Blog Action Day

Dear all,

Today, 15th October, is the Blog Action Day for the environment. In order to call the attention of the world, but especially of the readers of my blog, what I'll do in this post is just to tell you briefly how I changed my point of view and my actions towards the environment since I moved to Europe.

In Brazil, unfortunately, basic needs are not yet solved. For that reason, environmental issues are a little left behind by most people. When I moved to Europe, and especially to France, I noticed that what we can do is simple and can change everythin around us. By resusing supermarket bags, for example, not only did I recycle, but I also felt better. I felt that I was not wasting anything, and that was refreshing.

Going back home in the summer, I decided to implement recycling in my house. At first, my parents were reluctant, thought that it would bring a lot more chores to the day-by-day life. But as we started, they saw that, actually, what it takes to recycle domestic garbage is basically nothing. Instead of throwing everything away in one basket, we simply put things in different bags, one for paper, one for plastic, one for glass, and one for metal. Every week my mom would take it to the reclycing containers (that are everywhere in the city) and that's it!

The best thing about this experience is that it has shown that the only thing we need in order to help the environment is to change a few habits. As soon as the new habits are incorporated, we don't even notice they are there and everything gets back to normal. Another great consequence was the fact that we used to save several used pots in cabinets around the kitchen, in order to try to re-use them some say, what actually never happened! So now we can just throw them in their recycling bags and we don't feel about it! It's a relief to know that we're doing the right thing!

Sadly, though, now that I'm back to the UK, I live in a students residence that does not recycle. That is a real shame, since students (and the university!) should be the first ones to set the example. I'm recycling my own garbage, though, but I would like to see an initiative from the University and its accommodation partners to start recycling in a regular basis.

There you can see a small example of things we can do in order to change the environment whitout changing our lives. What can you do to help?