How to Teach Your Kids to Develop Green Living Habits

Important Advice for Families in Germantown, MD and all of Montgomery County

If you grew up throwing water bottles in the trash, leaving the water running while brushing your teach, and leaving your TV on even if no one was around to watch it, you probably had a difficult time adapting to going green…assuming you’re already there.

The fact is, the act of recycling is a habit, and habits are not instantly formed.  They take time, commitment, repetition, and both the understanding and belief that something of value will result from you altered and new behaviors.

As adults, recycling and green living habits are harder to form because we have so many years of counter-productive behaviors to overcome.  And yet that’s precisely why we need to indoctrinate our children early on into the wisdom and ways of recycling and resource conservation.  To let them know, for example, that it isn’t just a matter of a family policy, but a universal responsibility to treasure nature’s abundant but diminishing gifts.

Remember:  children instinctively want to part of solutions, not problems.

A good place to start is to explain even the simplest of things and answer their questions as soon as they’re able to comprehend the life lesson.  For example, many children (especially boys!) are fascinated with cars and want to know how they run.  Simply explain that they run on gas but that newer cars are being built to run on batteries to help clean up the environment.

When you purchase and re-use cloth grocery bags, explain why they’re a better choice than the plastic grocery bags offered up at your local supermarket.  The same goes for any time you encounter side-by-side garbage receptacles…one for trash and the other for recycled cans and bottles.  Explain the difference, and then give your kids the chore of placing your refuse in the appropriate bins.

As for teaching them to adopt green living habits, the most important thing you can do is to get them outside. Children who play outside, help in the garden, and enjoy nature will be easier to instruct on how to contribute to nature’s beauty and preservation.

Here are some other ways to help teach them how to be green:

Explain conservation of resources

• Teach them to turn off lights when they leave a room
• Turn off water when they brush their teeth

Make it a game

• Let them help sort recycling
• Have them help hang laundry
• Make toys and crafts out of containers and other household items
  – make repurposing and reusing a normal part of their life
• Involve them in composting
• Have them help you unplug everything before bed
• Take them along to clean up litter in your neighborhood
• Take them to a landfill so they see what happens to what they
  throw away

Parents can help keep the world beautiful for the next generation by teaching through example.

At Your 1 Plumber, we are committed to green living and to helping our customers enjoy the very best in more convenient, comfortable, and resource-conserving home plumbing.  Contact us for advice and service today in Germantown, MD and all of Montgomery County.

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