earth day Archives - Chicago Textile Recycling

Earth Focused Holidays

March 2, 2023

The months of March and April bring many different holidays and remembrances promoting recycling and ways of caring for our planet. These include: Global Recycling Day on March 18, Earth Hour on March 25, Earth Day on April 22 and Fashion Revolution Week the week of April 24. On this first day of March, we would love to share a little more about each of these days and the history as well as the potential impact each can play toward our future. There are many ways to celebrate and to get involved locally and on a larger scale.

Global Recycling Day – March 18

The first of these holidays is Global Recycling Day. Celebrated on March 18 on the heels of St. Patrick’s Day, “Global Recycling Day was created in 2018 to help recognise, and celebrate, the importance recycling plays in preserving our precious primary resources and securing the future of our planet. It is a day for the world to come together and put the planet first.” (found here) It is a day to raise awareness and volunteer in a variety of ways to help care for our planet.

The Global Recycling Commission set out a twofold mission for this holiday:

“1. To tell world leaders that recycling is simply too important not to be a global issue, and that a common, joined up approach to recycling is urgently needed.

2. To ask people across the planet to think resource, not waste, when it comes to the goods around us – until this happens, we simply won’t award recycled goods the true value and repurpose they deserve.” (found here)

As the first holiday in our lineup, Global Recycling Day sets out an important agenda for calling on our leaders to unite in pushing for political reforms to highlight the importance of recycling and for enlightening others around the world about its importance in their day to day life choices.

Earth Hour – March 25

Our second planet-honoring holiday this season is Earth Hour, which is observed for one hour on the last Saturday in March. From 8:30-9:30pm on Saturday, March 25th people around the country and even world will be turning off their lights to honor Earth Hour. 2022 saw “people from 192 countries and territories [come] together in support of people and our planet. We saw landmarks turn off their lights and supporters switch off at home, as well as a range of activities such as virtual concerts, mangrove planting, street clean-ups and virtual runs.” (found here)

Earth Hour was “started in 2007 by WWF and partners as a symbolic lights-out event in Sydney to raise awareness of climate change,” (here) and has now “become a catalyst for positive environmental impact, driving major legislative changes by harnessing the power of the people and collective action.” It is easy to participate in this event. Simply turn off your lights for this one hour in March. And feel free to become involved in bigger ways too – through writing legislators to cleaning up parks and more.

Earth Day – April 22

A third, and very well known, planet loving holiday this Spring is Earth Day. Celebrated on April 22, Earth Day “marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.” (found here) Begun by two senators as teach-ins on college campuses, that first year “Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts.” Over the decades, Earth Day has become a global holiday involving over 100 countries in the mission to take better care of our planet.

On their website, Earth Day 2023 has six ways to make a difference this year:

Educate our youth through classroom learning
Break free from single use plastics
Plant trees (through the Canopy Project)
Use your voting power to protect our environment
Clean up communities, beaches, rivers, lakes, trails and parks
Choose sustainable fashion over fast fashion

Many cities post about Earth Day celebrations – so be on the lookout for ways to get involved in your own neck of the woods and help care for planet Earth.

Fashion Revolution – Week of April 24

The final way we spread awareness, and honor the care of our planet over these few months is through Fashion Revolution Week, which always falls on the week of April 24, commemorating the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh. You can read more about this in our blog “5 Ways to Fight Fast Fashion.” In 2013, over one thousand young women were killed and more than 2,500 more were injured when the building collapsed.

On their website, they list numerous ways to get involved here, including packets on ways to get involved, hosting an event, educational resources for teachers and educators and posters to print to help spread awareness. Also on our blog listed above, we share five ways to get involved in the fight against fast fashion.

We Can Care All Year Long

Though these four commemorations and holidays all fall within the months of March and April, don’t feel limited to volunteer or spread the word only during these months. Park services are always looking for volunteers to help clean up and take care of parks and beaches. There are many months where you can help plant trees or butterfly and bumblebee friendly plants. Educating others and spreading awareness can happen any time of the year. And we can always change our way of living by starting to recycle and making more conscientious decisions about the things we purchase.

