As a family, and specifically as a homeschooling family, I find myself always looking for teachable moments. As a mom, I find myself searching for ways to impress upon my children the importance of keeping our planet the place we NEED it to be. Clean. Unlike their rooms, which never seem to be that way, it’s a bit easier for them to understand that littering OUTSIDE is wrong. But more than that, being a “green” person – no matter what their age, is not only important for THEM, but for everyone around them, AND the people who aren’t even here yet – their kids!
When we first moved here to WV, we had to take our trash to the landfill because we didn’t have the money to sign up for trash pick-up.
We got to the landfill, and we were directed on where to go. Or so we thought. We drove down this windy road, following signs left & right, to get to where we thought we were supposed to go. As we were driving, I realized we were going UP. Up… UP… “honey, are you sure this is where we are supposed to go?”
When we finally made that last turn, we were up on top of a mountain. The kids were all kind of excited – we’d just climbed a mountain in our minivan. This was when I explained to them what this “Mountain” was made up of.
Trash.
When I explained the real process of the landfill – and we SAW with our own eyes, all the JUNK – not just paper, not just food, but JUNK that had been thrown there just that morning – it was heartbreaking to me. WE had left our recyclables at home. In our trash were the things we simply couldn’t recycle. As we sat there, trying to figure out what we were supposed to do, we saw more vehicles arrive and begin the process of unloading their SEVERELY over-laden cars & trucks of their trash. Their broken furniture, appliances big and small, and of course, the rest of the trash, all thrown into this giant pile that would then be covered up with dirt and giant burlap tarps. To be left and forgotten for the next generation to come. We explained ALL of this to the kids. We asked them questions about how long they thought it might take for those milk bottles to decompose under the dirt and if they thought that they ever would.
We were eventually redirected to where we actually were supposed to take our trash – but not before we noticed one of the landfill workers actually picking up piles of paper that had been tossed. I could just imagine the credit card bills, phone bills and personal information that he was given access to.
When we got home, we bagged up our recyclables together. Plastic of every shape and color – but in our county, only #1 and #2 are accepted – so we STILL had to throw those others away.
[mental note #1 to mom: stop buying those plastic bottles that aren’t #1 and #2. Let’s see how the manufacturers like THOSE apples]
We piled our newspapers and put them into their own cardboard box.
[mental note #2 to mom: stop buying the paper every day – you know you don’t read it!]
We got the tin cans and glass jars separated, though most of the glass jars were repurposed for Christmas presents (to be explained in another post!)
[mental note #3 to mom: fresh and frozen veggies don’t generate this much wasted metal!]
From that day on, recycling became a family priority. We wash out everything. We examine everything before it goes into the trash. Can we reuse this? IS it recyclable?
My biggest concern was the individual water bottles we were buying. Our drinking water is atrocious so buying water is our ONLY option at this point. Fortunately, we are close enough to a Wal-Mart that sells water that you can put in your recycled plastic bottles! So we began doing that and saved SO much money and space! Those little plastic bottles take up a lot of space and we simply do NOT have it to waste on waste. So now I take my plastic jugs to Wal-Mart once a week, during my regular shopping trip, and refill the gallon container for $.37. 37 CENTS!
Once we can afford it, we will be replacing the kitchen faucet that the last tenants messed up, and we’ll install our water filter and then we won’t even need the refills from Wal-Mart anymore!
We’ve also finally gotten them into the habit of shutting off the water while they brush, floss, wash up. Saving water amounts to saving money, and they KNOW about saving and wasting money so it was an easy enough way for them to help out.
Unplugging all the things we don’t use – that was easy since we’ve taken all their electronics out of their rooms. LOL
Only having 1 car means we HAVE to condense our trips as much as possible.
We’ve been using CFL lightbulbs for a couple of years now.
The little things that we do that make a big difference – that’s the most important “Green” thing to me.
LighterSaferGreener.com wants to know what we’re doing to teach our kids the importance of “green” living. All the things above, but also stressing that it not only benefits us, our children and our children’s children – but also everyone ELSE’s children, etc. etc. etc. etc. It just keeps on going. Isn’t that the ultimate pay it forward?
