Lowcountry celebrates Earth Day with local eco-friendly businesses and litter sweeps

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Many people celebrated Earth Day in the Lowcountry from shopping for eco-friendly products to cleaning-up littered areas.

This year’s Earth Day theme is “our power, our planet” and organizations honored it in their own ways. However, local residents did their part to either give back or connect to our planet.

“Earth Day is a celebration of everything that is in our natural world and the aquarium connects people to water, wildlife, and wild places,” Sarah McDonald, conservation vice president of South Carolina Aquarium, said. “We think Earth Day should be everyday because this is our mission, to ensure people have access to a clean healthy environment.”

“Just find the Earth and being outside and in nature just so important. Growing a garden is just a beautiful way to make that connection,” Ella Cowen, co-owner of Sea Island Savory Herbs, said.

Ashley Hall School held a “Plant With a Purpose” festival open to students and their families. Local environmentally based businesses were selling their eco-friendly products, while attendees were able to walk around and visit each vendor booth. Sea Island Savory Herbs, one of the female-owned businesses, brought their culinary herbs, plants, and pottery. Cowen hoped today would inspire the younger generation to make an impact.

“Just to kind of teach girls you can make anything work if you have a passion in it because Danielle and I were not businesspeople. We were just working there and ended up taking over the business. We love plants and so we were able to make it work even through snowstorms and hurricanes,” Cowen said.

Elsewhere, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and the aquarium hosted the Gadsden Creek clean up. Nearly 100 volunteers showed up to do a litter sweep of the aquarium’s adopted street. Friends of Gadsden Creek and the Charleston Area Justice Ministry also were present. That saltwater marsh in downtown often gets full of trash and often floods, but organizers said it is a vital ecosystem in the Lowcountry.

“As we know litter, especially plastic pollution, is harmful to wildlife and harmful to human health. It is one of the programs we work on and in this area it also floods a lot. Even though it hasn’t rained lately,” McDonald said. “There is a connection between flooding and litter, when the street floods and there’s litter on the street – it takes it into the salt marsh and ultimately into the Ashley River.”

Lowcountry Earth Month continues with its events until April 27.