Austin sees green on 40th Earth Day

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austinites are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day by doing everything from shopping at green stores to recycling old computers.

Click here for some info on how locals have been celebrating all week.

Early Thursday, Mayor Lee Leffingwell comemmorated the "Give Back to Mother Earth" campaign. More than 50 austin businesses have signed up to give 5 percent of what they sell today to non-profits dedicated to helping the environment.

"I want to encourage everyone in Austin to go out and spend money today, and spend money at those places that are donating money for environmental causes," Leffingwell said.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is also celebrating Earth Day by planting 65,000 trees across the state. The native trees are a donation from the Apache Fund Tree Grant program.

In this tech-savvy town, Dell and Goodwill are teaming up to keep "e-waste" out of landfills by accepting old computers and computer parts to be recycled.

They will take any and all computer parts from any manufacturer- from monitors to printers to cords and cables. Don't worry about personal information, they say - everything will be erased and the hard drives will be destroyed.

Don't have time to dump that old  hard drive today? This event highlights ways you can get rid of your old PC for free any day of the year. Dell offers free recycling at nearly 2,000 Goodwill locations and 1500 Staples stores.

"It's amazing how many people have PC's piled up in their closets and don't know what to do with them, but they know putting them on the curb isn't the right thing," said Michelle xxx. "This is an easy way to know that you're doing the right thing, and doing something good for the planet, too."

At H-E-B you can take your plastic grocery bags to any store and get a coupon for a reusable bag.

Here's how some of our Facebook fans tell us they've celebrated Earth Day - both creative and humorous!

Steph O Crat: "I'm buying LED flood lights which last 30 years. Use very little energy. Cost around $50 bucks each."

Storm Britten: "I am getting my hair cut at Organics! Aveda all naturale!"

Tim McMullen: "I pulled weeds."

Danny Wier: "Just replaced the PUR water filter in the kitchen. They're each about $15-20, which wouldn't buy all that many individual bottles of water."

Cindy Riley: "We watched a barge being pulled by a horse down the canal."