{"id":18443,"date":"2015-02-23T09:46:39","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T14:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18443"},"modified":"2015-02-23T11:22:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T16:22:06","slug":"five-ideas-teach-children-zero-waste-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/five-ideas-teach-children-zero-waste-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Ideas to Teach Children Zero Waste Living"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n We are creating waste at an alarming rate, and most of us aren’t even aware of it. On a given day, if you drink your morning coffee from a paper cup, have water from a plastic bottle<\/a> at lunchtime, and use a few napkins and straw with a cocktail during dinner, you could produce a lot of waste with your beverages alone. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates the average person produces about four pounds of trash daily. But there are some who are going against the status quo of being wasteful.<\/p>\n For example, New Yorker Lauren Singer has only made enough trash to fill up a single mason jar<\/a> in the past two years. The 23-year-old shares on her blog Trash is for Tossers<\/a> that she avoids excessive and unnecessary packaging by making many of her own cleaning and beauty products. Who really needs their toothpaste in a pretty box? Lauren also explains how buying in bulk<\/a> and shopping at farmers\u2019 markets helps her to produce less trash. She writes that it\u2019s important to continuously evaluate how many things you really need and steadily make improvements to cut out the junk.<\/p>\n While these ideas are useful for anyone wanting to live more eco-friendly, being a parent I wanted to find out how similar practices could be explained to children. After all, little ones learn from our examples. Continue reading to the next section to find out how one woman is helping her sons learn that less is better.<\/p>\n Bea Johnson, wife, mother of two and author, teaches families how to accumulate less waste by following the 5Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot (compost). She insists there can be no exceptions or reordering to the list. On her website, Zero Waste Home<\/a>, she includes a special section just for children<\/a> to learn how reducing waste easily can be a part of their lives. Try out some of these suggestions in your family and see if living with less trash is right for you. Here are five of my favorite ideas from Bea\u2019s list:<\/p>\n What other ideas do you have to help children learn to create less waste? Which resources do you use to you help your children learn the importance of reducing your family\u2019s trash?<\/p>\nGet the Kids On Board with Your Zero-Waste Plans<\/h3>\n
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