Earth Day falls on April 22 every year to serve as a conscious reminder of how fragile our planet is and how important it is to protect it. At this point, we really shouldn’t need reminding of the delicate state of our planet and the measures we must all take to reverse the effects of climate change, but alas, there’s more work to be done to move the trajectory of our climate into a more positive position. And Earth Day does well to help educate and inspire this change.
This year, the theme for Earth Day 2021 is ‘Restore Our Earth’. “As the world returns to normal, we can’t go back to business-as-usual,” the site reads. In a micro level, and within the control of your own home, this may mean you take up some new eco-friendly hobbies that help you reduce your impact on the plant.
Switching to solar energy or a green energy plan is a great place to start. Next, you may like to start a compost bin, change the way you holiday and switch your super to an ethical fund. There are heaps of small changes you can very easily make at home, many of which will have a huge impact both on you and the planet. Perhaps the easiest of which is recycling.
You already recycle those general items like cardboard, hard plastics and tins (at least we hope you do), but the work doesn’t end there. If you know how, you can recycle almost everything that comes into your home — food scraps, soft plastics, tote bags, unwanted clothing, E-waste, you name it. Essentially, by making use of the right tools and resources, you need only send the absolute bare minimum to landfill. And now, there’s an easier way to do just that.
RecycleSmart is an on-demand recycling service that collects soft plastics, clothes, E-waste, polystyrene and problem waste; right from your doorstep. The service isn’t too dissimilar to Uber actually.
You pack up as many bags as you like with recyclable goods that wouldn’t be allowed in your typical yellow recycling bin, then book a pickup by calling a car right to your home. Just like an Uber.
RecycleSmart takes the trash off your hands (you can even leave it outside on the collection day) and goes on to sort out the items for proper recycling. The service costs $2 per bag, and the first pickup is free with the code ‘FIRSTFREE‘. You’ll even be able to plant a tree for free after your first pickup.
The company is also carbon-neutral, meaning RecycleSmart offsets its operational carbon footprint to so far remove over 24 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Pretty amazing, right?
And if you’re not sure what’s able to be recycled, the RecycleSmart app, with over 150,000 downloads, is able to help. With a built-in ‘recyclopedia’, all you need to do is search the item to find out which components can be recycled into something new.
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