What a day. Such amazing speakers who delivered with authenticity, emotion, experience, and wisdom. Really proud to have been part of @tedxsquaremile.
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One speaker talked about #happiness and how it enhances productivity. It's not about how much you do that makes you stressed or overworked, it's about WHAT you do and whether it contributes to your happiness. Even if life is filled to the brim, if you're happy, you're energised 😊❤️😊.
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Here's to some awesome speakers and the volunteers at TEDx who make happiness and ideas possible.
🙏
RECYCLE ♻️
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This #infographic gives three simple tips that I practice when I recycle, and a fourth tip on the need for clear and non-confusing information on what can and can't be recycled.
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What strikes me is that, as you go through the reduce-reuse-recycle process, the effort level (and knowledge level) increases.
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So, why are we not better at reducing our waste? 😕
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In my view, it's because - even with recycling - we live in a throwaway society filled with consumption of fast fashion, fast food, and fast/easily breakable goods. It is the social norm to not reduce but to increase our material consumption at the expense of the 🌍.
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I do believe that this norm is changing, particularly in the younger generations. 👪
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Alongside practicing these individual sustainability tips, I would urge you to write to MPs; lobby supermarkets and retailers; tackle inequality and poverty through social action; write to your MPs again about budget cuts; fight for the school curriculum to focus more on skills such as food growing and sewing alongside accurate teaching on climate change and leadership; and keep on acting on what you believe in.
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No one is perfect, I'm definitely not, but I am not going to give up on making this a more sustainable world.
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You know when you're truly passionate about something when the 🔥 in your belly gets ignited - I have just come back from the recycling centre and saw that someone has shoved a plastic bag, a nappy, and dirty cans into a paper recycling bin.
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The sad thing is that, despite my own (and others) efforts, that whole bin is now contaminated and will most likely be sent to landfill.
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Rather than getting angry, blaming people's 'ignorance', and giving up, I thought about the whole point of the sustainability movement: The iconic ♻️ 'Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle' logo has two key actions *before* recycling.
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I have come home and used the fire in my belly to draw up a sustainability recipe page, starting with a few of the most impactful ways you can reduce waste and therefore minimise the need to recycle in the first place. These individual efforts will not change the world, but they can (and already are) creating a social norm and a lobby for larger corporations and governments to put greater incentives for sustainability into action.
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The 'recipes' have the sustainability tip plus its cost and skill level, in the same way a recipe would. Here's the first page for the recipe book - REDUCE! ⬇️
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How many of these reduce waste actions are you already doing? Do you think I've got the skill and cost level accurate? What else would you include here?
