the best earth of day

We may formally celebrate Earth Day just once a year (April 22), but concerned Americans, companies and organizations are making a difference every day and in every state—from sea to shining sea.

PROBLEM #1: PLASTIC POLLUTION

That plastic straw in your morning iced coffee or lunchtime soda? It’s not so innocent. Americans use more than 500 million straws every day. Many end up in the ocean (along with plastic bags), where sea life accidentally consumes them. Nearly 90 percent of the debris in oceans is plastic.

To battle the problem, the Earth Day Network, the nonprofit behind Earth Day, is focusing on plastic pollution in 2018. Go to earthday.org to join the fight. And check out these states for inspiration.

In Washington, with support from the environmental group Lonely Whale, Seattle has become the nation’s first major city to ban the use of plastic straws. By July, the city won’t allow restaurants or other businesses to offer them, a

move expected to save 1 million straws a month. Lonely Whale’s Strawless in Seattle campaign and #StopSucking social media challenge urge other big cities to get on board. lonelywhale.org

Plastic bags are the most common beach litter in Delaware after cigarette butts. Students in a University of Delaware master’s seminar called Debating Marine Conservation created a program called Businesses for Better Bags. The students partnered

with the Fashion and Apparel Studies department and designed four reusable bags for local businesses to sell. The hope is the movement will go statewide. lewesplasticbag project.weebly.com

After graduating from Virginia Tech determined to live a zero-waste lifestyle, Gabriella Jacobsen, now 23, developed an eco-friendly reusable tote bag made from 100 percent organic cotton. It’s decorated with low-impact dyes and sewn in a fair-trade factory that employs Americans with disabilities. A percentage of the profits from the sale of the bags, made by her company, Green Upward, goes to Arcadia, an Alexandria,

Virginia, organization that promotes sustainable food systems. greenupward.com

VETS RECYCLE

Here’s a win-win: EcoVet, in

Rogers, Arkansas, hires Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to take wood and metal from decommissioned semitruck trailers and turn it into home, office and patio furniture. ecovetfurniture.com

VERTICAL FARMING

Plenty, a startup headquartered in South San Francisco, California, is building a 100,000-squarefoot vertical farming warehouse (similar to its Bay Area project) near Seattle.The goal: produce 4.5 million pounds of greens annually. Using 20-foot-tall towers, the farm will grow plants, lighted by LED lamps, seeded in a mixture made of recycled plastic bottles (no soil). Water and nutrients are fed in from the top. The company says the method can yield 350 times the produce per acre (without pesticides), and they aim to build these vertical farms outside major cities across the country. plenty.ag

GOT MILKWEED?

The once ubiquitous, regal eastern monarch butterfly, Illinois’ state insect, is threatened with extinction thanks to disappearing flowering plants, including milkweed. The Prairie Rivers Network is working with schools, churches, businesses and neighborhoods statewide to reestablish the native habitat for the monarch and other pollinators. prairierivers.org

RAMP IT UP

New permeable boat ramps in West Virginia are friendly to aquatic habitats, reducing post-storm runoff (which sometimes includes pollutants—even petroleum products—from surrounding areas). The ramps, made of permeable pavers, take in water and allow some of it to percolate into the ground instead of encouraging speedy runoff like concrete and asphalt do.

SAFER SUNSCREEN

The coral reefs surrounding

Hawaii have been endangered by oxybenzone, an ingredient in sunscreens that causes bleaching, DNA damage and other deformities. To help protect the reefs, Aqua-Aston Hospitality, Hawaii’s largest chain of hotels and resorts, has teamed up with Raw Elements to offer visitors free reef-friendly, mineral-based sunscreen. rawelementsusa.com

NATIVE HABITATS

In Idaho, prison inmates fill “cone-tainers” with soil and tiny sagebrush seed, then water and fertilize the seedlings. Crews from the Bureau of Land Management and the Idaho Department of Fish & Game plant them in areas damaged by wildfires.

