Beyond Recycling
Steward...ish
It is interesting to consider the images that stick with you from childhood. There was this short on one of the popular children’s programs that featured a child running water while he brushed his teeth and then cut to a lake outdoors that rapidly drained leaving the lone fish floundering (pun intended!). I cannot say this cartoon lives rent free in my head, because it has greatly impacted my stewardship of the planet.
Black Girls With Green Thumbs encourages you and your family to be stewards of this earth, especially during Earth Week. Your environmental stewardship could take many forms beyond recycling (do that too!). Here are 3 that we practice:
Leave reusable shopping bags in your car. | (or purse). To effectively reduce litter (because thin plastic bags are so difficult to and often not recycled) we must remember to use the many tote bags most of us have acquired over the years. One trick we use is to always have them accessible. Further reading here
Eat your food. | Almost 40% of food produced in the United States is wasted. While most of the waste occurs at the production and distribution stages, a significant portion is wasted by consumers because of our misunderstanding of food labels and tendency to over buy. Composting at-home can also divert hundreds of pounds of food waste from landfills. Further reading here and here and here.
Start a garden. | (of course we’d say that!) Help us care for the garden at the West Oak Lane Library on Earth Day and read more on how gardening increases air quality, biodiversity, and access to fresh, healthy food here.
