I am a tree-hugger. And I have three recycling bins, a compost pile, a huge garden and a first name-basis at the Natural Grocers to show for it.
As a natural worrier, I often think about the effects of litter, pollution and waste on the earth and how it will affect future generations. Environmental health has always been important to me. I think most of us try not to think about the devastation we contribute to the environment every day, or how we squander precious resources. It’s easy to forget how many people live in the same luxury as we do and billions of people share our one and only earth.
I believe that, inherently, people like to do the right thing. When humans do something good, they feel good. I love the rewarding and gratifying feeling of recycling. When I drop off my recyclables, I know what I have is not going to waste, and I smile. Most of what is thrown out every day is recyclable but sits in a landfill and continues to build up year after year. Resources on our earth are limited, and with the amount of people who need them, landfills won’t sustain the mass of garbage that will accumulate in the future.
I have two bins set up in my kitchen, one for plastic (bags, water bottles, detergent bottles, ect.) which must be thoroughly rinsed, and the other for paper products. When the bins get full, I dump the contents into the trunk of my tiny car, and I drop it off when I pass United and Wal-Mart on my way home from school. I prefer United because the bins are cleaner and they offer more disposal options. The labeled bins at United sit at the back of the building, and the bins at Wal-Mart are right next to the gas station.
For those who aren’t familiar with a compost pile, composting is a way to recycle everyday items such as leftover food and plant scraps. It’s the best fertilizer one could ever create for a garden. Every basic compost pile consists of browns (dead leaves, twigs, and plant scraps), which provide carbon; greens (vegetable and fruit scraps, grass clippings and coffee grounds, etc.), which provide nitrogen; and water, which provides moisture to help break down the organic matter. I use my compost pile to fertilize my garden and grow fresher fruits and vegetables. Often, compost piles can have different kinds of, well, animal feces in them because they are so full of nutrients. Now, don’t go poopin’ in my garden, but composting certainly makes for yummy vegetables.
No matter how far we stray from our natural instincts and how far entrenched we are into society, we are nature. I can’t begin to explain how it feels to sit in my garden and feel the dirt between my fingers, the blue sky above me, the soft breeze blowing through my hair, birds chirping, and insects lavishing in the brown gold. Then, the first sprout pokes its small green nose through the dirt like an eager child, slowly reaching towards the sky, begging for life. This is to watch life in its purest beauty, to see the foundation of nature nudge through the earth to do exactly what we do every day – live.
If you asked me why I spend my weekends washing out plastic bottles and getting dirt in my hair or why I don’t just walk out my back door and throw everything into the dumpster, I would tell you it’s because I love my earth.
