Creative Kidstuff

Earth Day!

April 20, 2009 on 4:24 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Wednesday, April 22nd is Earth Day! The first Earth day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 to to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. United States Senator Gaylord Nelson (Wisconsin) proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda, and it worked!

One of the major aspects of Earth Day is promoting small ways to save energy and resources. If each person makes a few small changes, it will have a big impact! Here are a few small ways you can try:

*Use a low-flow shower head and take shorter showers. It takes 15 to 30 gallons to take a bath versus 5 gallons for a one-minute shower. Low-flow showerheads deliver 2.5 gallons of water or less per minute and are relatively inexpensive. Older showerheads use 5 to 7 gallons per minute!

* Use reusable bags or skip the bag when shopping. Coming soon: Creative Kidstuff reusable bags!

*On a nice day, hang your clothes outside to dry!

* Unplug your appliances when not in use. Many home electronics aren’t actually “off” unless unplugged. One great tip is to plug home electronics and office equipment into a single power strip with an on/off switch. This will allow you to turn off all power to the devices in one easy step.

*Plant a garden and/or purchase locally grown produce. For the average American, the food on their plates has traveled at least 1,500 miles. If you purchase local produce, you support the local economy AND lower your carbon footprint.

We are all familiar with paper, plastic and glass recycling but one of the largest wastes is organic wastes. Here is a great project to get your kids involved and create some wonderful soil for your plants and gardens.

How to Make a Compost Bin!

Equipment:
* 1 Plastic Bin (with lid). Surface area is more important than depth, but you’ll probably want something small enough to fit underneath your sink.
* Shredded Newspaper (no color), 2 Sunday editions worth. Best to use a paper shredder, but using your hands will work too!
* Worms! The best worms for composting are red worms, either Eisenia foetida or Lumbricus rubellus. You can contact your local bait shop or you can order worms online at unclejimswormfarm.com
* Compostables. You can compost fruit and vegetable scraps and peels, coffee grounds, tea bags and rinsed out, crushed up egg shells. Avoiding meats, dairy products and oily foods will help prevent against odors, flies and other pests.

Process:
Drill about 12 – 16 holes in the plastic bin, about two thirds of the way up from the bottom. This will provide oxygen to aid in the compost process. Some people also puncture holes in the bottom to allow for drainage, though if you’re keeping this under your sink you may prefer to skip this and avoid dealing with a drainage system altogether.

Run the shredded newspaper under water until it is thoroughly soaked, and then ring it out so that it is moist, but not dripping. Spread about half of this newspaper evenly along the bottom of your bin, and then dump your worms over the paper, distributing them in a similar manner. Finally, cover your worms with the remainder of the shredded, damp newspaper.

Maintaining Your Compost:
There is very little to do to maintaining, though after a few months you will have a buildup of finished compost that can be used as fertilizer, and most of your original bedding (newspaper) will be gone. The best way to replace the fertilizer with new bedding is to move all of the finished compost over to one side then replace the bedding on the other side and begin adding compostable scraps to that side. Gradually the worms will move from the finished compost, at which point you can remove it and dump it in your garden, your plants, or that patch of dirt outside where grass never seems to grow.

Fun websites for more information:
Recycle City Visit this imaginary town to see how you and you family can help the environment by doing simple every day changes.

Great Ideas for the Whole Family

EPA Composting Site

Earth Day Network