How can I make a difference ?

Last month, we were delighted to officially launch our environmental education programme for secondary schools here in Ireland.

Since the launch, we have been lucky to engage with these students and create a space where we encourage them to ask us anything that may be causing anxiety in regards to Climate Change.

One student, asked a very important question in relation to plastic waste last week:

How can we make a difference when the big companies are the ones who create the products we buy?

I love these types of questions, and students don’t hold back thankfully with how they feel. We appreciate this honesty no end.

But, how do you answer the above question?

To be fair it is absolutely a valid point to make. Our current consumer society has been created by large corporations, they thrive by sending us into a frenzy of convenient consumerism of cheaper products, disposable items, etc.

Nowadays some people feel if they do not have a new dress or suit to wear at the next party for example, that people would actually notice or indeed care that they are wearing something old - not even something old! Simply something that they have worn before. 

This was just unheard of 20 years ago.

Please don’t see this as a criticism - it is the way that society has evolved, gently (sometimes not so gently) encouraged by advertising, social media and the millions of data we consume throughout our daily lives.

Amongst all of this chaos, we have also forgotten that we as consumers STILL HAVE THE POWER.

It is us that make the choice to purchase all these shiny new products.

We are what feeds the consumer markets.

The power to say NO, lies solely with ourselves.

For example, if you are concerned about plastic and its over production, you have the power to stop buying anything that is single use plastic. It’s that simple!

I stopped buying bottles of water, soft drinks and any single-use plastics (apart from some supermarket packaging I am still working on) 3 years ago, and I can tell you that my life has not become more difficult because of it. It has become second nature for me to REUSE items in my life.

It was an easy decision to make and it got even easier overtime to get used to.

The same applies to EVERYTHING you want to set your mind at stopping. You have the power within yourself to decide as a consumer where your money is going to be spent. 

I guess this is the simplest way of answering that student’s question: Large corporations create products, but only because we buy them. You can make a difference by not buying products that you deem inappropriate for your Climate Change beliefs.

Raquel