Earth Day passed almost without notice in Jasper, except for a corner on Patricia Street where Sandra Coombe set up a display that encouraged everyone to wash their laundry in cold water and give up the plastic bag habit.

Coombe knocked 20 per cent off the price of concentrated laundry detergent and gave free re-useable grocery bags to the first 50 people to shop at Nutter’s, the store where she is manager.

“I’m encouraging people to wash in cold water and save a whole bunch of energy,” Coombe said. “Eighty per cent of the energy used in a laundry goes to heat the water. Washing in cold water gets your clothes just as clean.”