Lander Middle School students in Wyoming planted several hundred sagebrush seedlings in hopes of turning reclaimed mining land into a habitat for mule deer and the greater sage grouse. The plants were grown from seeds as part of the Abandoned Mine Lands Native Plants Project.

A BETTER GRAIN

Kernza is an environmentally friendly grain (nutty with a high protein content) developed by the Kansas-based Land Institute. General Mills and the University of Minnesota are collaborating with the Institute to help promote the grain. Its dense, long roots help prevent erosion and store nutrients underground. landinstitute.org

GARDEN SMART

For just $25, Mississippians can rent a raised bed at the nonprofit 34th Street Wholistic Gardens and Education Center in Gulfport, Mississippi. The organic and hydroponic garden and wellness park has more than 25 master gardeners and provides workshops, training and seminars to promote health, wellness and careful stewardship of the Mississippi Gulf Coast region. 34thstreetgardens.com

A BRIGHTER LIGHT

More than 1,300 energyefficient LED bulbs have been handed out by pastor Kevin Bates and his parishioners at Piney Mountain United Methodist Church in North

Carolina. The “working church” with a love of the land

hopes the bulbs help lower energy bills and reduce carbon emissions by a significant amount. Piney Mountain also offers classes in recycling, composting and canning. pineymountainumc.org

BICYCLE POWER

Oregon’s eco-friendly small-batch winery Illahe Vineyards is solarpowered, uses no irrigation and its grape plants are hand-pruned and harvested, then hauled by horses—Percheron drafts named Doc and Bea—to be processed. The winemakers de-stem the grapes using a hand-powered crank and then pump them into barrels using a bicycle, which employees take turns riding. illahevineyards.com

BETTER LUNCH TRAYS

Styrofoam trays, plates and bowls take centuries to break down. Now, thanks to the Urban School Food Alliance in Pennsylvania, compostable lunch trays are replacing 880,000 of the nonrecyclable products that were used each month in Philadelphia schools (all of which went into landfills). urbanschoolfoodalliance.org

PLANT A TREE!

TreeUtah, a statewide nonprofit, and 155,000 volunteers planted more than 370,000 trees across

Utah. One acre of trees produces the amount of oxygen consumed by 18 people every year. Trees slow and filter rainwater, protecting aquifers, and lower air temperatures. treeutah.org

HARNESS THE WIND

Dale Ross, the mayor of Georgetown, Texas, has become an environmentalists’ hero for

deciding in 2015 to acquire all of the city’s electricity from renewable sources. The town gets most of its power from a wind farm in Amarillo, 500 miles away, and this summer will add solar energy from a West Texas farm.

Iowa is a wind energy leader; wind provides 36 percent of the state’s electricity and is expected to provide 40 percent by 2020.

TAKE AN ECO-VACAY

 Rent an “earthship” outside of Taos, New Mexico, at the Greater World Community—the world’s largest off-the-grid subdivision. earthshipglobal.com

 Mowdy Ranch mustangs ecosanctuary near Coalgate, Oklahoma, has dedicated 1,280 acres to 150 wild Choctaw ponies, famed for their toughness and endurance (as seen in the 2004 film Hidalgo). mowdyranch.com  Adventure Green Alaska recognizes Alaska businesses that meet environmental and sustainability standards, including Diamond M Ranch Resort (which uses fish waste as fertilizer), Orca Island Cabins (solar-powered yurts) and Alaska Alpine Adventures (which espouses Leave No Trace). adventuregreenalaska.org

 The Dancing Rabbit Land Trust in Missouri has created a sustainable community of solarand wind-powered homes and has reserved many of its 280 acres as a wildlife habitat. Stay at the Milkweed Mercantile Eco Inn, where you’ll sleep in a straw-bale building, shower with filtered rainwater and dine on locally produced organic food. dancingrabbit.org