Mission Possible?

I have a mission. Shall I really choose to accept it? Well, here it is. It’s nothing trivial; I just want to change the world.  For the better, I should add.  (Erase from your mind any image you may have conjured up of me as a cat-stroking, scar-faced megalomaniac.  Well, not yet anyway.)  So how do I intend to address this ultra-important and massive task?  Well, let me be a tad more specific.

There is the ever-present danger of us all disappearing under our own rubbish and rot.  The world is reportedly getting hotter and the ice caps are slowly melting. Researchers say there is a very small chance that the seas around us could raise by a metre.  That’s quite a lot and we have already seen the devastation that flooding has made around the world.  The UK produces more than 100 million tonnes of rubbish annually, including 15 million tonnes of food. Much of this ends up in landfill.  So what does this continued exercise mean for the future?  My over-active imagination leads me to anticipate a landscape of rugged new mountainous regions where we will all need crampons and ropes to do our weekly shopping run.  This is no good for me.  As much as I love walking, I am, in fact, hideously afraid of heights and get a nosebleed going up my stepladders to clean my downstairs windows.

So how can we stop the rapid growth of rubbish-infused hillocks from appearing? Re-using stuff for one.  Although we can recycle a lot more plastic now, I still find myself with an ever-growing stack of trays of varying pattern and size.  Junk-modelling is still a firm favourite amongst us childcarers.  Many a time I have returned from school pick-ups with a double pram’s worth of cereal, bottle top and cardboard tube funnel creations.  Working with extremely small profit margins forces people like me to reuse lots and buy very little.  In fact, its months since I bought glue, instead making my own from flour and water.  Thanks to a childminding colleague, I now reuse my plastic milk bottles as watering cans after a minor adjustment to the lids. 

In fact choosing to be more environmentally friendly forces us to be more creative.  I recently made my own cosy den for the children using only resources I already had. Luckily, I tend to have things that I can use for a variety of purposes including lots of large pieces of fabric.  Granted, it took three attempts to get to the final, and most successful, version (i.e. one that didn’t collapse on entry) but that made it all the more fun to produce. (I do like a challenge!) It’s really satisfying to make your own stuff; almost as good as growing your own food.  I do like to own things I know are unique to me (and, believe me, there really isn’t anything in existence which resemble the things I make.) 

So the next time you go shopping and are tempted by the cheap buys (and I know what that’s like – I’m a sucker for a bargain) ask yourself if there is an even cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative. I can guarantee the enhancement of the ‘F’ factor……… Fun!

Life Love and Dirty Dishes

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