Environmental awareness and eco-friendly living is certainly all the buzz these days, and it's hard to know where to begin in making life changes that will be effective and lasting. Your children have probably been teaching you a thing or two, as they are focusing on upcoming Earth Day celebrations at school, and learning how to minimize their impact on their environment.
My eight-year-old daughter has become a recycling whiz, and often questions why and when I'm throwing something into the family trashcan.
"But I can use that," she says to me, as I begin to throw away the leftover Easter grass from the bottom of their holiday baskets. "I can use that for an art project. It doesn't have to be wasted."
Well, silly me Mom for thinking that the plastic strands of purple grass were trash. Gee, what was I thinking?
Hmmm. Seriously. What was I thinking? I sit there for a moment, and then realize that I was thinking like a child of the '80s, with disposable and cheap plastic, aeresol hairsprays, and rampant consumerism. I wasn't thinking like a kid of the millenium, as my children are. She is seeing things differently than I do, and I'm starting to learn from her perspective.
I've done a few things differently in the last decade, but there is certainly more work to be done. I can't just stop with simply changing out my old lightbulbs for the newer, eco-friendly ones. I started looking around for more information on little steps to take that might really get the ball rolling towards leaving less of an environmental impact on the world, and found a local little gem called "1Thing".
Started by a local radio station, this website's goal is "to provide approachable, relevant ways to start living green, from hints on energy efficient appliances to action to support sustainability like remembering to turn the water off when you brush your teeth. As a radio group, Entercom Wichita is entrusted by our listeners to deliver honest, relevant entertainment and information".
What I like about this site is the local tie-in to bigger issues. You can post your own ideas or gather information from others in the community about what's going on and what to do in Wichita towards the goal of increasing conservation and changing daily lifestyle choices a little at a time. It might be worth a few minutes to check out, and may inspire you to do some more internet researching and reading in order to learn even more.
Know of a good site? Share it with me! I'm still on the learning curve. My daughter has given me a verbal list of things I am not supposed to throw away anymore, and is keeping tabs.
She's pretty strict about it.
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