Turning Green

Modern technology owes ecology an apology.
                                                                ~Alan M. Eddison

Environmental destruction is very rampant in this era.  In line with the vast improvement of technology, environmental consciousness is most likely to be set aside.

My friends are sometimes annoyed with me because I am very passionate about my beliefs. I turn into an “environmental warrior” every time they try to do something against my advocacy. For instance, instead of letting them throw candy wrappers irresponsibly, I tell them to give me their trash and let me dispose of it the right way. For quite some time this had been the practice amongst my friends. They would automatically put rubbish in my bag to the extent that my mom had already noticed that the trash bin in my room is always full of candy wrappers, papers and plastics almost every other day. When I explained the matter, she told me that I shouldn’t be doing it for them; that it would be better if they themselves learned how to handle their own garbage.

WS 7:30pm-9:00pm

This was one of my most favorite schedules  during the second semester of my 4th year in college.  The subject was Green Marketing and our mentor was Professor Sabino Canare, one of the most influential guys who taught me to live green.
I’ve been using a water container since high school. Why? First, it is really expensive to buy bottled mineral water each time I get thirsty.  Second, there are water fountains available within the campus so water refilling is never a problem.  And of course, it lessens the consumption of disposable bottles. Coincidentally, this practice of mine was one of the advocacies of Prof. Canare and he tried to impose this policy in class. As expected, the students raised all kinds of excuses not to buy water containers, like it’s bulky, it’s heavy, etc., etc. 

To address this, I sold Vapur containers in class, which are foldable when empty, weigh 1.4 ounces each, and can be hung outside their bags. Before the end of the semester, almost everyone in class had a Vapur bottle. Not only was I able to help the environment, I earned a little money, too. Knowing that I had Sir Canare’s support made me strive harder to fight for what I believe is right.

Straw? No way!

Last January, we had a seminar for our NSTP class about solid waste management.  It was set at 8:00 am and I was too sleepy to listen. But when the speaker named  Froilan Grate came, he  made a very big impact on me.

Mr. Froilan Grate is the president of Mother Earth Foundation.  I’ve already heard about MEF and I’ve always wanted to be a part of it, but I didn’t know how. He discussed a lot of things that opened my mind to environmental issues, like the rapid destruction of our country’s rain forests, the extinction of animals because their habitats were destroyed for profit, and the decreasing water supply because of the exploitation of our water systems.

All the things that Mr. Grate said ignited my desire to live a greener lifestyle.  And hopefully, just like Mr. Grate, I would be able to touch other peoples’ lives and inspire them to share my advocacy. One of the things he mentioned that really stuck is that “The straw is a stupid invention for stupid people”.  Sadly, I am so guilty of using plastic drinking straws for the past 19 years. But thanks to Mr. Grate, that practice has stopped. Since that seminar, I haven’t used a single straw and I promise to never use one at all.

And to prove my dedication to the green cause, my classmates and I printed MEF’s “10 Little Things that You Can Do for the Environment” on coffee mugs and gave them away to the company we were training under. You see, these officeworkers would consume almost two (2) reams of bond paper a day and wouldn’t bother reusing the other side.  Worse, they had been using styro cups for drinking coffee almost every single day. Our mugs would have made Mother Earth proud.

Now that I’m finally working with Mother Earth Foundation, I look forward to learning more and doing more for our one and only Mother Earth. By Joshua Libuton