My Earth Day Promise to the Planet

I have a confession to make. I am not a very "green" person. In college, I made a presentation about how littering was poisoning our rivers and lakes but never took what I learned to heart. I am one of those people the anti-littering laws had to be created for. I didn't intend to hurt you by throwing my trash out the window. I selfishly wanted a clean car and rather than wait until I could find a trash can I made some impulsive decisions.

Gradually over the past year I have been trying to help you out more. I can do nothing about air pollutants. I do not smoke, use sprays, or do anything known to hurt the environment but I have done little to actually help. I went through a phase of saving cans to be recycled but could never follow through on doing it. This past week my 5 year old little girl and her scout troop learned about recycling. I realized I need to set an example so once more there is a separate bag filled with different products that can be recycled in my kitchen. I never knew I drank so many Mountain Dew throwbacks until the cans began adding up.

We are already reusing our plastic water bottles ad nauseam but can do better than that. I promise to do away with the bottles and use glasses. "The Great Pacific Plastic Patch" is a scary problem that needs nothing to be added to it. I can wash glasses used for water very easily and an at home water filter does wonders for helping the quality of our water's taste.

Recently I learned water and vinegar can be used as glass cleaner. I like to clean so from now on I will be trying a better approach by using this combination rather than Windex.

Most of all dear planet, I promise not to toss my garbage outside my car window even one more time. For someone who grew up with the commercial of the Indian crying over pollution I should have known better. I think I did know better but was simply lazy.

I promise to unplug my phone charger when our phones are not being used to save energy. I do a fairly decent job of shutting off the lighting in rooms we are not in but this year I will do better. I hereby also promise to raise my children to do their part in protecting you. There are too many people out there who don't care enough to help. Earth Day should be every day-not just April 22. My promise to Planet Earth is to personally make Earth Day every day for my family and myself.