Earlier this week I did a segment for CNN.com’s live show on how to celebrate a greener July 4th.
Here are the highlights:
- Kick off the Festivities with Volunteerism Involve the neighborhood and the kids and celebrate your freedom by giving back. Organize a trash-pickup in a park, nature preserve or along a busy road.Plant a peace garden in the town center or an organic food garden in a neighborhood school. Or simply plant some trees.
- Prepare a Greener Spread Go for locally-grown and/or organic produce, and avoid highly processed foods. Take it one step further with a vegetarian barbeque…it’s good for your health and the environment’s. Here are some ideas: Grill veggie burgers and corn on the cob. Make a blueberry or strawberry/rhubarb crisp and a salad with snap peas, corn and tomatoes all from the farmer’s market (find one in your area). Serve ice cream from a local shop where they make it themselves….or even try to make some yourself using local organic cream and fruit. Set out pitchers of water, iced tea and punch….instead of individual bottles of water and cans of pop.
- Pick Eco-friendly Picnicware Skip the stack of Styrofoam, paper or unrecyclable plastic plates, cups and utensils. Instead go for bamboo disposables, compostable and recyclable paper options, or recycled and recyclable plastic options like those by Preserve. Use reusable containers to pack up leftovers and cover plates and bowls with Reynolds 100% recycled aluminum foil. If you’re attending a picnic – take your own trendy To-Go Ware set of utensils. And make sure you recycle all of it….as well as all of the bottles and cans that are bound to be lying around.
- Fire Up a Greener Grill Choose your materials wisely to ensure your BBQ’ed feast is still healthy. Because propane burns the cleanest, creating less smoke, many prefer that. But if you’re a charcoal griller, choose one of a number of sustainably-produced charcoal products that are made from industrial scrap wood, or Kingsford Charwood, which is made from natural lump hardwood using clean-energy turbine heat.
- Choose Alternative Fireworks Stay away from home fireworks and sparklers and go for other colorful decorations like balloons and ribbon streamers. And then attend a community or public fireworks shows. Big displays today are getting greener (Disney now uses a gunpowder-free “air launch” technology by Sekon), doing away with some of the most harmful chemicals.
