Apr 14, 2010


Replenish: Going beyond Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
by Eileen Cain, Instructor, Language Arts


Last year, paper recycling was a major focus of LCC's Earth Day celebration. The Sustainability Committee and Student Government distributed paper recycling boxes to classrooms and offices, along with instructions on how to recycle paper on campus. The Copy Center helped us reuse paper, turning the recycled paper into notepads. Many of us reduced our use of paper in various ways, stopping to ask ourselves: "Do I really need to print this?" "Do I really need more copies of that?"

This year, as we observe the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day, the desire is to replenish resources – to replace what we take from the Earth. This year all around the world there is a big movement to plant trees. Trees, after all, absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. We can replenish the earth's supply of greenery by planting trees or donating to organizations that plant them for us. Here are some ideas:

1. Plant trees on Leeward CC campus on Earth Day in Tuthill Courtyard - blessing at 7:30 am, planting at 8:00 am.
2. The Million Trees of Aloha Campaign, April – October 2010, explained in a separate post: www.kanuhawaii.org/milliontreesofaloha.
3. The Plant-a-Billion Drive, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, allows us to donate a dollar to plant one tree: http://www.plantabillion.org/.
4. Eco-Libris is a site that allows us to donate a dollar to plant a tree for each book we read: http://www.ecolibris.net/.

No comments:

Post a Comment