Go green!
What better way to start the year than by helping to protect the planet?! These easy tips help save limited resources such as water, energy, and animals; prevent landfill waste; or decrease harmful gases, such as CO2, which contribute to global warming. Make sure to ask your parents before trying any of these tips!
Recycle and Reuse
- Set out cans and bottles for neighbourhood pickup or take them to a recycling centre.
- Choose rechargeable batteries, then recycle them when they die. You'd have to use hundreds of single-use batteries to equal the energy you'd get out of one rechargable battery. Recycling batteries will help keep harmful metals from entering the environment.
- The next time you have the impulse to buy a new book to read, borrow it from the library or a friend instead of buying a new copy. Sharing books is a great way to reduce waste and reuse materials.
- When you drink bottled water, reuse the bottle before recycling it.
- Buy toys that last. Toys are made, directly or indirectly, from natural resources. Choose toys that won't break easily so you aren't always buying more stuff or creating more rubbish.
Improve the Outdoors
- Plant a deciduous (leafy) tree that loses its leaves in fall on the south side of your home. Its shade will cool your house in the summer. After the tree’s leaves fall, sunlight will help warm your house in winter. Trees help clean the air we breathe and reduce carbon dioxide.
- Participate in cleanup days at a local beach or park. And when you visit a park or beach, be sure to use the bins there or take your litter home with you.
- Don't litter. Rubbish left outside often washes into drains, which empty into rivers and streams that eventually flow to the oceans. Pollution is a growing problem for all the Earth's ocean and its wildlife.
Did you know?
If you stop a tap from leaking one drop each second, you can save 2,700 gallons of water a year!
For more green ideas, check out NG Kids magazine!
Illustration by Nathan Jurevicius