How To Be More Sustainable When You Have Children

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Although in your day to day you worry about the climate crisis, the problem of microplastics in the oceans and the waste of food and resources, when you have young children at home it is even more difficult to find products and brands that in addition to caring for the planet and people fit your budget. We spoke with the activist and founder of the Slow Factory platform Celine Seeman, who has shared her advice to find the balance between sustainability and survival with two girls of x and x years.

What are the main challenges you encounter in your daily routine?

Avoiding plastic is very difficult when you have children because all, or most, of the things designed and made for children are plastic. The YouTube craze for “Unboxing” is a problem too because it has created an entire generation of toys that are made just to be taken out of the box to be shown and the number of tiny plastic parts wrapped in more plastic are part of the experience…! they generate a lot of waste! Waste that also cannot be recycled.

What products or type of brands are you looking for?

I try to find materials that have been obtained in a sustainable way or that can be recycled many times after using them. For example, for your lunch boxes we chose metal Bento Box type ones, reusable metal water bottles instead of glass or plastic. For clothing it is another challenge because most brands manufacture with polyester [fibers] and in doubtful conditions with respect to their workers. What we try to do is buy good quality things that are going to last and that we can donate to others, that can be resold or continue using for a long time because they are of good quality and they are beautiful. But we are far from making it perfect, we have princess costumes made with polyester and plastic toys. What we need is for toy and clothing companies to be as aware and responsible as parents and offer solutions and products that are designed in a circular way, that is, that at the end of their useful life they can be reused or recycled over and over again infinitely.

How do you explain sustainability to your daughters?

In fact, they are the ones who ask me a lot of questions, like "where is the waste going?", Or how they can recycle things. We talk a lot about the environment and spend time in nature. When they see garbage in the fields or on the sidewalks, they pick it up and try to store and clean it. My eight-year-old daughter once said to me, "I hope your job changes things, look at all this crap!"

What is your best advice for mothers and fathers who are beginning their journey towards a more sustainable life?

First, please stop embarrassing or punishing yourself and others or the children. While I strongly believe in individual action, as long as we don't redistribute responsibility [along with] the industry, no matter how much you recycle or waste your family, it won't have a large-scale impact. Think about the microplastics in your clothes, too, and how many times you wash children's clothes. There are many areas in which we can have an impact, not only on what we consume but also on how we live our lives.