And don’t Forget the Senseless Acts of Beauty!

Ann Herbert, the poet artist who inspired Random Acts of Kindness, also implored us to add prettiness to the world. There are so many ways to do this: plant flowers, pick up trash, or paint a lovely mural for the entire neighborhood’s pleasure.

What beauty can you bring to the world?

Be a Good in Your Hood

Pick up and recycle or compost loose garbage as you walk. Sidewalks are meant for safe walking, not weaving through someone else’s abandoned bottles and crumpled up take-out bags. Take pride in the area you live and help contribute to keeping it clean and safe. One person helping can inspire many others to do the same. I vowed to do this 15 years ago while living in the Lower Haight in San Francisco. By the end of each week, I usually had a big bag to take to the HANC recycling Center. In the last couple of years, I have gotten some puzzled glances and even laughter when I am dressed up for a meeting while walking down the street and picking up garbage, empty bottles, and what-have-you. I will occasionally say, “This is my service to the earth. Recycling is my religion.” And it is. I have the planet’s back!

Gaggles For Good

Plan an outing with a group of friends that will positively impact society. Instead of just going to the movies again, gang up for the good of all. Together, plant a community garden, help clean up a schoolyard, or volunteer for a nonprofit organization. In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are regular beach clean-up efforts and it is enormously rewarding to see the unmarred beauty beneath the trash. Find your local chapter of “Heal The Bay,” and get a little sun, sand and healing for you, your friends, and your closest coast.

Be a Good in Your Hood

    Pick up and recycle or compost loose garbage as you walk. Sidewalks are meant for safe walking, not weaving through someone else’s abandoned bottles and crumpled up take-out bags. Take pride in the area you live and help contribute to keeping it clean and safe. One person helping can inspire many others to do the same. I vowed to do this 15 years ago while living in the Lower Haight in San Francisco. By the end of each week, I usually had a big bag to take to the HANC recycling Center. In the last couple of years, I have gotten some puzzled glances and even laughter when I am dressed up for a meeting while walking down the street and picking up garbage, empty bottles, and what-have-you. I will occasionally say, “This is my service to the earth. Recycling is my religion.” And it is. I have the planet’s back!

If Something Really Worries You, Do Something About It

Millions of tons of plastic waste litter the world’s oceans, converging together in rotating currents called gyres and blanketing the water’s surface. On average, these gyres now hold six times more plastic than plankton by dry weight. Fortunately, 19-year-old Boyan Slat, founder and president of the Ocean Cleanup (theoceancleanup.com), wanted to invent “a method to clean up almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 10 years, using currents.” The youthful environmentalist and entrepreneur presented this revolutionary idea at a TEDx Talk in the Netherlands and was recently named one of Intel’s 20 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs Worldwide.

By Your Hand

    Use a dishwasher. This might surprise you, but washing dishes by hand uses six times as much water and twice the amount of energy as built-in dishwashers.

Be Nice

    Offer to help your roommate or spouse with one of their chores or do them entirely by yourself without anyone knowing. They will appreciate coming home to a vacuumed house or dinner already on the table. September is back-to-school and back-to-work time, and everyone is that much busier-so you should be that much nicer.

Be a Freecycler

    For me, the coolest of the online free resource sites is Freecycle (freecycle.org). The Freecycle Network initiation started in Tuscon in 2003, when Deron Beal sent out the first email to 30 or so friends and local nonprofits letting them know about the items he had to give away. Freecycle now has 4,738 groups worldwide and an amazing 6,690,000 members. Just think about how many wonderful free treasures have changed hands and the sheer tonnage saved from landfill. Bravo, Mr. Beal!

    Freecycle's mission is to save good stuff from the landfill, promote environmental sustainability, and imbue life with the spirit of generosity, creating stronger local communities in the process.

    The steps to join a Freecycle group are straightforward. If there isn't a group in your area yet, you can start one. Once you have joined your local group, you can begin to post messages for what you want and what you have to offer. Freecycle is administered by volunteers and has the advantage of not needing a physical location- Freecycle's easy-to-use listing website makes it nearly effortless to use. Some posts are for significant items such as computers, bicycles, television, stereos, and even cars. Offering your surplus and finding what you need for free are both gratifying experiences, and ultimately, they alleviate a lot of stress on our precious planet.

Be a Good in Your Hood

    Pick up and recycle or compost loose garbage as you walk. Sidewalks are meant for safe walking, not weaving through someone else's abandoned bottles and crumpled up take-out bags. Take pride in the area you live and help contribute to keeping it clean and safe. One person helping can win-ire many others to do the same. I vowed to do this 15 yeas ago while living in the Lower Haight in San Francisco. By the end of each week, I usually had a big bag to take to the HANC recycling Center. In the last couple of years, I had gotten some puzzled glances and even laughter when I am dressed up for a meeting while walking down the street and picking up garbage, empty bottles, and have-you-not. I will occasionally say, "This is my service to the earth. Recycling is my religion." And it is. I have the planet's back!

If Something Really Worries You, Do Something About It

   

    Millions of tons of plastic waste litter the world’s oceans, converging together in rotating currents called gyres and blanketing the water’s surface. On average, these gyres now hold six times more plastic than plankton by dry weight. Fortunately, 19-year-old Boyan Slat, founder and president of the Ocean Cleanup (theoceancleanup.com), wanted to invent “a method to clean up almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 10 years, using currents.” The youthful environmentalist and entrepreneur presented this revolutionary idea at a TEDx Talk in the Netherlands and was recently named one of Intel’s 20 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs Worldwide.