A 15-monthlong public health crisis and a decadeslong environmental challenge intersect today as more than 1 billion people across the globe actively mark Earth Day 2021.

For the second consecutive year, the insipid COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on this annual green-letter day to mobilize for the preservation of this planet’s finite natural resources.

Indeed the pandemic has socked a double whammy on the spirit of the world’s largest secular hands-on holiday.

First, as more and more of us have been sheltering in place, household waste has been piling up at alarming rates and polluting increasingly overtaxed landfills. Today, the average American produces nearly 5 pounds of trash per day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Multiply that figure by 330 million and the impact of the solid-waste challenge to this nation comes into sharp focus.

Second, because of restrictions on large-group gatherings, many of the collective-action events such as huge rallies and mass community cleanups have been trashed this Earth Day. Instead, most official Earth Day events — from the Mahoning Valley to Mumbai, India — are taking place in the virtual universe this year.

Those realities, however, need not drain Earth Day of its purpose or its mission. Instead, they should motivate individuals and families even more to find creative and constructive ways to enrich and cleanse Mother Earth.

They can do so easily enough by practicing in earnest any and all of the three Rs of environmental protection — reduce, reuse and recycle.

All of us can pledge to reduce our reliance on one-use products that collectively contribute to the hundreds of millions of pounds of trash Americans pile up each year.

Consider, for example, cutting plastics and throwaway products as much as possible from everyday routines. The Natural Resources Defense Council recommends we choose a toothbrush with a replaceable head, use a reusable metal razor with a replaceable, recyclable head instead of disposable razors, 2 billion of which are tossed to the trash heap yearly in America.

As for the Reusing chapter of the 3 Rs primer, carry refillable water bottles and coffee mugs, get stainless steel or other reusable straws and promote the use of second-hand and hand-me-down clothes.

Recycling, the third R of the equation for responsible stewardship of the environment, is perhaps most critical. Recycling, after all, overflows with benefits. Well-managed and responsible programs: Reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators; conserve natural resources such as timber, water and minerals; and lessen pollution by cutting the need to exhaust our limited supply of natural resources needlessly.

Clearly everyday recycling must be strengthened. At a time when the industry is facing numerous challenges, we can ill afford to allow it to die a slow and graceless death. But even before the pandemic, recycling programs across this nation had endured downsizing and downright dumping in some communities.

Growing proportions of contaminated recyclable items coupled with skyrocketing costs for processing used paper, plastic and glass explain this disturbing trend of shrinkage in the recycling rate.

In the final analysis, however, the ultimate responsibility for ensuring useless materials can be made useful again rests in the hands of the beholder.

Instead of tossing that glass bottle into the same grimy bin as plastic bags and condiment-stained sandwich wrappers, take the time needed to properly sort and manage all recyclables. Multiplied millions of times over, such thoughtful disposal decisions can make a difference in healing the ailing recycling industry and, more importantly, in preserving this nation’s finite warehouse of natural resources.

In Mahoning County, the Green Team remains the king of recycling and environmental health. In the coming weeks and months, the agency has planned a wide variety of public campaigns and special events, including appliance recycling drives, household and hazardous waste collections, electronics recycling, paper shredding and scrap tire recycling drives in communities throughout the county.

For more information on these and other events, contact the Green Team at www.greenteam.cc or telephone 330-740-2060.

With so many opportunities to contribute to making a difference in preservation of a clean and pure environment, resolve this Earth Day to adopt the principles of the 3 Rs — reduce, reuse and recycle — into your routines today and every day.

editorial@vindy.com