April 22nd is a very important day to people all over the world: Earth Day. This is a day for holding open forums, creating community initiatives, and implementing creative changes in the interest of reducing man’s impact on our natural resources and ecosystem. Many of us who are pierced, tattooed, or otherwise modified are already part of a global community that makes daily efforts to reduce our carbon footprint and help preserve our planet, and we’ve already proven that if everyone pitches in, little actions can add up to a big difference.
With that in mind, here a few things that the modified community can do to reduce, reuse, and recycle this earth day:
1. Reduce
If you usually use a lot of electricity in the morning to run hair styling tools or light the way while you put on makeup, leave the juice off and spend the day au naturale. It’s estimated that purchased electricity accounts for up to seventy percent of overall carbon emissions in developed countries like the U.S. and Britain, so even just this one day with the lights out will make a difference.
2. Reuse
Did you know that when you need to make a body jewelry return you can reuse the original package? When you receive body jewelry from BodyCandy.com and decide to make a return or exchange, just place your items and return forms inside the original box or padded envelope, tape it shut with packing tape, slap on your stamps and a new address label, and place it in the mail. The planet will definitely thank you.
3. Recycle
Once you’re done with old body piercing jewelry, there are tons of ways to turn the parts into something new. If you prefer acrylic jewelry, you may even be able to place used parts in with your regular recycling; just contact the recycling plant in your area and find out what types of plastic they accept. You might be very pleasantly surprised to find out all of the interesting items that are acceptable for regular recycling. Wood products are also on the list of admissible merchandise in many areas, and plug jewelry especially can be turned into fun crafts instead if it’s not.
One great project for your ear plugs is to turn them into custom refrigerator magnets. All you’ll need is the plugs, a roll of sticky-back magnetic strip from your local craft store, some scissors to cut it with, and a few permanent markers. Just write or draw designs on the flat surface of the plugs with your markers, attach a small piece of magnet to the other side, and presto!
