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Amy
Posted on | February 23, 2010 | 2 Comments
If like me, you follow Gandhi’s philosophy of “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” you most likely take a personal approach to living a sustainable lifestyle. I work to make small, green changes in my life and believe that my efforts (in addition to others like me) will eventually create a wave of worldwide change. Day to day, I don’t concern myself so much with what others are doing. I make my daily choices of what to eat, buy, how to work, and raise my children with the belief that these are the most important choices I can make towards bettering our world.
I am not the preaching type but this past week I witnessed some blatant eco-unconsciousness, and, yes, it made me angry. Our recycling bin sat alone on our street for pick up day. Do my neighbors really have nothing to recycle? I went to a potluck where large amounts of single serving water bottles and other disposables were being used. A woman actually told me this week she wouldn’t use cloth grocery bags because the store gave her plastic ones for free. I was speechless. I found it difficult in the moment to find words to say that would not be downright offensive. I chose to say nothing instead, but I was uncomfortable letting the moment go by.
Do you share your green, eco-concious ways with others? Do you wear your ideals on your sleeve and vocalize your feeling when you see wastefulness? How do you point out individual’s eco-infractions with polite, friendly sugestions? I would love to know. I don’t want to be silent in these situations.
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Ah Amy – Frustrating, isn’t it? I used to feel both angry and sad when at the playground all the other mommies would show up driving CO2-emitting, gas guzzling SUVs. Or later when hordes of other mommies would line up idling those SUVs in front of the elementary school. How could they all be so ignorant about the harm they were doing to their children’s futures? And that was years ago. Learn from my mistakes. You will not do yourself or the environment any favors by taking it on yourself to reprimand these people. You can teach by example. And you can also try to work with your community government to enact measures that would make it illegal to not recycle, that would ban plastic bags etc.
Comment by New Home Green Materials and Learning Center — February 24, 2010 @ 3:11 pm
It continues to amaze me that people consider ME to be the “freak” for eating a healthy diet, for recycling, for carrying reusables with me at all times, for refusing disposables, for packing my kids litterless lunches etc…I simply lead by example and with a smile always explain why I feel great doing what i’m doing…declare it loudly enough and know that someday you’ll be considered a trendsetter.
Comment by Lisa Borden — February 25, 2010 @ 8:49 pm