Zero Waste: with your children
Zero Waste with your children? Yes you can! In my case this Zero Waste Challenge went well with my teenagers. Of course there have been complaints, but in general they have also taken up the challenge with a positive attitude and I hope I have made them a little more aware.
OMG!
Imagine you have a mother who suddenly realizes that she wants to do a Zero Waste Challenge! OMG! Well it wasn’t so bad … when I brought it up my teenage girls of 13 and 15 immediately started thinking about what we could do. There were also interesting discussions about how we treat our environment and nature. From early ages we taught them that you do not leave your waste outside but neatly throw it away in a bin, so they already are aware at some kind. Together with the youngest, I also watched some YouTube videos about how you live Zero Waste and how you make deodorant yourself, for example. And we have done the latter. As far as she is concerned we should have gone even further than we have now. Perhaps nice to ask how they experienced this Challenge themselves.
Experiences of Ruun (15)
Ruun thought it was a nice month, but actually thought it was nice for this month only. And by that she means that she can and wants to produce less plastic waste for a longer time, but does not want to go completely Zero Waste. And I understand, it is also very difficult. She also indicated that she found it interesting to see where we could reduce our plastic waste: “With some things, plastic packaging is not necessary at all and there is just a paper version of it!”. With shampoo and cream rinse, she does miss the plastic version, because it smells much better (note for mum: maybe we should also try another version 😊). The (whole) milk from the Milk Tap was also not such a success, but she says: “it is better for the environment to drink it from there”. Ruun has learned that “there are different types of plastic and that you can tell from the numbers on the plastic packaging that it is a bad or a better plastic”. She now shows herself better at what she buys. No more double plastic packaging and no sweets packed in separate plastic bags.
Experiences of Sil (13)
Sil liked to perform all kinds of experiments such as making deodorant yourself (and how much you actually need to prevent stinking 🙂). She also tried the shampoo bar directly on her hair, because otherwise soaping took so long. Not a success, by the way, because there were soap residues in her hair and with that many knots 😄. It was also nice to inspire other people to produce less waste, although she sometimes found it very frustrating to see what her classmates took to school like plastic bags, plastic packaging, drinking packages etc. And also difficult to talk to your classmates or girlfriends about it. Just like Ruun., Sil also learned the different types of plastic and which types of plastic are slightly better than others. And also that plastic packaging is not necessarily cheaper. She thought it was a fun project to do!
Proud Mum!
Of course I am very proud! Few complaints heard and no shame. To the neighborhood BBQ I brought my own plates and cutlery and I indicated that if they were ashamed they could just take the plastic plates and cutlery offered, but no, no problem! And as I said at the start of this challenge, I think this is a lot of fun and educational to do with your children, even teenagers.
Click here for yesterdays blog about Zero Waste storing food.
