by Debbie Kendle Lawson

Created on: August 21, 2010   Last Updated: October 11, 2010

By going green, and being eco-friendly, every person can easily help the wildlife, the environment, and the human race. 

One way is by not littering.  Have a garbage receptacle located in handy places outdoors and in your vehicles, so that you and others do not litter.  Communities, parks, and businesses should have garbage receptacles handy, so that people throw away their litter in to the garbage receptacles, and not on the ground. 

Many people seem to believe that there isn't anything wrong with tossing cigarette butts on to the ground.  Cigarette butts, that are thrown down, really do litter our streets, our yards, and our neighborhoods.  It looks bad when you see tossed cigarette butts laying around everywhere.  The polymer acetate filters, that are in cigarette butts, take about 15 years to break down. Discarded cigarette butts can be harmful, even fatal, to the birds and animals that eat them.  These birds and animals mistake the cigarette butts for food to eat.

Every day, cigarette butts are a major cause of serious and fatal fires in homes and elsewhere. Discarded cigarette butts are also a major cause of forest fires. Over 1,000 Americans lose their lives each year in fires,and there have been many thousands of injuries each year, that are believed to have been caused by cigarettes.

In most of the Western countries, cigarette butt litter accounts for about 50% of all the litter out there.  Cigarette butts are small; but they become mighty in number, and can create more than 500,000 tons of pollution per year.

Trees:

Approximately 600 million trees get cut down to provide wood for drying tobacco? The loss of all of those trees hurts us.  The loss of so many trees hurts our environment, too.

Go outside and plant a tree.  Plant a tree on Arbor Day each year.  That is a very good family activity.  Talk to your children about the importance of trees.  Let them know how important trees are to our environment and to us. 

Purchase re-usable bags for carrying your groceries.  Each time you go to the store, just bring your re-usable, carrying bags with you.  This helps cut down on the number of trees that would have been cut down to make paper bags.  These re-usable bags also cut down on the number of plastic bags that are cluttering up the environment.

Ride Sharing:

Ride sharing reduces the number of vehicles that are on the

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