Earth Day; Preserving Chattanooga

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (WDEF) –  Today is Earth Day and people around the world use this day to promote environmental awareness in order to protect or planet.

But to some, everyday is Earth Day.

Here in Chattanooga, many devoted people work on keeping the city as clean as possible.

Most of the Tennessee Aquarium‘s plush toys are filled with recycled single use plastics and their gift shop sells reusable straws and sandwich bags.

This helps cut down on pollution that may find its way into the Tennessee River and contaminate habitats for animals like the paddle fish.

“I think that one of the most important Earth Day messages that people should here is what can you do to reduce your use of single use plastics. Every year about nine million tons of plastic makes it into the ocean. About 80% of that comes from inland sources. So we have a real plastic problem and we know from recent research data that was actually collected from the Tennessee River that micro plastics in the Tennessee River are actually elevated. It is our source of drinking water so we want to make sure we are doing everything that we can to keep it clean.” -Thom Benson, Director of External Affairs at the Tennessee Aquarium

Rivers are not the only thing that we need to keep clean in Chattanooga; air quality is just as important.

Southeast Diesel is working hard to promote the use of electric work trucks in order to reduce gas usage and pollutants in the air.

“The trucks are saving us [and] the city, on emissions. The output and the history of Chattanooga with it being a dirty city. This would further us even farther of being a clean city. Not just California, New York, Florida [it shows] that we care [and] businesses care about where we live and our futures.” – Mike Holtzhower Southeast Diesel.

Conservation and preservation look different to each person.

But on Earth Day, everyone has the same message.

Reduce…Reuse….Recycle!