Celebrate Earth Day at home

As Earth Day goes digital and we're all celebrating from our homes this year, it's important to know that there are still actions you can take that make a difference.

At Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Earth Day is important in order to protect the natural environments of the wild counterparts of the animals in our care. Consider some of the following tips from the Earth Day website in order to make a difference from your own home!

• Join Earth Day Network's campaign to Protect Our Species.
• Plant a tree or donate a tree through the Canopy Project.
• Use environmentally-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products.
• Replace inefficient incandescent light bulbs with efficient CFLs or LEDs and reduce your carbon footprint by 450 pounds a year.
• Change your car’s air filter regularly.

• Stop using disposable plastics, especially single-use plastics like bottles, bags and straws that commonly end up in oceans, causing harm to wildlife.
• Use cloth towels instead of paper ones.
• Change your paper bills to online billing. You’ll be saving trees and the fuel it takes to deliver your bills by truck.
• Use reusable bottles for water, and reusable mugs for coffee.
• Bring reusable bags when you shop.

• Compost kitchen scraps for use in your garden — turning waste into fertilizer.
• Take a shorter shower and use a water-saving shower head.
• Fix leaky faucets and shower-heads.
• Turn off and unplug electronics you’re not using. This includes turning off your computer at night.
• Turn off lights when you leave a room.

• Move your heater thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in the summer to reduce your carbon footprint by 2,000 pounds.
• Recycle batteries from small appliances and your electronics. Use rechargeable batteries instead!

For more information on how to get involved and what you can do to help, visit the official Earth Day website.