by Ruth Floresca

Created on: January 21, 2011   Last Updated: January 22, 2011

Our world is fast deteriorating due a lot of people's disregard for the environment. Global warming is happening because the things we do and the things we use contribute to destroying the Earth. 

In my family, going green has long been established as something that should start at home. My husband and I are staunch supporters of responsible waste management. We segregate and recycle our trash to avoid adding to the dump sites that are already way too crowded.

In fact, one wall of our kitchen is lined up with several pails where the compost, hard plastics, bottles, tin cans and scratch papers are segregated accordingly. When the garbage collectors come, we only throw away about 10-15% of our trash. The rest are put in sacks and brought to the junk shop where they can be sold. We help protect the environment and earn a little pocket money on the side too!

Too, when going grocery shopping, I almost always never forget to bring my large canvas bags to put our purchases in. As much as possible, we avoid bringing things home in plastic bags.

I also make sure I have a small cloth bag folded inside my shoulder bag every time I go out to attend meetings or media events. That way, when I happen to drop by a store or two to buy goodies for the kids, I will have somewhere to put what I buy in.

I am all for supporting the organizations who are concerned with saving the environment. But I firmly believe that being vocal about the dangers of global warming is not enough if you don't start at home and do your share.

We are glad that by seeing this example at home, our children have also learned to be good citizens of this Earth. I was so proud of my second son one time when we were at his school (he was eight at the time) and he kept going several times around the benches I and other moms were sitting on. He was holding his snack wrapper. I asked him what he was doing and he replied, "Looking for the trash can Mommy."

A few years later, this same son of mine wrote an article on proper waste management which was published in our local newspaper when he was 13. He believes in what we are doing!

In my, and my husband's case, raising our children (who will literally inherit the Earth after we are gone) to care for what happens to their environment is a good enough start to effect positive changes.

I believe all it takes is educating and mobilizing people one family at a time.

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