Refusing shopping bags, collecting bottles and offering rides to neighbours are small differences that can help save the environment.

Keep Bermuda Beautiful president Ms Kendaree Burgess-Fairn pointed out a number of ways Bermudians could protect their surroundings and preserve resources.

In a run up to Earth Day on April 22 she spoke on the topic of sustainable development in Bermuda for a Bermuda Planning Association forum last weekend.

"We all have and make choices every day. We choose to allow extra bagging, over packaging and mindless waste. We could just as easily choose not to take that path.'' While society appeared "obsessed with bags'' as status sympols, one tree filters out four pounds of toxins a day.

Car pooling cut down on motor vehicle emissions. A single car produces its weight in carbon in a year.

And bottles, now discarded, should be re-used in the same way that previous generations, which regarded them as valuable, did.

"Our parents' and grandparents' generation were mindful. The concept of sufficiency and frugality need to be re-examined,'' Ms Burgess-Fairn said.

She suggested energy saving through solar panels and low energy light bulbs and exercising care in discarding batteries and household chemicals.

Incineration of batteries was a major source of mercury in the environment -- causing brain damage in foetuses and cerebral palsy in children.

Batteries and other items containing mercury such as fluorescent lights and thermometers should be dropped off in designated buckets at gas stations.

Unwanted paint, paint thinners and unwanted motor oil should also be properly disposed of.

"Don't put them in the trash or dump them on the ground. It could leach into the water lens and contaminate our water supply.'' One gallon of gas could contaminate a quarter of a million gallons of drinking water, she said.

Education was another important factor.

"Find out what acid rain is,'' Mrs. Burgess-Fairn advised. "Find out what the long term effects of a global disaster like the Exxon Valdez are.

Realise, that what happened over there can and will affect us and our environment here in Bermuda.''