What are some simple actions that anyone can take to clean the environment? In this article, we look at five of them. Are you ready to act?

In this article written by Impakter’s Tech Editor, Alessandro du Bessé and Erlijn van Genuchten, Ph.D. who is running a challenge to find every day for a year, simple sustainable solutions we look at some actions that could help to do just that. 

You can check Erlijn’s work on Twitter or on her website too.

While it would be great if everyone acts to clean the environment, it is a useful reminder – especially during the pandemic times we are living – to be very careful when picking up trash and using appropriate protection.

In addition to this, it is also better to avoid touching materials that are not clearly recognizable as they could be or contain hazardous substances.

5 Actions That You Can Take to Clean the Environment

1 – Take part in a local cleanup event:

The idea here is to pick up as much waste as possible, especially cigarette stumps and plastic. Apparently, each cigarette stump poisons 40 liters of drinking water and takes 12 years to be completely gone. And plastic takes even longer.

2- #FillTheBottleChallenge

Related to the first action, the second is called #FillTheBottleChallenge. On Twitter, people who have been picking up cigarette stumps, filled bottles and took a picture of their results. Are you ready to show us your pictures?

In the picture: One of the many effective ways to clean the environment: the #fillthebottlechallenge. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.

RELATED ARTICLES: 5 Ideas To Be More Sustainable While Driving Your Car |Six Apps for a Sustainable… | Britain Announced Ban on Petrol and Diesel Cars | Could Pandemic Accelerate The Path To Sustainable Fashion? |

3 – Pick up waste while on a hike

When going on a hike, if you see waste lying around, try to collect a few picks. It does feel good to know that the rubbish is not going to stay around for ages. Bring a trash bag with you on your next hike and see how much stuff you can collect.

4 – Dig out for buried waste

* Careful on this one, as you don’t know what you will find * Digging out buried waste is surely a way to clean up the environment. If you start digging, you will probably find an awful lot! You might find waste in many places around you, but do focus on those in areas you are more familiar with first, like a garden or park near your home.

In the picture: Waste collected in bins. Photo Credit: Unsplash.

5 – Take your clean up action under-water.

If you go snorkeling, you might see fish, but also some trash. Take a fishnet and fish for plastics. this is called strawkling. You will be shocked to see how much plastic you will find. We are at the point that, because of the microplastics in water, the sea-water has been called plastic soup. Removing as much plastic pieces as possible helps to mitigate this.

In the cover picture: A facility to collect plastics for recycling. Photo Credit: Unsplash.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com columnists are their own, not those of  Impakter.com