City of Melrose Celebrates Earth Day With Gusto

It’s well and good to be proud of your hometown or country. But isn’t it weird how no one ever talks about how proud they are to be from Earth? Considering how often and blatantly it gets taken for granted, it’s a good thing we’ve been celebrating Earth Day on April 22 for the last 45 years.

For its part, the city of Melrose touts a handful of steps residents can take to benefit, or just better appreciate, everyone’s favorite planet in the solar system.

Among these - plucked from the Melrose Recycles Blog, and recently shared by Mayor Dolan’s blog:

• Check out Sustainable Melrose, a coalition of volunteers looking to reduce the city’s collective carbon footprint, during their presence at the Healthy Melrose Fair on May 2.
• Do what the Melrose Recycles Blog says, and quit letting cashiers hand you a disposable bag every time you buy something. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store. Reuse things when possible instead of throwing them away. Do the dishes instead of stealing plastic forks and spoons from restaurants (looking at you, Melrose Patch reporter’s roommate).
• Attend Swap Day in Melrose on Sept. 26, and trade off old clothes and various other necessities for new ones.
• Quit using so much electricity! Melrose Recycles recommends getting in touch with MassSave or Next Step Living for a home energy usage assessment. It also couldn’t hurt to make sure you turn your lights off when you leave the house, and don’t fall asleep without turning off your computer every night like the Melrose Patch reporter does.
• Take a hike through the Fells! Even if it doesn’t help the Earth directly, hiking is fun!

More details on these are other initiatives can be found here.