Green Benefits

Earth Day Happenings

March 30, 2022

April 22nd is Earth Day, and as the world is slowly opening up again to the possibility of a time after Covid-19, there are many fun ways to get involved this year and help clean up our planet. From park/forest clean ups to educational opportunities to playdates helping teach the next generation about the care of Mother Earth, Chicagoland is offering numerous events to show support this Earth Day.

Chicagoland Events

There are so many exciting events happening this Earth Day. This list does not contain all of them, so feel free to reach out to your local forest preserve or village hall to ask about local events also. Here are some of the events happening in the Chicagoland area.

April 16 (10-12) – Join the Chicago Rotary Club for a morning cleanup of Grant Park.
April 20 (4-5pm) – Palatine Library is offering an hour of Earth Day related stories, science and activities for ages 4-7. Sign up begins 4/6.
April 21 (10:30-12) – If you have kids that love nature, there will be a Nature Play Date at Lincoln Marsh in the Prairie Patch Play Area with activities and open play. Afterwards, there is a picnic lunch.
April 21 (1-1:30) – Come learn how to recycle and create art out of recycled materials at Naper Settlement.
April 22 (1-3) – Clean up litter in Schiller Woods – East. We will provide all of the supplies needed.
April 22 (11-1) – BackYard Nature Center is hosting an Earth Day Celebration at Erickson Woods in Winnetka. There will be hiking, stick carving, nature play and more.
April 22 (3:30-4:45) – Trailside Museum of Natural History is hosting After School Earth Day Activities of planting a tree, making a bird feeder or recycled art.
April 22 (10-2) – Clean up litter in Sauk Trail Woods – Central. We will provide all of the needed supplies.
April 22 (3:30-5:30) – There will be Earth Day Activities offered at Century Park Pavilion all afternoon for families.
April 23 (11-2) – Clean up litter in Beaubien Woods. We will provide all of the needed supplies.
April 23 (12-3) – Crabtree Nature Center is hosting family-friendly Earth Day Activities in their three acre nature play area.
April 24 (All Day) – There are so many fun Earth Day events happening at Brookfield Zoo.

Other Ways to Love our Planet

If you are unable to make one of the above events or a local one in your area, there are other ways to get involved this Earth Day. As noted in our Earth Day post from two years ago, attending an event is not the only way you can show love to our planet. Other ways to be involved are:

Start Your Own Compost

Find out how much garbage you can reduce by placing all of your food scraps into a compost bin instead.

Recycle Textiles

Clean out your closets and dresser this Earth Day and donate all items no longer needed to your closest CTR bin or partner resale store.

Pick Up Trash in Your Neighborhood

Simply step outside your front door to help care for our planet. Go on a family walk with a trash bag and gloves and see what litter you can help clean up around your neighborhood.

Plant Flowers to Attract Bumblebees and Butterflies

Look up which flowers attract butterflies and bumblebees and plant them in your yard to promote the longevity of these species and pollination.

To read more about these ideas on caring for our planet, click on the link above. And if you know of any other events happening in your area, please share them by commenting on the social media post so we can add them to our list. There are many simple ways to get involved and if we all work together and do our part, they all add up to big changes for our planet.

Green Benefits

Earth Day is Almost Here

April 17, 2020April 9, 2020

Next Wednesday is Earth Day. This year, 2020, marks 50 years of Earth Day being celebrated. On their website about Earth Day, the organizers of the Earth Day movement explain some of the history behind how Earth Day came to be:

“Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.

However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.”

Earth Day was founded by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. It was created to have a day focused on the environment and the concerns of air and water pollution. The very first Earth Day in 1970 had a turnout of 20 million Americans who “took to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.” That first Earth Day “led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.” Twenty years later, Earth Day went global.

Ideas for Earth Day

Every year there are a wide number of events to attend in celebration and honor of Earth Day. This year, however, with coronavirus creating the need for social distancing, here are some other ways you can help in your own neighborhood, yard or corner of the world.

Virtual Event

On Wednesday, April 22nd, Chicago Park Districts Friends of the Parks is hosting a digital Earth Day celebration. Previously, they had organized a city wide parks clean up day for the weekend prior. However, this has been postponed due to coronavirus. They are planning to reschedule the outdoor clean up day once the “shelter in place” order has ended. Check here to find out more about their Digital Earth Day.