As a youth in today’s society, I understand that reusing items can be beneficial to our environment. We recycle cans, glass bottles, cardboard, paper, plastic and many other things. We even buy appliances and light bulbs that use less energy.

Everyone is “going green” and doing everything he or she can to save energy and help preserve our environment. So I decided to ask myself, “What can I do for our environment?” After thinking about it, I realized that I am actually helping my environment in a huge way and didn’t even realize it.

My family has undertaken the restoration of a house in Rowesville that has been in my family since it was built by my great-great-grandfather in 1928. Up until this past summer, the house was empty for 10 years. We plan to sell our current home and move to the house by this coming summer. By restoring this old house and selling the one we are living in now, we are providing a home for another family. Every time a new house is built, there is about an acre of land that is cleared. We will be putting our home back into circulation, therefore there will be one less acre that will have to be cleared.

An acre of land is able to house up to 740 trees that provide us with oxygen for our environment. So restoring things and bringing them back to life are good things. It is a very unique way to do your part for the environment. Since my family has started work on the house, I have also begun restoring my late grandfather’s 1980 Chevrolet Blazer. Bringing old things back to life is something interesting and unusual that you can do to not only be different from everyone else, but also to do your part for your environment.

If there wasn’t someone to fix these old cars, tractors or houses, their pieces would be taking up space in a landfill, where they would spend eternity. That space could be used to plant trees or make wildlife sanctuaries. When you wonder how you can help, go repair that broken-down building in your back yard, or fix that old lawn mower that has been sitting around for years. Instead of taking your old things to the dump, fix them and use them. In this way, you can do your part to help preserve the environment.

-- Matthew Crisp, Orangeburg

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