Everything Natural owner Barry Kaplan displays one of the many Earth-friendly cleaning products available at the Clarks Summit store. 

Abington JOurnal photo / Melissa Kelly

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“Living as though Earth Day really mattered,” Kaplan said, helps call attention to something we should be aware of every day. To live greener, or not as wasteful, can include simple life changes that are easy to do. Kaplan said “What can you do? What can I do? Even if you were to eat one vegetarian meal a week, it has a huge impact. I am not advocating vegetarians, but in our country, we eat way more beef than any other country.” Kaplan also suggested that while eating less meat and using produce and products made locally will help the cause, there are many other alternatives.

“Home heating is the largest use of energy that exists. The amount of wood and paper thrown away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years,” Kaplan said. If during the winter, everyone were to turn down their heat a degree or two, Kaplan said it would make a significant difference. He also suggested in terms of vehicles, that tires are not properly inflated and may be causing them drivers more money in gas in the long run.

Households should recycle, Kaplan said. “Clarks Summit is a good community for recycling, but it could be better, if every household did.” Kaplan said using recycled paper towels could save millions of trees and landfill space. Also businesses should be more aware of their impact using office paper and the waste of printing emails. At the end of each of Kaplan’s emails it is featured: “Please consider the impact to the environment before printing this email.”

He suggested, “Save yourself money and dramatically reduce the amount of energy you use. Do something like fixing a leaky faucet which can cause 6,000 gallons of water to be wasted a month and up to 72,000 a year.”

Other ways you can make simple changes in your daily routine include: taking the time to stop and think before you throw away a plastic bag and reusing it instead, Kaplan said that the city of San Francisco has banned plastic bags because of the amount of waste that it causes. Also, energy efficient appliances make a difference, as well carpet squares, where instead of needing to replace the entire carpet, you could simply replace a square instead, and dramatically reduce the amount of waste caused by carpets in landfills.

“Suburbs, I hate to say it, are not good for the environment,” Kaplan said. He encourages people to consolidate their travels.

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Kaplan recommended that community members look at political candidates and their voting records in terms of the environment and they let the elected officials know of concerns of the environment. He added that the environment is not a Democratic or Republican issue. “It is what we need to do to sustain life on this planet.”

Starting to live a greener life Kaplan said, “really is not all or nothing. It is easy enough to do something here and something there. And keep getting into it.” Web sites like: www.conservation.org can help measure your carbon footprint, and teach you what to do to help reduce your impact on the environment.

“We have power and control and much more say than people think,” Kaplan said, of living a greener life.

Everything Natural will celebrate Earth Day all month and will host an open house on Saturday, April 19 featuring live music from the Doug Smith Jazz Duo from 1 to 3 p.m., a book signing with “Essential Eating” author Janie Quinn and more. For more information, visit www.everythingnaturalpa.com.

Organic Soaps

Local business woman, Danielle Fleming of Danielle and Company, Inc. will feature award-winning organic soap garden on QVC? for Earth Day.

On Tuesday, April 22, Earth Day, Danielle and Company will make its first television appearance at one multimedia retailer QVC, Inc., headquartered in West Chester. Fleming will be on-air live in the "Hot Beauty" segment from 8 to 10 a.m., to promote her award-winning All-in-One Organic Soap Garden.

Fleming’s product was chosen to debut on Earth Day because it is an "eco-chic" brand with "eco-friendly" products.

Spring park clean up

Meet at the Abington Area Community Park along Rt. 307 on Saturday, April 26 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Bring work gloves, rakes, pitch forks, and shovels, and put your name on personal tools. Volunteers will help pick up park and roadside garbage, gather and mulch branches and more. For more information, e-mail [email protected]