I began life as reasonably environmentally aware. Grew up in a rural neighbourhood and spent a lot of time camping and hiking as kids, recycling where we could. Throughout my life, I have always gone out of my way to recycle, even when it wasn’t convenient. Over the last few years we have consistently taken our own shopping bags with us to the grocery store and consciously thought about our purchases before filling our bags (or house). But really, looking at ALL my actions and where I could make more changes has happened much more recently. Frankly, within the last year. It’s been an interesting experience. I discovered that once I committed myself (and my family) to ‘getting better’ over time, the opportunities for change just keep presenting themselves.
I started off this year deciding it was time for a true recycling bin in my house. We had always just used spare plastic bags and put the empty plastic bottles, newspapers and aluminium cans in there. But around March, I decided the time had come for a ‘real’ bin, with real status, to sit next to the rubbish bin in the kitchen. No need for three recycling bins or for color-coding, we just separate when we get to the public recycling bins. Wow, what a difference a real bin made! Suddenly I was inspired to fill it up. To see how much we could move from the rubbish side to the recycling side. To help all of us remember what could be recycled, I taped a label to the top that showed what could and couldn’t be recycled. Then began the process of reminding and clarifying that, “Yes, ALL plastic is recyclable”, “Don’t put that paper in the rubbish, it can be recycled!”, “Nope, glass is not recyclable in HK”. You get the idea. Even in a home with only five people, there is a lot to be learned and many habits to be changed.
The next opportunity that presented itself was buying recycled paper products. As we were doing so well recycling our paper, I began wondering where it all goes and how it gets used. I discovered one day, while walking the aisles of Park nShop, that there were recycled paper products right there in front of me! Who knows how long they had been there and I had never seen them. Now I ONLY buy recycled content kitchen towels, toilet tissue, and facial tissue. Sometimes it is a bit more expensive, but really not all that much. And I know if we can create more demand for these products and increase the quantities, eventually the prices will come down. A bit more challenging was the search for recycled content laser/copier paper for our home printer. After a few discussions, Pen & Paper are now stocking it. Again, a few dollars more than the blindingly white paper made from virgin trees, but honestly, not something I can’t afford. I’d rather keep those trees, farmed or not, alive and capturing carbon. It’s a bit more important in the long run.
From there, I moved to the household cleansers. We live in the Marina in DB, on a boat, where all the ‘grey water’ finds its way into the ocean below us. Unfortunately there is no way to capture this water or have it pumped out by the Marina Club. So, in a nutshell, all the soapy chemical-laden water from our dishwasher, laundry, showers, and sinks, goes, untreated, into the ocean. Honestly, I never spent a lot of time thinking about this. In a place where billions of gallons of sewage get into the ocean daily, it is easy to argue that “what I do doesn’t matter that much”. This year, however, I gave up that argument; preferring instead the mantra from Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So, we have now changed all our laundry, dishwashing, bath and hand-soap to eco-friendly products. Park nShop/Fusion is stocking a full range of Ecover products, more items can be bought online at Kinoa, and in-person at 360 in Central. I am still working on the shampoo challenge – trying to find the natural stuff without a lot of chemicals. Information is a bit scarce on this topic and the lists of ingredients require an advanced chemistry degree to decipher. The point is not perfection out of the gate, though, it is the awareness and action over time.
So now I find myself contemplating organic food. Again, I was never big into organic or free-range or all-natural foods. We do have an ethic to eat healthily at home and when we go out, and teach the kids good habits around food. But the cost and inconvenience of organic always made me question the value. What helped me reconsider my stance on this recently was a book I read called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, by American author Barbara Kingsolver. It is not a book about organic food. Instead it is a book about food choices and the impact food production and transportation has on our environment. The book uses Kingsolver’s own experience of eating local and growing her family’s food in their garden as the narrative, while throwing in plenty of discussions around genetically-modified food, massive US-size farms, the use of fertilizers and pesticides, the transportation of food around the world (lots of carbon), and the higher nutrition values of organic food. Suffice it to say, that I have a new view on how my personal food choices impact the environment. So, the cereal and the yogurt in our house are now organic. Bought some organic Granny Smith apples and baby carrots the other day, as well. It’s a process.
Yes, the changes are a bit more expensive. But if I am honest, they will likely cost a lot less than a night out in Lan Kwai Fung –a sacrifice I can certainly make. And think how much healthier that will be!
