Taking Action Locally
How you can help clean up our environment
Tell as many people as you can
about how litter and single use plastics are bad for our environment!
Write a book, letter, or article about litter and its consequences.
Send it to town leaders and representatives!
Make sure your trash cans have lids.
A lot of the trash that ends up on the streets comes from overflowing garbage cans.
Putting a lid on them is a quick and easy fix!
Participate in a local clean-up.
Participating in keeping an area clean helps with community pride and caring.
Stop using single-use plastics.
Single-use plastic includes products such as straws, bags, and bottles; pretty much any plastic item that’s made for temporary use.
Stop using balloons.
Balloons that are released into the air don’t just go away, they either get snagged on something such as tree branches or electrical wires, deflate and make their way back down, or rise until they pop and fall back to Earth where they can create a lot of problems. Many balloons that are not properly disposed of end up in the ocean and along shores, becoming marine debris. Balloons can be mistaken for food, and if eaten and ingested, balloons and other marine debris can lead to loss of nutrition, internal injury, starvation, and death. String or ribbon that is often found attached to balloons can cause entanglement. String can wrap around marine life causing injury, illness, and suffocation.
marinedebris.noaa.gov/your-region
Impacts of single-use plastics
Although we might not think much of it when we buy bottles of our favorite drink or ask for plastic bags when we’re in the checkout line at the grocery store, these choices have a serious impact on the health of our planet and ourselves.