The road is long...
Every week or two, my wife and I pack our 2-1/2 year old into the car along with our collection of household recycling, paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and tin etc, and head to the local recycling depot, which in the small town where I live consists of a half-dozen labelled bins in a parking lot. My son likes to help, as near-three year olds love to do, and he mostly follows us around (or we hold his hand so he doesn’t go trouncing around the dirty containers or picking up all the paper and other recyclables which didn’t quite get through the little slots). I hold him up and he helps put the cardboard through its slot into the cardboard container. And he especially likes to throw glass into its bin, enjoying the great crash as it falls in with its own kind.
Fun at the recycling depot! This is something I never experienced with my parents thirty-some-odd years ago when I was almost three. I’m not sure now when exactly this all started and who will be remembered as the first generation of kids who learned to recycle before they learned to ride a bike. I’m just glad mine is learning at an early age that recycling is just as much a part of life as having to take out the garbage.
But still, how slowly things do change. Altering old habits is such a long process for most of us, especially if we’re left to do it on our own, without regulations imposed, for example, by a forward thinking, socially responsible government who truly puts the environment before profi t and convenience. What a concept! This kind of thing is certainly happening much more rapidly in Europe at this point, which is promising. And while the general population is one thing, it’s big business and government that need make some monumental changes to the way they operate. But try telling a businessman that money isn’t everything. Another example from my own life showing how old habits change ever so slowly involves trying to get used to using canvas bags when grocery shopping.
This is just one small way all of us can stop the totally unnecessary use of a completely wasteful convenience item. These days, almost every time I shop I have to run back to the car to get my canvas bags, but only after I’ve got to the checkout counter with all my groceries do I remember. I’m just so used to not even considering it. Everyone has to wait for me while I explain that I would rather not use plastic or paper, and then run out of the store, through the parking lot, usually carrying my son, get my bags, come all the way back through the “in” door and then push back through the line, explaining myself again (albeit with a delightful smile for those I’ve inconvenienced with my tiny convictions). I do notice that cashiers are getting more and more used to this kind of thing, so that’s good. And yet another example of how slowly things are changing involves a recent hotel visit where I kindly asked the woman cleaning my room to please just leave my towel hanging over the shower rod. “I only need one during my stay,” I told her. This particular hotel didn’t have a sign asking guests to hang up their towels if they didn’t want them changed. (Incidentally, I’ve found that many hotels that do post these signs in their rooms, still have staff that change towels every day, even if you comply and hang your towel up.) “Oh no,” she assured me. “I’ll change it for you.” “No please,” I explained. “I would really prefer you didn’t. To save the unnecessary use of water.” She looked at me as if I was joking. “If everyone in hotels kept their towels for two or three days during their stay, think of all the water that would be saved,” I said.
Maybe I came off being a bit condescending. In any case, I was met with very loud, and heartfelt laughter coming from down the hall after I had closed the door. The next afternoon, after a hard day at the trade show I was attending, I came back to freshly laundered towels, folded neatly for my convenience.
Fun at the recycling depot! This is something I never experienced with my parents thirty-some-odd years ago when I was almost three. I’m not sure now when exactly this all started and who will be remembered as the first generation of kids who learned to recycle before they learned to ride a bike. I’m just glad mine is learning at an early age that recycling is just as much a part of life as having to take out the garbage.
But still, how slowly things do change. Altering old habits is such a long process for most of us, especially if we’re left to do it on our own, without regulations imposed, for example, by a forward thinking, socially responsible government who truly puts the environment before profi t and convenience. What a concept! This kind of thing is certainly happening much more rapidly in Europe at this point, which is promising. And while the general population is one thing, it’s big business and government that need make some monumental changes to the way they operate. But try telling a businessman that money isn’t everything. Another example from my own life showing how old habits change ever so slowly involves trying to get used to using canvas bags when grocery shopping.
This is just one small way all of us can stop the totally unnecessary use of a completely wasteful convenience item. These days, almost every time I shop I have to run back to the car to get my canvas bags, but only after I’ve got to the checkout counter with all my groceries do I remember. I’m just so used to not even considering it. Everyone has to wait for me while I explain that I would rather not use plastic or paper, and then run out of the store, through the parking lot, usually carrying my son, get my bags, come all the way back through the “in” door and then push back through the line, explaining myself again (albeit with a delightful smile for those I’ve inconvenienced with my tiny convictions). I do notice that cashiers are getting more and more used to this kind of thing, so that’s good. And yet another example of how slowly things are changing involves a recent hotel visit where I kindly asked the woman cleaning my room to please just leave my towel hanging over the shower rod. “I only need one during my stay,” I told her. This particular hotel didn’t have a sign asking guests to hang up their towels if they didn’t want them changed. (Incidentally, I’ve found that many hotels that do post these signs in their rooms, still have staff that change towels every day, even if you comply and hang your towel up.) “Oh no,” she assured me. “I’ll change it for you.” “No please,” I explained. “I would really prefer you didn’t. To save the unnecessary use of water.” She looked at me as if I was joking. “If everyone in hotels kept their towels for two or three days during their stay, think of all the water that would be saved,” I said.
Maybe I came off being a bit condescending. In any case, I was met with very loud, and heartfelt laughter coming from down the hall after I had closed the door. The next afternoon, after a hard day at the trade show I was attending, I came back to freshly laundered towels, folded neatly for my convenience.