By SarahB | Leave A Comment
I have been the queen of recycling since a fifth grade science class required each student to collect aluminum cans in their home over a certain period of time and then take them into the recycling center. In California, cash was given in exchange for the cans and at the end of the project my mom let me have half the money. Money was a great motivator to me then – and later on, I learned the true advantages of recycling.
As a mom of two young kids, I want to teach them to be respectful of our planets, and to create habits that will become second nature for them as they get older to help conserve our planet’s resources.
Some things we do:
- Turn off lights when we leave the room. This is easy – and now that both kids are tall enough to reach the light switch, they are expected to turn off a light when they will be leaving a room.
- We don’t leave the water running when we brush our teeth.
- We use reusable bags when we go to the store. I have several bags, including the bag pictured above, which was sent to me by EcoBags. This bag is part of their Art On Canvas series (available on their website)- so it’s definitely prettier than my store-logo bag! A quality bag that is fun and fashionable like this one makes it easier for me to remember to bring my bags with me to the store. Not only do I reduce waste by not using the grocery store’s plastic or paper bags – but canvas bags are sturdier, and many models such as the one I was sent hold more groceries than the plastic grocery bag. Now, we leave the grocery store with our five reusable bags versus ten plastic bags. Win-win.
- Set up clearly marked recycling bins in your home. We have one for paper, one for cardboard, one for clear glass (our recycling center doesn’t yet take brown glass), and one for tin cans. Because Michigan requires a bottle deposit on soda and most other beverage containers, we have a separate bin for those as they get returned to the grocery store rather than a recycling center.
Please comment and share your “green” tips with me – I love learning new ways to help my children be nice to the planet.
ABOUT SarahB
Sarah is a wife, and a mother to two daughters, aged 8 and 5. She's is the stepmother to a 14-year-{read more}
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I used a similar idea where I work (residential/teaching facility for adults with MR/DD). We got a huge box that had contained styrofoam cups and painted it green. Add a recycling symbol, a picture of the earth and some wording and we had a dandy recycling box. Most of the ladies with whom I work have a multititude of physical disabilities as well, but all of them could at least wield a paintbrush to paint the box. Now, all our plastic bottles, aluminum cans, etc etc go in this box and when the box fills up, we take it to the outside recycling bin for the facility recycling program.
Probably every business, educational or government entity could set up a program like this, if they don’t have one already. All it takes is one person to start.