Marking the birth of the modern environmental movement, Earth Day is an excellent annual reminder of the importance of Mother Earth. We can all do our bit to help the planet, but everyone needs to join in to give Earth its best chance.

Here are a few ideas to give a go this Earth Day, from composting to planting trees and a few things in between.

From household binning to composting

If you’ve got a garden – don’t throw your food waste into a regular waste bin. Make the most of a compost bin (if you have one) and start making your own plant food. If not, you can either get one or make your own with pallets, old bins or buckets.

With any luck your local council authority will provide food/garden waste bins to use if composting isn’t an option, but if they don’t you can contact your local councillors to convince them to move with the times.

Check here to read a beginner’s guide to composting.

Local clean up

Grab a bin bag, throw on some marigolds and get out there, grabbing any plastic, crisp packets and discarded rubbish you can see. Fill a bag, fill two bags – whatever you can clean up out of nature will save some wildlife down the road.

Most plastics, metal and glass won’t break down in the wild, proving a threat to all sorts creatures (including humans) for hundreds of years unless cleaned up and processed.

Switch to the search engine that plants trees

This one’s the easiest of them all, and one simple change can start planting loads of trees. If the average person searches 3-4 times a day, within 10 days they can have helped plant a tree through Ecosia.

It’s just as good as Google at your everyday searches, so add it to your chrome or change your bookmarks to get Ecosia-ing and start planting trees every day.

There’s even a nifty little counter that shows how many trees you’ve helped plant:

It might not seem like a lot, but that’s 9 trees that wouldn’t have been planted if this writer had stuck with Google or any other search engine.

Take care of garden visitors

Supporting the ecosystem keeps the world turning, and there are lots of steps you can take to look out for whatever wanders through your garden.

Digging a pond, putting down a hedgehog home, hanging bird feeders and installing pollinator-friendly habitats (or planting wildflowers!) will all help your garden visitors thrive, which in turn will help our planet stay in balance for as long as possible. Shop all wildlife care.

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now”

It might be a slight paraphrase, but this Chinese proverb has never been more apt. Every little bit of greenery you can get in the ground will push back against deforestation, whether man-made or through devastating blights and pests.

Get a tree, dig a little hole, add a bit of compost, put in the tree then fill the hole back in. Water well and then you’re on your way to a brand new tree and a bit of Earth-saving.

Earth photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
Clean-up photo by OCG Saving The Ocean on Unsplash