Earth Day Ideas

Fun & Educational Projects for Earth Day

• See a list of planned Earth Day activities, clean-ups, celebrations, and presentations on our event calendar.
• Plan an Earth Day celebration and invite guest speakers.
• Develop an environmental day at school, at work, or in your community.
• Learn how to recycle at home, in the classroom, and at work in Cuyahoga County. Familiarize yourself with our tips to recycle right.
• Do a zero-waste lunch day or week.
• Conserve resources every day by reducing the use of water and energy. Turn off the lights when people are out of the room or on a sunny day.
• Carry a reusable water bottle.
• Organize a bike-to-school or walk-to-school day.
• Organize an anti-litter campaign for your community.
• Beautify your school or community. Maintain an adopt-a-spot for litter pickup or plantings around the school and the neighborhood. Request bags and gloves from the Clean Up Cuyahoga program.
• Start an environmental club or green team in your community.
• Encourage each classroom in your school (or science classes) to create a bucket or bag of compost. Use the compost created by the students in a special ceremony to plant trees, shrubs, and other plants on the school property. Learn more about composting.
• Try vermicomposting. Build an in-classroom vessel for worms to help reduce food waste.
• Plant Bulbs in the community or around school grounds. At a school, each classroom or grade should have a special area on the school grounds. Add signs for recognition. Invite a local business or organization to sponsor or support the event.
• Speak out. Write your legislator asking them to support environmental legislation. Contact companies to package their products in cans, bottles, and boxes that can be recycled.
• Recycle aluminum by holding a can drive. Host recycling drives for ink cartridges, clothing, cell phones, and other reusable goods.
• Participate in a paper recycling program for paper, phone books, and cardboard. 
• Entertain others. Present an environmental play or puppet show to students in other grades.
• Go on a field trip to a nature center, landfill, recycling center, composting site, or wastewater treatment plant.
• Monitor a stream near your school.
• Inventory the trees and plants in your neighborhood or schoolyard. Plant more.
• Hang "buy recycled" signs on items made from recycled materials or products that are recyclable.
• Conduct a waste audit at your school or office.
• Build blue bird, bat, or butterfly boxes.
• Raise native fish and release them in area ponds or rivers. Raise native plants and sell them.
• Create a rain garden.
• Raise money and donate it to an environmental cause.
• Make a t-shirt tote bag for shopping trips to the mall, grocery, or drug store.
• Attend environmental festivals around the region.
• Find a local refill store.