-By Leigh Geiter
People only change when external or internal influences mandate a change. Many people think that so much change might be needed but fear that just their own individual contribution won’t add up to much; so they do not begin the journey to effect the core changes that are necessary. I do not subscribe to this philosophy. As is also said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with just one foot step in a forward direction. For me, it was an internal desire to live in a cleaner world.
Although I have always thought of myself as a “Mother Earth” sort, I was not what one might call a “tree hugger.” I loved organic gardening…but didn’t recycle. I loved nature …but didn’t consider man’s impact on the environment. About ten or so years ago, I would go to visit my Dad in Austin and saw that a very high percentage of people shopping in supermarkets there brought their own reuseable grocery bags to shop. And, I started to think: THAT act was just one small change that I could make that would help keep those annoying plastic bags from flying all over our streets and parks; much less cut down on the use of plastics. I remember the first few times I took my own reuseable grocery bag to HEB. The looks I got were priceless and amusing. Now, years later, I am glad to say that enough customers at my local HEB are using reuseable bags that I am no longer the odd one out. So many more customers are coming to the store with their reuseable bags in hand that it makes me feel like more people are becoming CONSCIOUS!!
So, with just a single, small act, my journey with environmental consciousness had begun. What next? Naturally, feeling like I had very easily accomplished a small change in habit, I looked for another difference-making change that I could make. So, we changed out our old fashioned, energy burning light bulbs, in favor of incandescent bulbs that last so much longer and burn far less energy. Easy peasy… This was starting to get fun!
Then, our City started a Recycling Program. It wasn’t intensely adopted, at first. Subsequently, earlier this year, we converted to a more embraceable Recycling Program, which has received a very strong response thus far. It was recently reported in local news that landfill garbage had been reduced significantly and we recently earned the City a refund from our Recycle Partner.
In March of this year, I was lucky enough to catch the airing of a documentary on PBS called “Bag It.” If you haven’t had a chance to watch the one-hour documentary (also available online), you should really make the time. It’s incredible!! You talk about planting the seeds of core change in habits… Initially, the documentary focuses on what it takes to manufacture those flimsy shopping bags, their effect on the environment, and the immense island of plastic garbage that circulates in the Pacific Ocean, but then the viewer quickly realizes that the main issue is “single use plastics.” We take petroleum that’s taken millions of years to form, use the equivalent of one third of the space of the item to manufacture a plastic water bottle, salad dressing bottle, mayonnaise jar, or juice bottle, etc., and then after one use, we throw it away. Shame! The documentary shows how Europeans use aluminum thermoses to dispense their water, how flimsy shopping bags are banned, and offers many alternatives to the continued abuse of single use plastics. NOW, I was engaged in my decision making about the products, services, and even organizations with which I wanted to do business. We are now in the process of ceasing our use of plastic water containers and switching to a private water service, as I no longer CHOOSE to further the abusive conduct of willfully purchasing products that employ the use of single use plastics.
And, so it truly is just being aware of the very little things that you can do to make a big difference for our community and our planet. We’ve only got one Earth, and we need to do everything that we can to preserve her beauty and viability for the generations to come. I still don’t consider myself a “tree hugger.” I don’t have wind turbines in my backyard, or solar panels on my house (yet), but I do feel like I’ve made a small difference that makes a big impact…if everyone would start thinking of “just one thing that they could do to make an improvement.” It’s actually begun to be fun to consider new ways that little changes can make a big difference.
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