Janet McNeill

<written for the North Renfrew Times in May ‘08>

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This is a very old, very wise maxim – and no less true today than when it was originally coined. Its wisdom certainly seems in danger of being lost, however. Many adults these days don’t seem to “get it,” and if the adults don’t grasp it, how likely is it that our young people will?

The beauty of the proverb is that it applies to every possible life situation, as well as to every possible environmental (or any other kind) of issue. It is simply always, always true that it is far preferable to prevent problems from developing in the first place than to have to clean them up later.

That being said, I’m going to suggest three small prevention-oriented habits we can all adopt. They are quite simple, but each has the potential to reap a fairly major “bang for the buck,” as it were, in terms of the variety of negative outcomes that can be prevented.

First: imagine how much less litter there would be if people used reusable mugs instead of continuing to gobble up resources and create unnecessary garbage and pollution with take-out cups. The hidden environmental costs involved in the creation, transport and disposal of these utterly unnecessary items are rather staggering. They include deforestation, loss of species habitat, erosion, stream/river/lake pollution, energy consumption and air pollution – all this for a product that will be used for perhaps five minutes!

Doesn’t this seem like a no-brainer? And I’m over-simplifying here. I recently saw an excellent film about biodiversity called ‘The Natural Connection’ that mentions a few more things I’d not been aware of with respect to the environmental consequences of those darn throw-away cups.

What about recycling them, you say? Even if you could (I’m told you can’t), remember that ounce of prevention.

Recycling (or composting) disposable cups will not restore the lost trees and forests, clean up polluted streams or air, nor magically restore the lost habitat or energy that was gobbled up for such a frivolous purpose.

Using reusable mugs cuts all that off at the pass.

It’s a very similar story with plastic bags, of course – and dead simple to carry reusable ones…

Secondly, how good does it make us feel knowing that we cut down trees and forests so we can wipe our noses, wipe…other parts of our anatomy, and mop up floor spills? In my case, not very…

I’m not about to offer any alternatives to the use of toilet paper, but do suggest we can at least buy a brand made from recycled rather than virgin paper.

Handkerchiefs (or even an old soft rag) can wipe a runny nose perfectly well and, conveniently, cloth is actually much gentler for one’s skin.

We can mop up floor spills with an old rag rather than paper towels – and we can figure out alternatives to other paper towel usage (e.g., a spare tea towel in the kitchen for drying fruits and vegetables). As for paper towels in public washrooms, just say no! Hands air dry in no time…

Finally, what if more of us committed to picking up some of the litter that we see on our streets and pathways? For sure, our town would look a whole lot better if we did.

And now, we’ve come full circle – because of course, if the litter hadn’t been thrown down in the first place, we wouldn’t need to clean it up.

Let’s ask ourselves where our children have learned that littering is acceptable behaviour – then work to model a different attitude.

I’ve always believed that changed attitudes lead to changed behaviour – and this is true to some extent. It’s also been learned through research that it proceeds the other way: changed behaviour leads to changed attitudes – a lovely, un-vicious circle.

If those of us who “give a darn” are seen to carry out simple, small new actions, perhaps more and more other people will try them out as well.

Albert Schweitzer said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it’s the only thing.”

I do believe he got that right…