Green Ways to Celebrate World Kindness Day
Here at Plastic Free North Devon we recognise the injustice of so much waste ending up in the environment, and see that our little acts of kindness to the earth can have a big impact.
From litter-picking in our own streets and neighbourhoods, to making sure to pick up fishing line that will be dangerous to marine life when we are at the coast, we know that these tiny acts of kindness can be far-reaching when multiplied by many people.
Today is world kindness day, a nationally recognised day for the celebration of kindness in society and day to day life. Individual acts of kindness are encouraged on this day annually by Kindness UK. Kindness UK is an independent, not-for-profit organisation with the goal of making kindness a greater part of everyone’s daily lives and increasing the awareness of the positive benefits of kindness to health and the overall wellbeing of society.
We’ve put together a series of ideas for little acts of kindness that you could do today or this week, to extend your random act of kindness to the environment around you.
*side note: we also think acts of kindness towards people and animals are really important too, so head to kindnessuk.com for loads more ideas.
Organise a group or individual litter pick
You don’t need to wait for a PFND organised event… get out there and clean your street, or pick up litter on your commute.
Start a recycling scheme at your workplace
This could be as simple as making sure that teabags get composted instead of going in the general waste in the staff kitchen or collecting up all your tetra paks and taking them to your local recycling centre.
Plant a tree (with permission of the landowner!)
Check out The Woodland Trust for lovely native trees, and all the info you’ll need.
Donate spare clothes to a charity shop, or organise an informal clothes swap with friends.
The clothing industry has a huge environmental impact. If you haven’t watched it already, check out The True Cost (available on Netflix) to learn more. If that doesn’t motivate you to clothes swap and charity shop instead of buying new, then we don’t know what will!
Donate unwanted/working toys to our up coming Christmas Toy swap event happening at Junglaroo in Barnstaple. We don’t need to keep buying new stuff we just need to share what we’ve got. Mass consumerism is at the very heart of the environmental devastation we face.
Make a one off donation to a conservation or environmental charity
We’d love if this was us, but there are lots of other brilliant ones out there. Check out Surfers Against Sewage, Marine Conservation Society, and Friends of the Earth.
Take part in a wildlife survey
There are lots to choose from, we love Bee Walk.
Sow some seeds for bees
Pollinators are integral members of our ecosystems, and with lots of habitat loss in the last few decades they need all the help they can get. There are some really easy options that you can sow in your garden such as Beebombs.
Pledge to Stop and Swap
Make yourself a promise that you’ll give up single use plastic bags, water bottles, and coffee cups.
For now, we’ll leave you with one final thought about kindness…
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.