My Girl Scout Troop

Girls are funny little creatures. Take my Girl Scout troop for instance. Yesterday as we held our meeting we covered the topic of the importance of having a clean kitchen. I talked about the TV show that Hannah and I watched. Then I showed the girls what to use for a safe alternative to clean counter tops with versus using a powdered abrasive cleaner. How the bleach, diluted with water will kill the germs and is residue free. Two of my girls were in total amazement, I could see it in their facial expressions. One wanted me to write it all down so she could show her Dad.

We talked about recycling...the whole reduce, reuse, recycle story. My troop is small and to my amazement I found out that 50% do not so any type of recycling in their homes. I showed the girls some glass jars, ones that once held a Yankee Candle, spaghetti sauce and sun dried tomatoes. I let them know that the energy from recycling just one of them could power the family television for 3 hours. Needless to say, I was able to grab their attention with that! I went on about how my family recycles and I showed them my big bins for recycling which in fact aren't even bins...I have a large Rubber-Maid Clothes Hamper (we used to use it for clothes until I switched us over to pop up hampers a few years ago)and a large Rubber-Maid Trash Container (we used to keep our garden hoses curled up in it for the winter). I use one container just for paper product recycling. I must have at least 2 to 3 bags of that going out each week. The other container is for plastic, glass, aluminium and steel cans. The girls asked me how much garbage do we produce in a week, I let them know that we put out 1 bag of garbage each week. I can tell from the look on their faces that they were amazed. One little girl went on about how much trash their family produces and how they are going to need to have 2 trash cans very soon. I asked if they recycle and she said "no, my Mom doesn't have time for that". I have to say that I was a bit taken back with her answer. But then again if you don't grow up with this sort of thing, it's hard to get involved in doing it. Another girl admitted that they did not recycle at her house but she did want to know about it and how to get started. She was eager to tell her Dad how much "stuff" my family recycles each week, she couldn't get over how we put out 1 bag of trash each week. I don't think that any household here on this street could go for a month without trash pick up with the exception of ourselves. Now having us go without recycle pick up is another story...

When we moved into our house in Virginia, we were the only family on our cul-de-sac that recycled. Within a month, our good friends and neighbors across the street started recycling too, it was great! Then within a year I'd say, I had every house in the cul-de-sac and down the street recycling. I felt good about being a positive role model in that respect. It was the same way when we moved here. We live on the corner, sometimes I refer to our house as being fish bowl (where everyone can see our goings on). Right from the start I recycled. Actually I was very excited about the curb side pick up every week :) And from the very beginning we would put out the recyclables. One day when I was outside during recycle pick up, the gentleman that does the recycling pick up told me that I have set the pace for the rest of the neighborhood. That before we moved here that no-one on this street did recycling. I was really shocked with that bit of information. He said that sometimes people just need someone to set the pace and then before you know it, everyone is doing it!

I hope to be a positive role model for my girl scout troop in that same respect. We will be doing trash pick-up for Earth Day, and I plan to take them to a recycling center and even teach them a bit about composting.