Team TAP are no strangers to protecting the planet, in fact when we were compiling our list of green efforts for Earth Day 2021, we were actually surprised at how many of us are making environmentally friendly choices day in day out.

We’ve taken inspiration from Earth Day’s 51 Ways To Restore The Earth, and we’ve pretty much ticked off all of the activities listed. Here we take a look at a few of them in more detail. 

As a disclaimer - we are all too aware that these are things we should all be doing anyway but we felt it was important to talk about these for Earth Day and to recognise the impact even the smallest of actions can have, in getting us one step closer to net-zero emissions.

Litter Picking

From the countryside in Oxford and Somerset to beaches in Spain and Scotland, we’re no strangers to taking an extra bag out with us to collect litter. As lockdown eases, we’ve seen a real increase in the amount on our streets.

This weekend alone Mila collected bottle caps, straws, plastic bags, polystyrene, fishing rope, broken glass bottles and even a syringe on her beach walk.

Duncan and Emma, our #RubbishRunners (check them out on Strava), are regularly collecting rubbish from their local area when they are out on their runs too.

As are Jenni and Izzy when they are out on their bike.  

From Farm To Fork

There are allotments-a-plenty amongst Team TAP and collectively we are growing at least 40 different vegetable varieties. Vrin has taken her green fingers one step further by creating no dig beds, retaining carbon within the soil. She even uses the middle of her Who Gives A Crap toilet rolls instead of buying plastic seed trays. Brilliant Vrin!

Jenni is the Queen of buying local and reducing the distance from farm to fork. She gets her milk delivered and she has a brilliant local butcher for local veg and cooked meats. Her husband James is also a hunter-gatherer, so they don’t tend to buy a lot of meat as their freezer is well stocked with things they’ve caught or shot.  

Hannah has swapped her supermarket shop to meat from her local butcher as well as vegetables and eggs from a farm shop down the road… all delivered to her door for free!

Duncan has been sampling the local ales at his village community pub (which TAP part owns), he assures us that this is purely to reduce the carbon footprint of the beer! 

Looking After Nature

As we know, bees are incredibly important in the food chain. Vrin has been looking after her local bees by hanging up a special home for solitary bees to lay their eggs in.

Duncan is also helping the bees by taking on a second allotment and using part of it for wild flowers and giant sunflowers. There will also be a hive added soon.

Martyn has been protecting his local trees, ridding them of the ivy that’s been choking them, as well as taking care of his local village Church garden, in order to keep it tidy.

Learning

Many of the ideas incorporated within Earth Day’s list are about learning about the planet, about how to be more sustainable and sharing that message with your family. We took part in quizzes with our family’s and signed petitions to encourage the government to improve climate and environmental literacy lessons in schools. 

Rob and his family created this great video sharing ideas about protecting the planet through 5 simple actions. We love it!

Reducing Plastic And Toxins

From feminine hygiene products to toilet paper, several of the team have been switching to greener alternatives.  

Jenni is fastidious when it comes to reusing, recycling and choosing green alternatives. And, as she says, it’s not only about saving the planet but also about saving the pennies. With a young family finding alternatives that work for everyone isn’t always easy but she has made significant changes to help, including cloth nappies, reusable water bottles, coffee cups, straws and beeswax wraps to use instead of clingfilm. She recommends Babipur and Kleen Kanteen, if you are in the market for some new things!

I now only use non-toxic cleaning products and buy refills instead of single use plastic items. Method, Ecover and Smol have proven great brands for me.

An amazing effort all round by the team and just goes to show how easy it is to make green choices and to help protect our local environments.

Check out all the free resources from Earth Day here.