My philosophy is that you don’t need to go full-throttle tree-hugger to be a better citizen of the earth. Awareness of how we use everyday resources is one of the first steps to making a difference.
I’m not an environmental zealot, but I am someone who cares deeply about the future of our planet and despises seeing it mistreated as a trash can.
Early in my life I recognized littering as the most obvious form of disrespect to the planet. Seeing trash strewn on my hometown streets made me feel so uncomfortable, I was constantly going out of my way to pick it up. Admittedly, at this stage in my life the word green meant little more to me than one of the secondary colors.
Fast-forward 15 or so years and the city of brotherly love is where my heart is…Now, I love Philly – I love Geno’s AND Pat’s, Rittenhouse square, angry Eagles fans, the Phillies, I could go on and on. However, my #1 gripe with Philadelphia is the trash (though it’s gotten better over the past few years!)
I think you’ve got to start small! There’s a lot of positive action going on towards making Philly a cleaner city and Julie & I applaud that. Part of our purpose is to inform on Philadelphia, national and global environmental news and events.
Because we feel strongly that the little things add up we’ll provide simple tips to help you become greener that don’t require a boatload of money or time.
Some people think the green movement is a trend, I think it’s a necessity.
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Been thinking about the abundance of trash on the Streets of Philadelphia for a while now. I do more than thinking about the trash that a lot of people leave, I pick it up as well and recycle as much of it as I can. I used to think it was carelessness. I now believe it is a bit deeper than that.
Pretty simple: picking up trash is a social taboo.
Trash picking is the job of the garbage collection service of the city and bums and homeless people.
Pay attention the next time you pick up trash and observe the reaction of other people. They will do anything beside looking at you.
If we want to change this and if you and I want to see more people picking up trash or just picking up the mountains of recyclables that trash the streets of Philadelphia, we have to change these social norms.
The way to do this is to make trash picking FUN.
I wrote about this multiple times on my site.
Here is one article on the subject:
http://phillyecocity.com/think-globally/inspiration/the-easiest-way-to-help-people-change-behavior/
And another one http://phillyecocity.com/think-globally/our-eco-disaster/why-i-get-pissed-off/
Loving creating your recipes:)
Thank you, Stephanie! More to come :)