Earth Day Has Passed But Here Are Things You Can Do To Honour Earth Day Everyday!
"If You Look After Your Environment On A Daily Basis It Will Look After You"
Aluminium Cans
– Collect your cans and take to any of the following depots:
NPCC on Blake Road; Bahamas Humane Society,
Chippingham; Adastra Gardens, Chippingham;
Bahamas National Trust, Village Road; or to the many Schools and Youth Associations who are onboard just ask around or encourage your child’s school to participate. Call 361-7510 or 422-0573 or visit our Cans For Kids website for more info.
Glass
– Bring your glass bottles to NPCC on Blake Road or the Residential Drop-Off (RDO) at New Providence Ecology Park (NPEP) on Harold Road. With millions of beer, wine and liquor bottles being sold into our local market we need to divert them from the landfill and instead recycle.
Food Waste
– Watch your portions, eat less meat (animals are a big source of methane and need a lot of water as they grow). Don’t take more than you can eat (you can always go back for more). If you can, do home composting, make it quicker and don’t attract rats by reducing your food waste (food prep and food scrapings, not bones) to a slurry in your food processor or Magic Bullet. Mix with grass clippings and sawdust to make a compost soil for use in your garden, takes about 12 weeks to be mature. Food waste is the most dangerous thing we put into our landfills because it produces methane.
Green Waste
– This is garden/landscape waste and comprises about 25% of the waste we generate. When it goes to the landfill and gets buried it also produces methane a dangerous Global warming gas. Wastenot Limited 361-7510 offers 2 pick-ups per month for $20.00 limit of 6 bags per pick-up. They take it to be composted at Green Systems Limited, where it produces an excellent soil.
Batteries
- Small batteries (computer, phone, flashlights , toys, etc.) cause fires at the landfill and leach dangerous chemicals and metals into our groundwater once their casing is broken. Get yours to NPCC or the RDO at NPEP or to a school taking part in Cans for Kids. If we recycle more batteries we re-capture the rare earths that are needed to make new ones. Car batteries (wet cell) are usually taken back at the shop when you purchase another one, they should send them back to the US to be recycled.
CONSERVATION COSMETICS
Support and take out a membership in the Bahamas National Trust and BREEF both entities are working to save our environment, our plants and animal species but need more memberships to fund their work and to support our National Parks. Don’t use skin bleaches many contain Mercury which could make you “as Mad as a Hatter” because mercury is a poison. When it gets into your system it attacks the kidneys, heart and brain. Remember you are beautiful as you are! Save water, always conserve, don’t leave your tap running when brushing your teeth or washing up, do full loads in your washer. Capture rainwater in a barrel for your garden and keep mosquitos away by putting the mosquito repellent discs (Dunks available at Rocky Farms Nursery) in your barrel definitely DO NOT put bleach in there.
ENERGY
Finally save energy, insulate your roof crawl space/attic with sprayed foam, or fiberglass insulation or put layers of newspaper if the others are not in the budget. "God helps those who help themselves, be a climate activist by doing the small daily stuff. It really adds up when 9 billion people are doing it". Paint your roof white, keep curtains/blinds closed in the day to keep the heat out, save energy leave you’re a/c on at a higher temperature (80degrees) setting rather than turning it off and then on again to cool a very hot house. Keep your bedroom cool so you can rest and rejuvenate yourself. Grow trees around your house for their cooling effect if you keep the branches thinned and don’t let them get too thick and bushy, they will survive the storms.