Every year I tell myself I want to do something special for Earth Day. Then suddenly Earth Day comes and goes and I didn’t actually do anything. This is because I never seem to get past the idea phase. Or worse, I find out about local Earth Day activities after the fact…
But this year I’m determined for things to be different! Thanks to this blog I’m being more proactive and consistent about creating better habits for myself and the planet. And one of those habits is to be more aware of what’s going on in the environmental sphere. So, let me share some of the resources I’ve found for making the most of the upcoming environmental days.
What’s the plan for this year’s Earth Day activities?
My biggest hinderance to doing Earth Day activities previously is that I overcomplicate things. I keep coming up with ideas for what I could do instead of paying attention to what is already going on in my area. Now that I’m paying more attention, here’s what I’ve found:
- There are actually quite a few earth awareness/environmental days in addition to World Earth Day. Below are just a few of the upcoming dates with links to the corresponding organization’s website.
- Earth Hour – 3/22/25
- International Day of Zero Waste – 3/30/25
- World Earth Day – 4/22/25
- Arbor Day – 4/25/25 (actual events vary by region)
- World Environment Day – 6/5/25
- World Oceans Day – 6/8/25
- Plastic Free July – all of July
- If you go to the organizing day’s website you will find lots of great information on environmental issues and tips for earth friendly activities.
Where to find events and Earth Day activities locally
If you are looking for environmental activities to do this spring, then you’ll want to check out the websites listed above. These have the most comprehensive databases for activities, events, and environmental action.
By looking at the sites, I learned that my area has Earth Awareness activities starting in March and going all the way till May! Which is nice, because if I miss one I can be that much more motivated for the next one.
Things I’d like to highlight about some of the databases:
Earth Hour (3/22/25)
Their site has a great activity database! Not only does this help get the ideas rolling, it can also be filtered by category for easy browsing. If you do an activity for Earth Hour, be sure to log it on their site. This helps them with recording impact and with further activity development. Also, you don’t have to do the activity on March 22nd for it to count towards your “hour”.
Here’s a little bit of information about Earth Hour. The purpose of Earth Hour is to raise awareness and do something that benefits the earth and its inhabitants for one hour. You might be more familiar with the original version of Earth Hour which was a Lights Out Event. Turning the lights off for an hour is still a great activity to do for Earth Hour, but if that doesn’t work for you don’t worry. If you go to their site, you’ll see that they have expanded the hour event to include more types of activities.
World Earth Day (4/22/25)
I was really excited to see an event map on the World Earth Day site! Previously, I had been searching for local Earth friendly events with google searches and social media, which was becoming tedious. So, seeing all the events listed in one place was a welcome sight. The events and activities on the Earth Day map range from festivals to community cleanups, all of which are open to public participation.
And the database wasn’t just for Earth Day, some of the events were for Earth Hour and Arbor Day as well! So, if you’re organizing an Earth Friendly event that is open to the public, I highly recommend adding it to the World Earth Day map to keep things up-to-date.
A little bit about World Earth Day – it is one of the most well known of the Earth awareness campaign days. It started in 1970 and has since grown to reach and encourage millions of people to help protect the earth.
Earth Day activities that make an impact all year
One way to celebrate Earth Day is to do something that will make an impact all year long. These actions can be something simple like a small change to your daily habits or becoming more informed so you can make eco-friendly choices when you have options.
Below are a few examples…
Have something you do everyday do good for the planet
Do you search for stuff online? Whether you’re looking up products or information you can actually help with planting trees every time you search by using the Ecosia browser, or search engine. Ecosia wanted to create a way for people to make a positive impact with their daily actions. 100% of the Ecosia profits go towards environmental projects with a focus on tree planting.
Decrease your dependency on single-use plastics
Plastics, as we know them, have only been around since the 1950’s. It’s amazing to think how much plastic waste we’ve created and accumulated since then and it’s just the beginning! This makes cutting down on single-use plastics a priority for current generations to address.
“The OECD also projects that, without interventions, global plastic use and waste will almost triple by 2060.” – EPA.gov
If cutting down on plastic is something you’re interested in for your earth day activities, you can get tips and strategies on sites like my own; where I do monthly plastic-free challenges in order to develop plastic-free strategies for daily life. Or, you can check out sites like Plastic Free July that have lots of great tips and different categories to reduce single-use plastics.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
When it comes to recycling, take the time to learn what your local municipality can in fact recycle. Items that can and can’t be recycled are usually listed on the recycling centers webpage. If you skip that step, your good intentions might be doing more harm than good.
It’s called wish-cycling when you don’t know for sure, or assume, something can be recycled as is. So, an item gets thrown into the recycling stream “just in case” it can be recycled. The main problems with doing this is that it can contaminate the load of recyclables or jam the equipment.
Wish-cycling is a mistake all of us make at some point but it can be prevented by just reading your municipalities guidelines. So, please do your part to help make the recycling process as effective as possible because every municipality is different.
Why attend an Earth Day activity or event?
By attending an earth day event locally, or online, you’ll likely learn more ways that you can make a positive impact just by changing your habits.
You can also learn more about environmental issues and strategies to deal with them.
Earth day activities, such as cleanup days, are an opportunity to meet new people and work together to beautify an area.
The biggest advantage to attending and Earth Day event, at least in my case, is that someone else has already done all the planning and prep. All you have to do is show up and participate. That’s the one that appeals most to me. And who knows, maybe next year I’ll be one of the ones to help with the planning and prep.
Let me know in the comments below what activities you like to do for Earth Day or any of the other Earth awareness days.
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