Mission Statement
Back in 2008, a movie about two little robots changed my life. This was before kids, before marriage even, though I went to see it with my then fiancé (now husband). The movie was Disney’s WALL-E.
And if you haven’t seen it before, the TL:DR is that in the future, humans will have polluted the earth so terribly that no life can exist there anymore, so they have been forced to live on a giant spaceship while sanitation robots (like WALL-E) were left behind to clean up the mess. Then WALL-E meets EVE, a unique robot whose purpose is to find evidence that Earth can once again sustain life, and he falls in love. Together they help the humans, who have grown obese and lazy on their permanent extraterrestrial pleasure cruise, to rediscover their roots (literally and figuratively) on Mother Earth, and the world is given a fresh start.
This movie really moved me on multiple levels. First, because as I was sitting in the theater, I realized I had a giant soda and tub of popcorn in my lap much like the obese humans in the film. While not a similarly torpid person, I recognized how my behavior left unchecked for many years could lead to an unhealthy end. Moreover, as I exited the theater afterwards and saw the overflowing trash bins of waste, I could see how this was a realistic future for our planet. A quick calculation of how much trash was generated by that one theater, within a 12-screen cineplex, among a city of theaters, and then all the screens across the world, became an impossibly huge mountain of trash. It was horrifying, and a real kick in the pants. So I decided to follow the (paraphrased) words of Gandhi:
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
But change is hard, and habits can’t be changed overnight. I started slow.
My first act was to start bringing my lunch to work in the same shopping bag, instead of a plastic bag that got thrown out every day. Still being firmly in my pre-parenthood “it’s all about me” era, I chose a fancy one, from Barney’s, that made me feel good about using it, and also was quite sturdy and long-lasting.
This led me to create a B.O.B. (Bag Of Bags) at home.
I don’t know if I made up this term, but if so, here’s the gist: one giant bag in which you store all your other paper and plastic bags to be reused over and over. For a long time, I’d forget to grab a bag from the B.O.B. on the way to the grocery store. To be completely honest, like 9 times out of 10 I’d forget in that first year or two. But I’d usually remember to put the bags in my B.O.B afterwards. Soon, my B.O.B. was overflowing with bags, and I became more motivated to bring them with me.
After a couple years of this tepid relationship with my B.O.B., I finally got to the point where I just remembered out of habit to bring my own bags (this was before stores like Whole Foods offered a bag credit, though that is a nice little perk now). B.O.B.’s size has decreased over time as the bags have been given away or gotten worn out then recycled. Now, I have my go-to reusable bags including a pair of sturdy insulated ones for the grocery store that work better than any paper or plastic bag ever did, and I can’t imagine going back to those disposable days.
Look, I am not perfect.
My commitment to living an eco-friendly life is solid, but not always fool-proof. I am just trying my hardest to be a good citizen of the earth, and share what I have learned along the way.
While I don’t intend to discuss politics here, I do believe that caring about the future of our planet means caring about the health and happiness of all life on earth. I’m a humanist. That’s why I try to shop local, shop small, and support family-run businesses. Again, I’m not perfect, just doing my best to take my head out of the sand.
I started Eco Friendly Mama as a way to document my efforts to be more eco-conscious in my home, in my parenting, as a world traveler, and in every other aspect of living. This is a space to learn, to experiment, and to see how small changes now can lead to a much bigger impact in the future.
I am not here to criticize or bash what you or anyone else is doing.
Eco Friendly Mama is my attempt to encourage people to think about our future, to experience a world outside the disposable economy, and to cheer on companies for making more eco-conscious choices while providing consumers with eco-friendly options. Positivity over negativity, always.
And yes, Disney will be a part of this blog. It’s been a love of mine since childhood, and something that is an inescapable part of my life. There’s a famous quote that Walt said about his entertainment empire:
“…it was all started by a mouse.”
For me, it was all started by a robot named WALL-E. And perhaps it’s the childlike curiosity that Disney has imprinted on me that inspired me to look to the stars, to dream big, and to hope that we are not polluting our planet beyond ruin.
