Teach your children what we have taught ours, that the earth is our mother.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.
The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children
- The Great Leader of the Native American Suquamish Tribe, Chief Seattle
[Heads-up from Allyson over at one of the forums I went to]

It has been a few days since Earth Day; I had this post in mind as a form of celebration but somehow overlooked it for many reasons – personal or otherwise.

Shop fair trade
Over here, Max Havlaar is one of the fair trade brand for bananas, coffee as well as rice. There is Body Shop as well – which was how I started getting concerned about fair trade products and communities involved in fair trade. Fair trade is when a group of people is ensured a fair price that is agreed upon by both parties for the produce/service which is vital for a commodity market where the price often fluctuates. In many cases, fair trade allows communities to agree upon a fixed price which ensures that basic needs and services such as education and medical care – can be bought. A bit of warning though – it may cost more than your regular non-fair trade items but I like to think that it’s justified (if there is accounting for where all that money went to).

Shop seasonal
In a four season country, seasonal fruits and vegetables are often available from within the region or the country and therefore easier on the overall cost – transportation and etc. During winter, the current available fruits are usually apples and citrus fruits – limited but seasonal. Grapes, strawberries, and other berry fruits are usually available in summer.

Now this is news to me because I come from a tropical country where strawberries and apples are imported from places like Australia, China and even Taiwan. When I bought a box of strawberries in February, I got lectured by Nil and my step-father-in-law. Apparently, strawberries which are available in Spain are usually genetically-modified and well, they taste horrid.

Buying seasonal is often better because it means buying locally (helping the farmers around the region or country) and buying non-GM fruits/veg. Of course this doesn’t mean buying 100% local since there are many items that aren’t available in Switzerland like avocados, tomatoes and etc.

Use a bag
Instead of taking plastic bags and then throwing them away (even if it’s for garbage), it’s just better for the environment to bring a bag of your own when you go grocery shopping. If I were to ditch my shopping bag every time I go shopping, I would come home with about five plastic bags and every week, we do groceries at least once – that would probably amount up to fifty over plastic bags staying in my cupboard.

I really don’t use plastic bags for my garbage because I use bio-degradable ones for rubbish and so I just don’t know what to do with the ones I get at the store. I stopped taking them after my second trip to the shops, settling instead for a huge backpacker and my Chinese-looking shopping bag. Three months later, it’s still holding up…

Recycle
The city council here has provided recycling bins for paper, cartons (they are different), glass and PET (plastic). Tetrapack is a slightly harder because it has three different layers – paper, aluminium and plastic, but still the amount of recycling that is done over here is amazing!

Apart from this, we reuse plastic containers and jam/sauce jars to store either dried spices, loose items (like leftover food) and even as “plates” during food preparation. There is the morning coffee which is kept aside to be used as fertilizers for my freesias and dahlias.

The future plan is also to use recycled and rewashable diapers when we have children, as well as second-hand clothes, baby items like strollers and car seats. We don’t really intend to buy new as for starters, it was expensive and well, there is nothing wrong with helping to clear the second-hand store.

No 11 is just nice!
We walk…not because we don’t have a car but because we don’t need a car. Public transport here runs on green electricity (hydroelectricity) and costs are affordable. The network here is reliable and efficient – buses, trains, and trams – so together with No 11 (one’s feet), you can get pretty far on a very low cost.

Need I even expand on the benefits? The exercise, less pollution, less expenditure on gas, more support of the local transportation system, enjoying the fresh air (yes, the air really is fresh over here), etc…

…

There is a whole more that we can do apart from all of this, and really, it doesn’t take much…just a little bit of ingenuity and a whole lot of care for our planet.