How to be an Environmentally Friendly Mama

As printed in My Village News July 2019

Keep Cup, Red Cycle, Enviro Bag. Like Lime, Apple and Google these are words that have taken on new meaning in our modern world. However unlike the scooter and tech brands that seemingly strive to make our lives easier the other phrases are linked with every mother’s worst fear, more organisation.

So how does anyone, let alone a parent, consistently do it? The conscientious member of society thing, I mean.

I look with envy at those capable humans who queue for their morning coffee, tasteful reusable coffee cup in hand. It’s a symbol you know? They are proudly saying they managed to feed and dress not only themselves that morning but also other small beings in their household and then had the mind space to say, “Oh, Keep Cup!” as they walked out the door.

I find the rare mornings I do remember to grab my reusable coffee cup are the same days I’ll end up paying for shopping bags. Which leads me to RedCycle. You may have seen the big red bins at Coles or Woolies? It’s a great idea. A recycling program that collects soft plastics so they can be manufactured into something else. What could be easier than just popping bits of plastic wrap that accumulate during the week into one big bag you return to the shops? I tried to do it - twice - but kept forgetting to take the bags out of the apartment. They gathered like tumbleweeds and we ended up with rubbish compartmentalised around the place like a hoarder home.

When you have a child all these environmental actions take on more importance but are ironically tougher to do while juggling sleep regressions, meal time tantrums and remembering to pack all the snacks. But I do recycle our food, dropping our fruit and veg scraps at the Neighbourhood Centre compost bins each week. So if you ever spy me with a disposable cup cut me some slack knowing at least my baby’s uneaten food is nourishing a garden.