Taking steps toward a more environmentally friendly lifestyle can often be just as frustrating as it is exciting. Exciting, of course, because it鈥檚 empowering to challenge yourself to reduce waste, conserve energy and consciously create a sustainable life. The frustration comes in when you realize that every positive change you make just seems to underscore the increasingly wasteful habits of the rest of the world聽not聽doing these things.聽And sometimes, 鈥渢he rest of the world鈥� can include聽your co-workers, your extended family or even your spouse.
After seeing how simple and beneficial it can be to shift to a greener lifestyle, the question inevitably arises: How can you go about convincing others to do the same?
Today we鈥檙e going to tackle this touchy issue 鈥� and we鈥檙e going to do it by starting slow. If you鈥檙e trying to convert eco-friendly skeptics, there鈥檚 no point in diving in with worm compost or family cloth (google that term if you鈥檙e not familiar 鈥� it鈥檚 really something).
We鈥檒l begin nice and easy with something that makes up the backbone of many people鈥檚 environmentally聽friendly efforts.
Something simple.
Something that聽别惫别谤测辞苍别鈥檚听heard about, even if they鈥檙e not quite doing it yet.
Recycling!
1. Explain
If you know聽why聽you鈥檙e doing something, it鈥檚 far easier to find the motivation to begin doing it and聽stick with it, too. Sharing information about the beneficial effects of recycling on our waste streams can do a lot to increase understanding about why it makes such a difference when you toss an aluminum can into a blue bin instead of a trash bag.
Here are some quick statistics (adapted from聽The Recycling Guide) that underscore why recycling is so important:
- One recycled tin can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours.
- One recycled glass bottle saves enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.
- One recycled plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for three hours.
- Seventy percent less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
You see, it鈥檚 not just about waste reduction 鈥� although that is a huge part of it; according to some estimates, you can reduce your household waste output by 60 percent simply by recycling 鈥� recycling also has a massive impact on reducing the amount of water, energy and raw resources that are required to produce an entirely new product from raw materials.
2. Enable
We鈥檝e heard of the bad kind of enablers 鈥� those who make it easy for someone to continue engaging in negative or harmful behaviors. But it鈥檚 possible to enable聽positive聽behavior, too 鈥斅爄n this case, recycling. The key is to make it easy.
We humans are an incredible species capable of creating great things 鈥� cheese, the written word, Beyonc茅 鈥� but we鈥檙e also incredibly lazy. Thus, if something鈥檚 not easy, we are far less likely to do it,聽especially聽if there鈥檚 no immediate payoff.
In fact, a聽Huffington Post article published last August states that 鈥渢he primary excuse people gave for not recycling was that recycling wasn鈥檛 convenient or accessible to them.鈥� The article delved into the psychology of people who don鈥檛 recycle, featuring an interview with Jessica Nolan, associate psychology professor at the University of Scranton. Nolan found that research supported the importance of making it easy, saying, 鈥淥bviously if the infrastructure is not there, you can鈥檛 expect people to participate in a program that doesn鈥檛 exist. 鈥� We know that convenience is one of the strongest predictors of whether or not somebody will participate.鈥�
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