Make your Fourth of July Greener
Fourth of July is just around the corner! We hit the grocery store for steak and hot dogs to grill in the backyard. We buy canned and bottled beverages, paper plates and napkins, plastic dinnerware and cups to keep meals casual and cleanup easy. We buy fireworks for an evening display and flags to decorate the tables.
Remembering everything you need for a proper celebration doesn’t take much thought. But have you ever thought about ways to make your celebration a bit greener? Here are a few ideas.
Pump your brew from a keg
When the party is over, how many beer empties will you collect from your backyard? Will you recycle them? If you buy beer by the keg instead of by the case, you won’t have to think about bottles vs cans or pitching vs recycling.
Go to a public fireworks display
If you leave home early and take lawn chairs, perhaps your whole family can get a prime spot for a local public fireworks display. You can save on the cost of fireworks, avoid injuries, and won’t be adding additional firework related chemicals, which are bad for the environment. Plus, you won’t have to worry about retrieving and disposing of all of those rockets that land in your neighbor’s yard.
Keep the celebration outside
You might feel the urge to relocate your celebration from the hot, sunny backyard into air conditioned comfort. Don’t do it! Turn off the air conditioning, TVs, computers, ipads, and video games. Maybe you’re not a fan of fireworks and just want to enjoy watching them from a distance, find some family fun with old school traditions such as badminton, volleyball, or horseshoes. You’ll save on energy and burn off a few calories at the same time.