Our Home

Our Home Our Community

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” Ryunosuke Satoro

If you inspire one to save the world the world will perish, but if you inspire many together we can save the world.

Documentaries were not usually my choice of shows when I was ten, but we didn’t have a lot of channels in the 80’s. One day I was surfing through those few channels, nothing looked good so I landed on a PBS show about the Earth. Who knew that what I learned that day would inspire a lifetime of being a champion for the Earth. That day the imagination of a child who dreamed of being an author became a mission to make it happen. I have written many books in my mind, but it all started with one book, one that I wrote 30 years ago. It would take me 20 years to have the courage to publish it with the hopes to inspire children all over the world to recycle, reduce and reuse and Our Home, was born.

Imagine for a moment - children everywhere holding hands and hugging the Earth. This is the cover of my book.

With a family of seven, our carbon imprint could be large but every day we compost our food, recycle or reuse our paper, purchase organic foods and supplies, have reduced our plastic use and I am literally obsessed with recycling. We have created a system where when we drag the garbage can out every week, it is with one bag of “trash”.

Our things that could look like trash to other people often becomes new and different items. Our recycling helps to support our local United Cerebral Palsy, they pick up our recycling, which creates jobs and dollars for their programs. My children have learned how to not only help our planet but the importance of supporting our community.

How can a busy family, with seven people, create only one trash bag a week? The first step was to get rid of the plastic water bottles, plastic takes years to compose. Five-hundred years! Education is power, when researching for my book, the information I collected was an inspiration for change. We grow many of our own vegetables, we enjoy time in the sun, playing in the dirt as we tend to our garden. We have a compost pile for our food scraps, and we use this to create our beautiful garden. I choose electronic delivery for statements and any mail that I can. I spend a few minutes removing my name from any mail lists that send paper mail. When purchasing products, I purchase organically grown products and products made from things that have been recycled. We also have barrels that collect rainwater to water our garden.

Small consistent steps create big change.

Education creates knowledge that creates big change. Websites such as https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1543-measuring-biodegradability provides the viewer a glimpse at how long it takes for things to biodegrade

Think before you toss

Vegetables- 5 days –1 month

Paper - 2–5 months

Cotton T-shirt- 6 months

Orange peels- 6 months

Tree leaves- 1 year

Wool socks- 1–5 years

Plastic-coated paper milk cartons- 5 years

Leather shoes- 25–40 years

Nylon fabric- 30–40 years

Tin cans - 50–100 years

Aluminium cans- 80–100 years

Glass bottles - 1 million years

Styrofoam cup- 500 years to forever

Plastic bags - 500 years to forever

If we don’t do something to create change then our beautiful world will be filled with items that take up to a million years to biodegrade. What small step can you take today to keep our world beautiful? Take a minute to look around you at the beauty that surrounds us! I have heard from many people that they just do not have time to recycle. I feel like we do not have time to waste, our Earth provides so much to us, why wouldn’t we give back. I am a busy mom, with five children, a business and three jobs. I take a few minutes every day to touch the earth, to ground myself and enjoy the beauty around me. I still have the time to recycle.

I challenge you to find the time to save our planet, to leave your children and generations after a beautiful place to live.