One year ago, Aline Bloch joined the Connections volunteer team of writers to share her story of household efforts to care for the planet. Every month she provides information and inspiration about Living Green®. Aline compares her acts with those in her hummingbird story where even small actions make a difference (see April 2019 Connections).
When she started her journey to live a life that is gentler on the planet, she brought her family along with her. Aline’s children can see that even little actions are good for the planet.
Here are their stories:
(Left to right) Rafael Bloch never goes to lacrosse practice without his reusable bottle. Erinn likes the grocery store’s bulk section (it looks like a candy store). Zoe is always “chic” when she goes to the grocery store with her reusable bag.
Zoe (age 10):
“My name is Zoe Bloch and I am 10 years old, and I also live in a family that lives green and we all love it. What I like about living green is that I like saving ocean life. That is because the plastic that you throw away in the trash goes into the ocean and then the animals eat it and die. I like the sustainable life better because then I do not throw a lot of plastic in the trash that goes right to the sea. My everyday step is when I prep a snack for school, I always put it in a container that I can reuse or something that does not have any plastic around it. And at school, I also try to avoid plastic, like if we have a party in the classroom, I try not eat stuff that has plastic around the product. A situation that I think is sometimes hard is when my mom or dad and I go to the store, we see a lot of products that we eat with so much plastic on it. But now we bring bags to that store, for example we bring vegetable bags that are fit to hold vegetables that are not made of plastic. All these things are why I like living green and why you should start doing it too. My advice is you should at least try the vegetable bag thing (it works great).”
Rafael (age 13):
“As a member of a green-living family, things can be interesting. See, my mom has always been attentive to how we use the environment and the way we care for it. Things like this include using less paper to conserve trees or making sure we sort our trash. My mom would say ‘Even though we may not make a huge difference in the world by ourselves, we still do our part.’ Doing our part in living sustainably can influence and encourage others to do the same. I mean, it could literally spread like wildfire! Being a part of a family this attentive can be challenging sometimes. We changed our way of living one step at the time. For example, we stopped using regular toilet paper and bought 100% recycled toilet paper and eliminated plastic packaging. We changed from using nonrefillable cleaning liquids to water-based refillable liquids. We use handmade dry balls instead of softener in the laundry room. We compost and when we go out for dinner, our family says ‘no’ to straws. It seems more expensive to live green but, at the end of the day, we invest in durable stuff and grow our awareness of the world. We know we’re doing our part and making the world a better place.”
Erinn (age 15):
“Living in a home where we make decisions in order to benefit and help the environment isn’t much harder or different than any other household. It’s all about habits. Remembering to turn off lights or turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. Taking an extra 4 seconds to check and see if the container can be recycled, or if we can buy the item in bulk rather than in plastic packaging. It doesn’t take much effort at all, and honestly, it feels great knowing that making small choices can have a huge impact.”
