Martin Cooper, from The Refill Shop of Ikigai, explains how Earth Day urges people to invest in our planet.
This Friday, April 22 marks the 52nd Earth Day - a day that aims to mobilise a billion people to take transformative action to change the world we live in.
Founded in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, a Senator from Wisconsin, who highlighted to the American people just what impact their lifestyles were having on the planet.
Creating what became known as Earth Day, that first year he inspired 20 million Americans to take to the streets and parks to demonstrate against the impact of industrial development and deterioration of the environment, with mass coast-to-coast rallies in cities, towns, and communities all over the country.
Nelson also introduced laws in America, that have had a significant impact on the environment - protecting people from disease and possible death, and hundreds of species from extinction - and that continue to protect us all over the world today.
Fast forward 52 years and how much has actually changed?
Earth Day has become a global event - recognised as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes.
This year's Earth Day theme is 'invest in our planet' - encouraging us all to think about the choices we make and how those choices can make a difference.
I was once asked by a presenter in a radio interview whether him refilling his washing up liquid bottle would really make a difference.
My answer then, and now, is yes!
All our little changes have a ripple effect - not only is that bottle reducing plastic in landfill or being recycled, using materials and energy to change the bottle into something else, it's also potentially reducing the biocides found in many well-known brands of washing up liquid going into our water courses and harming fish (check the back of your bottle!).
The choices we make - what we buy, how we buy it and what we use - can have a significant impact on our planet, so use this Earth Day to think about the choices you make and whether there are better options out there.
No matter how small or insignificant you may think that change is, it's worth the investment in our planet.
For more information about Earth Day go to www.earthday.org
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