You don't have to be Superman to save the earth. On World Environment Day, we tell you how.
COVINGTON, Ky. - Bet you didn’t know today was World Environment Day.
What can you do to celebrate? Change your habits, of course.
By ourselves, “saving the earth” seems like an awful big and discouraging task (ever heard of Sisyphus and his boulder?). So we’ve come up with 25 practical ways any individual Covington resident can do her or his part to keep clean the water we drink, the air we breathe and the land we walk.
These tips are just to get you started. Look at our Facebook post and add your ideas to the comments section.
(For more information and a wide-ranging guide to recycling and junking e-waste, chemicals and other odd materials, see the Northern Kentucky Solid Waste Resource Guide at
HERE.)
The 25 ways:
1 - Participate in the City’s recycling program. Listing this first is a shameless plug, but it’s easy and effective. The City’s Solid Waste & Recycling division mailed a postcard to residents this week with all the info (and helpful do’s and don’ts). Oh, and did you know that Covington residents diverted 2,319 tons of material from the landfill in 2017 by recycling? Let’s increase that number.
2 - Just say “no” to straws. We all know how to drink out of a glass, right?
3 - Use cloth bags at the grocery.
4 - Recycle your plastic bags at the grocery (as well as many other kinds of plastic bags - see
HERE for details).
5 - Don’t let your grass clippings, street garbage and other debris pollute our drinking water by getting washed into the storm drains. Sweep them up.
6 - Combine errands. It saves gas and reduces air pollution.
7 - Stop throwing cigarette butts out the window and on the ground (and, for that matter, dumping ash trays into parking lots).
8 - Recycle your compact fluorescent lights (aka CFLs ... aka “the curlicue bulbs”) at places like Lowe’s or The Home Depot, or your neighborhood hardware stores if they take them.
9 - Take used motor oil to your local auto parts store, instant oil change shop or mechanic shop.
10 - Bring old computer equipment, batteries, cell phones etc. to the City of Covington’s e-waste event on June 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Holmes High School in the parking lot off of Eastern Avenue.
11 - When you buy a cup of coffee, get the barista to fill up your reusable thermos or mug instead of putting it in a disposable cup.
12 - On short trips, walk or ride a bike instead of taking your car. (It’s also good exercise.)
13 - Stop using disposable plastic utensils, plates and bowls for picnics and cook-outs. Instead, buy some cheap metal or hard plastic flatware and dishes and reuse them.
14 - Get money for your metal scrap, and - if you’re rehabbing a home - make tax-deductible donations of your extra or old building supplies (things like appliances, cabinets, baseboards, extra lumber, pipes, pavers) to an agency that accepts them.
15 - Pull weeds instead of using chemicals.
16 - Use cloth napkins and diapers.
17 - Compost your food scraps, grass clippings and leaves, or make arrangements to give them to a local community garden.
18 - Fill up your gas tank after sunset to keep fuel vapors from interacting with sunlight to create smog and making it harder to breathe.
19 - Donate your gently used clothes and household goods to a local social service agency. (Save money on your taxes too).
20 - When you buy food and other items at the grocery, avoid products with unnecessary packaging and buy in bulk when appropriate.
21 - Drink tap water instead of bottled water.
22 - Plant trees.
23 - Use alternatives to harsh chemicals to clean your home. For suggestions, look
Here or
Here or any of a number of internet sites.
24 - Shorter showers.
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