Earth Day 2022 takes place on Friday April 22 to raise awareness of the need to protect the environment.
Earth Day originates in the United States after a large oil spill happened in Santa Barbara in 1969.
Every year Earth Day has a specific theme. For this year it's "invest in our planet."
Read More: When is Earth Day 2022? Everything you need to know about environment holiday
But how can you get involved and play your part?
Thankfully earthday.org has listed a number of actions that the general public can take to play their part in Earth Day 2022.
Calculate your foodprint with a meat calculator
There are many ways to calculate your foodprint. Online calculators are available that calculate how much your food choices impact the planet.
These calculators can show how much water and carbon dioxide you save by reducing your meat consumption. The meat calculator also shows the approximate number of animals that could live from reducing the amount of meat you eat.
Contact Your local representatives
Contact your local councillors and TDs to remind them that their constituent's health and the environment should be their top priority.
Calculate your plastic consumption
Plastic pollution is one of the great polluters with oceans now feeling the effects of plastic waste. There is a plastic calculator which shows how many plastic items you use and throw away every year.
Click here to use the plastic calculator
Keep a knife and fork in your bag
Pat Kane, Managing Director of reuzi, and sustainability expert, she says there are two items she always keeps in her handbag - a knife and fork.
Whether you're picking up a salad for your lunch or having a takeaway at a local market, disposable cutlery is usually available. However, this is unnecessary waste that we could easily cut out.
Pat points out, we already use reusable coffee cups and water bottles, so why not cutlery?
“I love having a cutlery set in my bag, but we all have it at home, so you can throw a set in your bag and you’re good to go," she says.
“You’ve to start thinking about all the reusables because you’re trying to avoid rubbish on the go and that’s very important. You start at what you have at home, we all have for life bags or tote bags, so just carry one of them around.
Switch to reusable bags
While using plastic bags for groceries has reduced massively over the last couple of decades, over 4 trillion plastic bags are used globally every year.
Plastic bags can survive in a landfill for as long as 1000 years despite only being used on average for 10-20 minutes.
Clean up while you exercise
With the weather getting better and better, many folks will start to go out and enjoy an evening run. While exercising why not pick up any rubbish you see on the way and dispose of it the correct way. The canals are notorious spots for excess rubbish.
Switch to online billing
Many of us may still be receiving some bills such as bank statements in the post. However, most bills are now available electronically.
Check with your provider online to see how you can switch to paperless bills.
Cut down on your shower time
Most of us love a long hot shower but this is not good for the environment. Every minute of shower time equates to 2 gallons of water, so the quicker your shower the better. Time your next shower and see if you can reduce it by half for Earth Day.
Check your plugs for 'vampire devices'
Small devices left plugged in overnight could also be costing you hundreds of euros every year and wasting energy.
Devices with a standby mode - known as 'vampire devices' - are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to adding unnecessary use of electricity.
Some of the most common vampire devices include desktop computers and displays, faxes and printers, satellite and cable boxes, stereos, televisions, microwaves, garage door openers, video game consoles, and phone and tablet chargers.
So check your plugs to see how you can save energy.
Click here to see all the tips on how you can get involved for Earth Day 2022.
Read More: The Great Food Transformation that could help Dubliner’s save the planet –and improve their health
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