Going Green

Author and environmental advocate Gill Deacon shares some eco-friendly parenting tips

By Gill Deacon

• Wherever possible, walk or bike to school. Studies show that fewer children walk to school these days than ever, while other studies show childhood obesity rates have tripled over the last 20 years. Getting kids outside every morning for a walk to school gives them exercise, saves you gas money, and keeps one more car off the roads.
• A school-age child with a disposable packed lunch generates 30 kilos of waste every school year. Multiply that by several hundred kids in a school and you've got a whopping amount of waste! It's easy to go litterless at lunchtime, invest in a few stainless steel reusable containers, perfect for cookies or cut up fruit and veggies.
• Gill likes to teach her boys that cleaning up is a job we all share, but who wants to let kids use harsh chemicals in cleaning products? Fill a spray bottle nearly to the top with water, then add 20 drops of tea tree essential oil (a natural anti-fungal and anti-bacterial) and 20 drops of lavender essential oil (a lovely-smelling natural disinfectant). Shake well and let kids spray and clean with abandon. Works wonders for whoever's got the table-wiping chore!
• Kids love to feel powerful, and they love the feeling of doing something right. Explain to them that the reason we put recyclable materials out for recycling is so that we don't have to cut down more trees and use more energy to create things from scratch. Support recycled paper products like Cascades and explain to them that this is 'closing the recycling loop', turning those old cardboard boxes and magazines into a product that we use every day.