SUSTAINABLE USE OF RESOURCES
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
– Chinese proverb
Incorporating the 5 R’s of sustainability—refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle—into our daily routine.
Rethinking and changing the way we consume are very important steps towards working out solutions for the big environmental challenges that we are facing now.
Our beautiful planet just doesn’t have the capacity to continue to provide the unlimited resources and energy necessary to sustain the voracious levels of consumerism that our modern society demands. To change this situation, there is no silver bullet, however, Education can play a crucial role helping to promote a shift in our relationship with consumption.
More than ever It’s necessary to start to discuss and reflect with our children about our production system, our consumer habits and the way we dispose and manage waste. Together we need to consider: How products are made? What takes to make them? What resources do we need to produce these products? Where do they come from? What are the environmental and social costs of single use products? What is planned obsolescence? Where does our waste go when we throw it away? Where is away? All those questions should be discussed more frequently at our schools and in our society.
Normalising these discussions can highlight the problems and consequences of this vicious cycle of mindless buying, disposing, buying, disposing that we experience in affluent societies like Australia.
But it’s not just talk though, action is needed too! We can start by refusing to buy unnecessary items and reducing our overall consumption. But it doesn’t stop there. We need to fix what’s broken instead of throwing it away, and find ways to repurpose goods and give them a second life. And let’s not forget the importance of recycling materials to keep them out of our already overloaded landfills. These concrete steps are crucial if we hope to reduce waste and preserve the planet for future generations.
It is a long process but all those practices are possible to be implemented gradually in our our daily routine at schools and home. One step at time, we can change our habits and encourage families and future generations to have a more sustainable and responsible relationship with materials, resources and means of production.
Latest articles in “Sustainable Use of Resources”
LOOSE TEXTILES: When dress up ideas have no limits
HOW MANY WAYS CAN WE USE A MILK CRATE??
LOOSE PARTS
SUSTAINABLE USE OF PAPER
