have a very happy customer every month when they get the phone call to ‘come on down-you're a winner!’ A win win from our point of view.
So we are asking you to join us in continuing to reduce the number of single use bags that are used and to consider reducing other plastics you use, like single use water bottles, straws, plastic lids, plastic wrap and many other items that have become an integral part of our lives. Many times there are alternatives and when there aren’t please consider reusing, recycling or repurposing the item. Together we can make a change.
Sources-
https://www.earthday.org/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Santa_Barbara_oil_spill