Green Facts for the Last Day of April

I hope you've had a great April. On this last day, here are a few facts on the environment from a local library fact sheet which might surprise you.

• recycling just ONE aluminum can save enough energy to equal a half gallon of gas
• 2,500,000 plastic bottles--that's how many bottles Americans use in an HOUR.
• 40% of the waste produced in the world is made by us Americans

Some things you can do right now to help:

• reuse plastic bags or switch to paper bags (over 1,000,000 sea creatures are killed each year by plastic garbage in the ocean)
• change the most frequently used light bulbs in your home to incandescent ones (electricity for lighting could be cut by 50%)
• recycle paper (in 2007 in the U.S. more than 56% of the paper used was recycled)

Working together we can make a difference.

The Green Earth Book Award

This award is sponsored by the Newton Marasco Foundation--a nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire responsible environmental stewardship. This year's winner in the children fiction category is WINSTON OF CHURCHILL: ONE BEAR'S BATTLE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING by Jean Davies Okimoto and illustrated by Jeremiah Trammell (published by Sasquatch Books.)

For additional information on the other books honored with this award, visit the Newton Marasco Foundation website.

And for information about helping your school or your child's school become more environmentally friendly, visit my website and read the article, "Green Schools."

Every day can be a green day when we make the decision to recycle, reuse, and reduce our waste and fossil fuel energy dependence. With everyone working together we can make a big difference!