Environmentally Friendly Perspective

I grew up with a much more environmentally friendly perspective. Our parents and grandparents lived in a much more environmentally friendly society. Things were reused, recycled or composted.

Growing up on a farm in rural Ontario the concept of reuse and recycle has always been a very familiar way of thinking. There was precious little that ever got thrown out. Unused portions of vegetables went to the cows, horses or goats. Citrus rinds and paper packaging went into the wood-burning stove. It was believed that the citrus peel helped keep the stove-pipes cleaner on the inside. Egg shells were crushed and put in the garden. The only type of fertilizer that was available for the garden was aged animal manure. Tin cans and old cars were about the only things that were ever discarded, if another use could not be found. If something broke, you repaired it or found someone that could fix it.

During that time, if you had something that you no longer needed, you gave it to someone who did need it.

Plastic bags and containers had not come into such widespread use as we see today. During the 1960’s there was a dramatic increase in the production of new plastic “throw away” items such as packaging and poorly made toys and things that quickly broke and were disposed of. This practise soon developed into the Planned Obsolescence practice, meaning that small and large appliances would work for a predetermined period of time and would break-down and be thrown away and then new ones be purchased again. This trend has continued till today, giving us huge mountains of garbage that every community has to deal with.

An alternative to throwing out things that we no longer need: Items that still have value can be sold on www.ebay.ca, www.kijiji.ca, or given away in our communities at www.freecycle.org. We can establish a composting area for vegetable matter and community recycle programs will accept some plastics, cardboard, glass and cans.

Through this site I hope that even in some small way I can help us all to develop a more environmentally friendly perspective by becoming aware of the harm we are doing to our environment, and thus to ourselves. I hope that we can slow down the damage we are doing and maybe even reverse it in some areas.

We can be careful to purchase environmentally friendly products and also be responsible about how we dispose of the things we no longer need.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please Contact Me. Thank you for visiting.

Grant Pattingale environmentally friendly perspective

Return to Home Page