Being sustainable with kids in your life

I’ll say it — Going green with kids in my life has not been easy. However, I believe it doesn’t have to be a complete washout. Here are real life examples we use at home in tackling environment sustainability at home.

Firstly, let me caveat that I haven’t gone zero-waste. In a household where disposable diapers are still being used everyday, and plastic bags still used to line our waste bins, we have chosen to go the path of less resistance, but one aligned with our own principles to being responsible (see post).

The principles I listed around being sustainable are broad because there are many ways to apply sustainable practices. However, without these principles, we could be trying to be responsible in the wrong ways. One common example — the act of recycling could be contributing to further waste if we do not think about our impacts through consumption or energy use.

Applying these actions to the home (non-exhaustive):

1. Minimise any waste where possible:

• Easier said that done, I know. Because we live in China where recycling rates are very low (less than 10%), how we try to limit waste is to focus our efforts on minimizing the use of stuff that cannot be biodegraded when they reach landfill — mainly plastics, especially single use types.
• Reuse plastics from your packaging. We categorize our plastics into small, medium and large. So these plastic serve another purpose to store anything — from our packed lunches to crayons.
• Don’t let Best Before dates on packaging run your life. This may be controversial, but we often consume yoghurts and cereal even if they have gone past their expiry dates. Expiry dates on many dry food packaging are sometimes misleading that the food has gone bad. I have read up about this, and having been in the food industry myself before, I know that the Best Before dates are often given way before food products actually go bad. So if it’s a week old, it is generally okay to consume.

2. Reduce electricity consumption

• Many may be surprised but the simple act of heating up of water takes up the most energy in coffee/tea consumption. (see this really good video by Unilever about their analysis of environmental impact from tea consumption). I would boil water, then transfer the hot water into a thermal flask which keeps it hot for hours.
• Remember your mum screaming at you for not switching off the lights when you leave the room? Yes, it is sustainable. Switch off all electrical appliances when you don’t use them.

3. Reduce water consumption

• Bath tubs take up the most water. Brief showers are the best.
• Soap your cutlery without the water running is an easy one.

4. Eat less red meats and dairy

• The biggest environmental impact the world is facing today comes from our intensive agriculture land use. Simply by cutting down on red meats and dairy would already help reduce your impact far more than any recycling effort you do.
• That said, it has been sited that over-reliance on a certain crop can also result in intensive cropping that strips soil of nutrients over time. Organically grown crops that grow with seasons, and allow animals to graze may be the solution, but if half the population on this planet starts consuming organically, we would almost certainly run out of land to feed ourselves. My conclusion is to eat moderately, less red meats and dairy if you can, but eat with colour, with plenty of gratitude. And clean your plate.

5. Consuming only what we need

• I try my best to only buy only what I need to maintain the household. All materials have to come from somewhere, so the less you buy, the less resources is extracted from the ground. It is difficult because every now and then I really enjoy a good shopping treat, so I do allow myself to do this once in a while, as long as I keep to my mantra that if I buy something, I’d have to make space in the house for it. This means having to let go of something else. It has really helped me to have some self-control.
• Some other ideas kid-related: Toys can be exchanged with friends who are tired of their own. Kids learn to get used to things quickly so I would not get hung up if they aren’t brand new. I also use my kid’s drawings as wrapping paper. They are often colourful, and my son loves that his work is part of the present.

6. Reuse what you can, back into the home

• Less than 10% of the plastics we dump in the recycling bin actually qualifies for recycling. Chances are, the plastic is contaminated or is of low grade, and this goes straight to the incineration or landfill. Hence, wherever possible, I try to buy things that has minimal packaging in general.
• We recycle whatever paper you have at home (drawing for kids, cutting, sticking stuff). I use plastic containers store leftover paint, or for sorting and storing accessories and random junk. Glass containers I use for potpourri, flowers and decorations.

7. BYOB

• We make it a habit to bring our own bag when we do our grocery shopping. To make sure we never forget to bring the bags (which has happened many a time!) we now leave the bags at our doorstep, or in the car. I also carry a thin plastic bag in my pouch so I never need to ask for an additional plastic.

8. Bulk packaging is better for the environment

• We as consumers can’t really choose how much packaging is used, but we can make choices on brands and products. I don’t want to endorse brands, but the one company that I know is making alot of headway to reduce packaging overall and increase its circularity is Unilever. I tend to stick with brands that come under Unilever as a start.
• Bulk packaging is better for the environment — basically anything with minimal use of extra packaging is already helping with minimising waste. So we buy bigger bottles of shampoo or oil. My husband believes using soap reduces our reliance on plastic packaging, which is very true. We try to avoid single sachets or packets of sweets by buying in bulk, and filling reusable containers with a cocktail of different snacks. The kids polish their boxes clean every time.

9. Buying second-hand

• The goodness of second-hand is that it reduces our dependency on extracting more raw materials from the ground, but also minimizes waste. I am a big fan of the second-hand market. There are many digital platform in China that encourage second-hand trades; Carousell in Singapore; or just among friends on group chats. We have found superb deals on second hand sites, and we also managed to let go of items we no longer need to other second-hand buyers.

10. Getting around with less petrol

• We drove a hybrid car before we moved to Beijing. Whilst I don’t consider this a truly sustainable transport solution (read: car batteries and the severe exploitation), we have reduced our overall consumption of petrol. In Beijing, we use bike-shares a lot. We bring our kids around in a little RadioFlyer wagon (acquired second hand!), and this has allowed us to get around the city pretty easily.

The list of possibilities go on, but this is a start.

Measuring progress

One last important aspect which I did not mention in detail is the possibility to monitor progress. I have not gone further on this (apart from tracking expenses, which should go down!), but it is certainly possible to put in a few more mechanisms to measure how much less waste you throw out (number of bags of trash discarded in a week); how much less energy consumed (utility bills) and how much more kilojoules you have burnt through public transport (steps walked). Seeing is believing, and it always helps with keeping the momentum going.