Keep Up the Green
From carbon credits, to compostable latte cups, to dresses made of recycled plastic bags (yes, really), society’s environmental consciousness has reached fashionable proportions.
Naturally we want to help. But we’re grown-ups, already entrenched in our lifestyles, just happy to have small ways of assuaging our impact-related guilt. Sure, I’ll recycle. How hard is that?
Kids are different. Their world is smaller, and so they feel their impact on it can be greater. Grade-school projects to plant a tiny garden made me feel like I was changing my whole town.
When recycling came onto my radar, I embraced it with the same zeal. After all, who could say that that one extra paper towel roll wasn’t going to put my hometown landfill over the top?
It is easy to view this sort of youthful enthusiasm for doing the right thing as a cute diversion, like the school play. But the truth is that it matters, for two reasons.
The first reason is developing a lifelong good-for-everyone habit. Brush your teeth. Read a lot. Recycle. It isn’t how many paper towel rolls I saved as a 6th grader. It’s the fact that I still recycle and re-use, as a matter of course. I’ve even talked my five-year old into letting me tuck away some of his (many) extra toys, and pretend they’re new later instead of buying him quite so many new ones.
Second, kids really can make a difference. There are a lot of them, and recycling works. For example, Seattle now recycles or composts nearly half of its garbage.
Of course the fewer new things we buy in the first place, the less we consume, too. When I was still in high school I discovered the thrill of finding used clothes and books in thrift stores. What kid doesn’t love a treasure hunt? And buying used is of the most environmentally friendly ways to shop. Bonus!
So, let your kids’ enthusiasm for living green go wild. For example, let them help design their next birthday party or family gathering to be eco-friendly. They are sure to think of creative fun: re-gift well loved books and toys, do a thrift store fashion show, make and wrap presents from used materials, and invent experiences to give instead of giving stuff. For kids these ideas are fresh, fun, and within their budget.
However you do it, don’t let your child’s marvelous I-can-change-the-world-to green optimism fade. You are setting the tone for an earth-friendly adulthood. Participate. Encourage them. You’ll probably get as excited as your kids.
In fact, if my kid can ever make me a dress out of used plastic bags, I promise I’ll wear it.
Beth Geiger is an award-winning author of science books for young adults. She contributed to several books in Sally Ride Science’s Earth's Precious Resources Classroom Set, including authoring Clean Water.