Leading by Example
If I know anything, it’s that you can’t change people with just your opinion alone. You change them through your actions. You change people’s perceptions by being an example for them. By setting the bar at a level most people won’t reach for.
I offer up my character to be judged by those who see me do the things I do. I care more about the Earth than I care what people think of me. I acknowledge that most people will think I’m weird, or crazy, or maybe even gross. But the rest might see me as taking initiative. And using my image to foster any willingness to make a difference is advantageous; I am unapologetic in my actions and I look cute while doing it!
I like to think that someone who sees a short girl in a dress and a bow picking up a bottle from the trash or the street will feel more inclined to the idea of taking up the habit themselves. This opposed to perhaps the expected image of perhaps a person living on the street collecting recycling. If we can break down the negative stigma about this, then we can solve this issue together. If I can do it, you can too! Just keep some hand sanitizer on you!
In some way, I’d like to set the trend that it’s cool to recycle. But rather than call it trendsetting, I’d rather refer to it as habit forming on a societal level. Whether it’s recycling in your home or your work, remembering to save your plastic bags, holding on to that empty bottle or can until you can recycle it, or even grabbing recycling as you come across it in the parking lot or in your neighborhood – we can all commit to at least one small thing, one tiny change in our daily actions in order to keep our world clean. And, the even bigger idea that must be stressed is that we have to stop using single-use plastics, to begin with. Recycling is great, but much of what we recycle isn’t actually getting recycled, which means everything I do could be for nothing. So, we need to make changes in our lives. Stop buying plastic bottles for your drinks. Stop using plastic straws. Bring reusable bags to the store. There’s so much more you can do to address the plastic crisis, and in another article, I will address some different solutions individually. But for now, the basic idea is to adopt
If we all try to be the change we want to see in our world, then that change can be made possible. It just takes time and effort, as well as determination and dedication.
And we are well overdue for us as a society to move past our selfishness when it comes to our view of the world and our view of waste.
It’s time people stop saying, “Not my mess, not my problem”.
Except that, it is your problem. It’s my problem. It’s EVERYONE who lives on this planet’s problem. Whether you think you’re directly contributing to it or not, we all play a part in the state of the world around us. Anything you put in the trash could potentially end up in the ocean, even if it takes a while to get there.
How many videos have we all watched about the plastic crisis going on in our oceans and around the world? How many times have you heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – the massive floating mess of trash in the middle of the Pacific that’s twice the size of Texas? How many rivers and beaches BLANKETED with trash have we seen images of? How many animals have we seen being caught in plastic bags or fishnets, or having a straw stuck up its nose? How many times have we heard about whales and marine life were found dead because they ate so much trash that it blocked their intestines? How many more times do we have to see these atrocities we’d inadvertently committed on our world, our HOME, before we finally get off our asses and do something?
There are now reports that the seafood that we eat has been found to have traces of microplastics in their tissues. And there are reports that there are plastic particles in our bottled water, and even some in our tap water. How long until our other sources of food are found to contain plastic? If it’s present in our drinking supply, and over time, that level increases, could it potentially begin accumulating or building up in our crops, or our livestock?
We’re starting to consume plastic on a daily basis, without even realizing it. And how long until that build up of plastic in our own tissues begins to wreak havoc on our bodies? The chemicals present in plastic that we intake overtime have been linked to cancer, as well as disrupting our endocrine system. Which means that these chemicals can throw our hormones out of balance.
I’m not a scientist, but I am concerned about whether this could potentially result in a large part of our society sterile due to this plastic intoxication. It probably would not happen immediately, but over the next ten to twenty years, will we start to see the adverse effects of this crisis?
Only time, and our actions from this point on will tell.
If we are to fix this mess, we need to act quickly and collectively. No more excuses.
This is our home.
And sometimes you have to clean up after the other people who live there and make a mess.
It’s a mess that shouldn’t have been made and left to its own devices in the first place, but it’s also a mess that will get worse unless we ALL pitch in to clean it.
Imagine leaving a piece of rotting food out on the counter because the person who left it out didn’t want to touch it, and you don’t want to touch it either because it wasn’t your mess. Someone is going to have to throw that food out or it will mold, and potentially get someone sick.
I don’t want to clean up after others. I sometimes have to really push myself to clean up after myself. But there is a difference to cleaning my room and cleaning my home – the home I share with everyone else, the home I will share with my children, and the home they will share with their children.
I don’t want to leave a mess for my children, or my grandchildren. We owe it to them to leave them a place that is clean and hospitable. We owe it to them to not leave them a mess to clean up. We owe it to them to prove that we can share responsibility with everyone we share this world with. I want to leave them with a world that can be proud to live in and be a part of. A home they can be proud of.
So I will continue to do everything I possibly can to make a difference. I will try to be mindful of my waste and the waste I come across that can be “saved” and act to reroute its journey so that it doesn’t end up where it doesn’t belong. I will keep trying to lead by example and inspire others to take action.
I will continue to be the change I want to see in the world. Who is ready to be the change with me?
