Our planet is running out of resources, as humans use up water, land, and energy faster than they can regenerate. This Earth Month, you can challenge yourself to reducing your footprint on the Earth through small, manageable steps. That''s the proposition of "21 Days of Green," an Earth Month campaign created by local environmentalists. After adding the account "greenaction" on the social media app Line, participants will receive a quick and easy "green challenge" every day in the month of April. Formosa News reporter Stephany Yang reports.

Stephany Yang
Formosa News reporter
If you want to live a greener lifestyle, but don’t know where to start? There''s a 21-day online “Green Challenge” that features eco-friendly action steps each day.

After you add the account “greenaction” on Line, the 21-Day Green Challenge will ask you to complete a “green challenge” of your choice each day. One challenge is unsubscribing from emails you don''t read, because emails produce carbon. Another challenge is saying no to plastic utensils on UberEats.

Evelyn Liao
Greenvines cofounder
When ordering food from food delivery apps, you can leave a note saying, “I really don’t need tableware.” The app already lets you opt out of tableware, but some restaurant workers or couriers will still give you some because they’re worried you don’t have them.

This 21-day challenge is organized by Greenvines, Taiwan Environmental Information Association, B Lab Taiwan, and RE-THINK Taiwan. They’ve held this event each year since 2017. So far, 16,000 people have participated, completing 160,000 “green challenges.” This year’s green challenges were chosen by a public vote. Many of them tackle environmental problems created by the pandemic.

Jason Huang
RE-THINK founder
Before 2020, we have cleaned so many beaches and did not see that many masks and rubbish. But since last year, we’ve been seeing a lot of discarded masks every time we go down to the beach. Masks are actually made of plastic, and not a natural cloth material, so it damages the environment. I encourage everyone to discard their masks correctly. There is a green challenge that encourages everyone to cut the strings off their mask, because there are some animals that can get strangled by the discarded masks.

Due to the pandemic, food delivery apps are more popular than ever. There’s been an increase in waste created by online shopping, according to a March survey by the Taiwan Environmental Information Association.

Chen Jui-pin
Taiwan Environmental Information Association
We found that 57.9% of people were going outside less often due to the pandemic. Twenty-one percent of people were increasing their delivery orders, and 30% of people were shopping more online.

The survey also showed a rising awareness of the toll human activity takes on the Earth. Sixty-five percent of respondents said they care more about protecting the environment now, than they had in the past. The top three issues they cared about were climate change, air pollution, and plastics pollution. Organizers of the 21-day challenge are calling on everyone to take small actions to save the planet they live on.