Reducing your wastefulness keeps things in perspective

posted 06:21 AM 08/05
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Reading, writing, and arithmetic were the three R’s for my parents. As a parent, my three R’s are reduce, reuse, and recycle. We’ve added a fourth: repair. My grandma always had an assortment of odds and ends and she could fix most things, or make do without. She had to. She didn’t have the luxury of buying cheap, made in China goods like I have now. Even with planned obsolescence, it still made sense to repair something broken. TVs, toasters, irons, and vacuums were cost effective to repair. Perhaps this recession will slow down our first thought to throw things away.

I read an article in the May 2009 Real Simple magazine about swapping stuff. Neighbors and friends gather for a party and bring unwanted items. After a potluck meal they could swap their stuff. After all, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

Recycling is better than throwing away. “For every can of household garbage, 70 cans of waste were produced to create the contents in one can going to the curb“ (www.storyofstuff.com). I think of this while grocery shopping and my kids rarely have the cool, packaged snacks in their lunches. Recycling can mean giving to a nonprofit organization, too. My favorite group to support is Senior Services for South Sound in Olympia. Holding a garage sale or posting something for sale on www.2good2toss.com is another form of recycling.

Reusing takes creativity sometimes. A glass peanut butter jar makes a great flower vase. I think reusing was a good skill Depression-era people possessed. I know it was out of necessity that people reused and repurposed, and I think we are getting creative again. My grandma once made a pretty dress out of printed flour sacks. Our family has finally developed a system to remember to take our reusable grocery bags to the store which is a great accomplishment. Willing to say, “Why not try?” helps rethink other purposes for objects.

Reducing may be the easiest and hardest at the same time. Recycling is easy with pull-out bins in my kitchen. I have always looked at the world a little differently, I think, so reusing comes naturally to me. Reducing is my biggest challenge. I want to be a good steward of our financial resources, yet buy whatever I want. Do I really need 10 different flip flops? Maybe one good pair would be enough. I am trying to add to my mental process this question: “How much will I save if I don’t buy those pants on sale?” Lately I’ve been buying $2 pants and shirts from the Senior Center Boutique. I justify this as a donation to a good cause, but my closet is getting so full I have a hard time deciding what to wear. When I saw an ad that the National Guard is going green, I realized everyone can reuse, recycle, and reduce.

Neither my grandparents nor parents were “green.” They acted as those around them did — saving much — and were good stewards. This should be the underlying motivation for going green: Am I being a good steward? Reducing, reusing, recycling, and repairing doesn’t take an outspoken act; just a humble regard for creation and respect of our creator.

Jamie Kenny, a member of The Olympian’s Board of Contributors, lives in Tenino with her husband and two teenage children. She can be reached at kpraise2him@scattercreek.com.

Comments

Development on the downtown isthmus holds great potential

posted 02:08 PM 08/31

Just when I think I’ve heard enough about development on the isthmus, I hear more.