Earth Day At Hunt Street

This week we’re celebrating Earth Day. And since it’s the place we all call home, we think everyone should celebrate it! To that end, we’ve created a list of 6 ways you can join in to celebrate, improve, and protect our planet. Hunt Street Stations has done all these things and hope that you will too! Pick one or choose all six; the choice is yours! Read on to see how you can help us celebrate Earth Day.

1. Recycle More

Recycling is a great way to help the planet and we do a lot of it. We recycle plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and lots of paper and cardboard. Not only does it conserve energy, but it creates jobs too! According to the EPA, producing new plastics from recycled plastics requires 33% less energy than it would otherwise. And when you think about the fact that we manufacture 380 million metric tons of plastic every year, we have the potential to save a lot of energy. The recycling industry also employs over a million people. For every 1 waste management (garbage) job, there are 4 recycling jobs. Saving and employing? That’s right up our ally.

2. Start Composting

A lot of trash in landfills, like plastics, will unfortunately take hundreds of years to break down. But there’s a lot of other stuff in landfills that breaks down quickly and would be better off in a compost pile. From there, it can be used to enhance the quality of our soil. Composting adds both nutrients and microorganisms to the soil and reduces the mass of landfills. Hunt Street’s kitchen areas have special compost bins where we collect compostable things like fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, and the like. Everything has its place. Try composting your food scraps instead of the dump!

3. Host a Clean Up Day

Loose trash is both an eyesore and bad for the environment. Animals can end up eating the plastic and toxic materials can leak into the soil. About two weeks ago, Hunt Street Station hosted a clean up day at the northeast corner of Gratiot, St Aubin, and Vernor Highway. We filled 26 bags and had a great time doing it. Find some friends and spend the afternoon cleaning up a vacant lot or public corner. Just make sure you have permission to be there!

4. Install a Bike Rack

Whether you live in an apartment or work in an office, installing a bike rack can encourage people to make better use of their human-powered transportation devices also known as bicycles. We know this is the Motor City, but biking help strengthen your heart, lungs, and muscles. It also cuts down on car emissions and saves you money on gas. We’ve purchased and installed some outdoor bike racks to help our members use pedal power to get to work. That’s a Schwinn-win as far as we’re concerned.

5. Plant Plants

What’s more earth-loving than planting something green? They’re beautiful, they filter and add oxygen to the air we breathe, and when you buy them from a local grower, you help support small businesses too! Hunt Street Stations has more indoor plants than we can count and every year we add more to our landscaping outside. In fact, we’ve planted over 100 Karl Foersters around the building. Grab a couple plants and add some life to your home or office as the warm weather of spring finally arrives.

6. Improve Your Energy Efficiency

It’s important to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer but we don’t want to waste energy. When we renovated Hunt Street Station, we installed double windows throughout the building. It’s a great way to save energy and improve the look of your home or office! Other great ideas included adding insulation to your attic, installing a more efficient furnace or water heater. The less energy we all use, the more our earth will benefit over the long run. What can you do to improve your energy efficiency?

Happy Earth Day From Hunt Street Station

However you decided to be a part of Earth Day, we hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on the way you treat our home planet. We all have to share it so we invite you to take some action this week and give Mother Nature some love.