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The ecological situation on the planet is getting worse and worse every day, but each of us can do at least something to fix it. We all know this. In theory. In practice, many of us feel like we’re “too busy” to sort plastic, donate unwanted items to thrift stores, or use public transportation instead of our own car. However, making environmental habits a part of your life is not as difficult as it seems. Employees of Greenpeace Russia share their experience.
Anna Kosnikovskaya, media coordinator for Greenpeace Russia
If the husband returned from the store with a package, this means that we are in a quarrel. And there is no way for him to more eloquently tell me about his offense than to buy a large plastic bag and put all the purchases in it. In peacetime, I manage to put reusable bags with eco-bags in his hands at the door, but this does not always work.
For example, recently I asked to buy pistachios by weight, but he refused to take my beautiful eco-friendly organza bags with gold threads to the beer store. He joked: “Men will not understand.” Of course, a man with a T-shirt bag seems more strange and unattractive to me, but my husband’s attitude to most of my eco-habits as a whim says a lot about our society.
It is still embarrassing to stand out in it. It is inconvenient to take out your “fruits”, it is awkward to put products in them, it is not clear what to answer the cashier to the question: “Where did you get this?” Cashiers, by the way, react friendly: in the year that I use eco-bags, I saw a lot of different emotions on their faces – from surprise to delight, but I never saw irritation. But still, constraint is one of the main reasons why we can’t replace harmful plastic bags with eco-friendly alternatives.
For me, in addition to an eco-friendly lifestyle, there is another, no less important concept – eco-friendly communication.
In this sense, children are the most responsive audience: they gladly accept any changes in everyday life, if they know that this will somehow help nature. I tell them a lot about the dangers of plastic, about awareness and careful consumption. On weekends, we sort the garbage together, and they also help me collect batteries (we rent separately), plant flowers and trees near the house.
Despite the fact that I failed to convince my parents in kindergarten , the eldest son told his friends why it was dangerous, and even refused to take the balls left after the holiday home.
Relatives do not always support me on the path to consciousness and reasonable consumption, but I do not remember that an extra bag caused a serious quarrel in our family. For me, in addition to an eco-friendly lifestyle, there is another, no less important concept – eco-friendly communication: healthy relationships in which everything can be agreed upon without imposing feelings of guilt and shame on each other.
I go for pistachios with my organza eco-bag, and my husband helps me take the garbage to recycling on the weekend. Sometimes I see how he automatically takes a large canvas bag with him to the store, and I quietly rejoice: it means that our family has one more eco-friendly habit!
Violetta Ryabko, Head of Greenpeace Media
What eco-friendly habits can be introduced into the family? Here are my suggestions.
Refuse single-use plastic
It is worth stopping taking packages: both large ones at the checkout and small packing ones. You can replace them with eco bags and bags for weighing (by the way, they come in different colors, including black), and disposable containers with reusable containers. You can turn a trip to the store into a quest and try to bring home as little plastic as possible.
A reusable water bottle, sealed mug and thermos will save you from having to buy non-recyclable disposable cups: in many coffee shops, baristas will calmly pour you coffee in your mug. Glass, bamboo or metal straws will help you to refuse plastic straws in a cafe with a clear conscience.
Change your car to carsharing or public transport
The dirtiest air in the city is inside a car that is stuck in a traffic jam. And overall, 90% of air pollution comes from cars. In case of urgent need, you can use car sharing, and public transport will reduce the time spent in traffic jams.
Do not buy new toys for children, but play with them
Every year, 40 million toys are thrown away in the world, and almost 90% are made of plastic. At the same time, children will enjoy playing the homemade loto with the same pleasure as with the brand new Rapunzel in a beautiful dress, and the most memorable game is the one in which the whole family participated. And you should definitely give up cheap toys: they are short-lived and may contain hazardous substances. By the way, have you ever looked inside rubber duckies?
Separate waste
In Russia, landfills the size of Switzerland and continue to grow, and already literally under our windows. In the Moscow region and Tatarstan, they plan to build waste incineration plants. The idea of burying tons of waste somewhere far from Moscow is deadly harmful.
There is more and more garbage, and the only way to change something is to give up the superfluous and disposable, and hand over what is to be recycled. Find the nearest recycling center in your city .
Install a disposer at home – a food waste grinder: about half of the contents of our bucket are organic garbage, from which biogas can be obtained during processing. However, a disposer can only be installed in those cities where treatment plants are equipped with digesters – special containers in which the sludge is fermented after wastewater treatment.
If you install a disposer where there are no digesters, the crushed organic matter will end up either in a toxic waste landfill or in water bodies, causing eutrophication (deterioration of water quality). An alternative to a disposer is a small home composter or compost pit if you live in a private home.
We at Greenpeace regularly host swap parties — the exchange of clothes, shoes and jewelry. The same activities can be arranged at home or in the yard: , books and other useful things. Good things that you no longer need can also be donated to social shops or to charity.