Let's Make Every Day Earth Day

Picture this. It's 400 years from now. And every inch of the earth is buried in landfills. Schools, parks, apartment buildings, offices...are all built on top of landfills. The only place to find natural soil is in a protected areas such as Wyoming's Yellowstone or New York's Central Park. These landfills emit methane gas and other chemicals into the atmosphere, which cause diseases. So there are more people with allergies, asthma, multiple sclerosis, all kinds of diseases than ever before. Maybe even some new diseases have come into being as a result.

Do you want your children's grandchildren and their grandchildren to play on top of a landfill? Have little league games on ground that sits on top of 50 feet of garbage? Swing a swing on top of buried plastic that takes 75 years to biodegrade?

It's going to happen if we just keep throwing everything away. Thousands of tons of garbage just pile up every day. Every year, hundreds of landfills are filled and closed and new ones are opened. How long before we run out of room for landfills? How long before every new building can only be built on top of a greened-over land fill?

It's time for everyone to do their part. Recycle everything you possibly can. And I've said this before, it's not just about what you put into your recycling bin. Saturday I recycled my printer. I bring my ink cartridges back to the store for recycling; glasses to the Pearle Vision Center for recycling; and hangers to the nearest dry cleaners.

I buy recycled toilet paper and paper towels and 100% recycled copy paper. A ream is only $1 more than the non-recycled. Recently, I discovered 100% recycled aluminum foil by Reynolds Wrap. And the quality is excellent. When I bought my new HP 6500 Officejet printer on Saturday -- which uses 40% less energy -- I got a $50 rebate for bringing in my old one, and they planted a tree. They even made the box out of brown kraft, which is recyclable, instead of the old white coated boxes, which are not.

Please, don't make Earth Day an annual holiday. Make it every day. Make it a montra you live by. The earth is a living breathing thing and it needs every one of us to keep it clean. After all, every one of us messes it up and depletes its resources.

Now imagine this. Four hundred years from now, your children's children's children are playing in a park. An all natural park. The air is clean. You can help. Start today. Please.

Please check out my novel, In Fashion's Web on Amazon.