Posted by Snow in 
ceramic
I have been playing a game of eye spy with some relatives and they look to be setting the gold standard for re-use and recycling. They seem to have a lot of it down pat. They don’t dry clean. They don’t lug heavy bags by the dozen every week to the curb. They know which tuna is dolphin friendly, which rare breed of fish is not sustainable to enjoy.
They know before they need to do something how to braid existing supplies into the material and resource demand of a new task. Re-using things come naturally to the older generation. Why is that? They can afford the best but don’t hesitate to buy used, or re-used.
A different generation grew up with a consciousness that energy was precious. They know how to plan a garden with biological controls. They knew, regardless of gender, to turn the oven off for one last item. They know not to overfill pans with water, leave the coffee machine on all day, and never hesitate turning off the stove or oven before the exact buzzer rings to save energy but cook with residual heat.
This behavior had to have been learned. How has that fallen out of mainstream knowledge? It’s as if living sustainably has become a kind of folklore.
So why do younger couples find it hard to live green? The urge to shop at the farmer’s market is fashion, not Slow Food. The knack for recycling can be disguised as very common household practices that market well to others. Older generations have grown up in eras where unlimited supply, no matter what the consumer demand was, had been rationed.
Finding ways to live green can be as humble as using all the leftover ingredients in your fridge instead of going out for pizza. There’s less danger of ugly chemical accidents with fewer toxic cleaners in the home. The cleaning that used to mean putting a face mask on or a having headache afterwards can now happen with children playing in the room.
Sustainable living can mean replacing all the chemical household cleaners over time with homemade household cleaning methods featuring borax, baking soda, lemons and vinegar. The fire hazard instructions for a lemon are very easy to grasp.
The goal of sustainable behavior is the unconscious adoption of it and the leadership to train others to follow suit. It’s somewhat troubling that the same generation that recycles their eyeglasses and lived before the modern conveniences of today takes the best care of the planet, having done the least damage to make up for.
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