This holiday season and everyday, reducing consumption is an over-arching goal for thoughtful people. Plastic and trash washing up on beaches all over the world are a pressing reminder that nowhere is an island when it comes to humans and our wasteful destruction.
When we do consume we must devise ways to use less packaging. When we create waste we must carefully separate our garbage into compost and recyclables. Once this is the family’s habit, it feels grotesque and dumb to toss everything into one receptacle. Most places in the world are still tossing everything in together. We can be so much wiser than this. But to change, we the people, have to care and insist on policies and programs that require everyone to do their part, from cities and towns, to corporations and families. When we lead through example and mandate, others will develop smarter habits of their own.
For castoffs that we no longer need, knowing where they can be recycled is part of the solution. David Suzuki Foundation has published a helpful list of resources in Canada (organized by location) to help us do just that: See: Recycle your unwanted stuff.
Let’s get smarter and more disciplined in 2016. Yes we can.
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