We’re all seeing the impact of climate change – the wild weather, natural disasters, and rising temperatures. Our kids don’t have anything to compare it to, but we can show them ways to live a more sustainable life. Whether it’s in the garden, through recycling, or by conserving water, every child in New York City can take part in saving the world around us.
Here are six ways to introduce your kids to sustainability, to teach them to become stewards of the environment.
- Community Gardening
City kids can grow their own food just as easily as their suburban or rural peers, thanks to all of the community gardens in New York City. Your kids might not think the environmental impact of supply chain and shipping is a riveting subject, but you can show them that they can grow their own food, and take pride in what they eat.
Once you’ve signed up for a community garden, let your kids choose the vegetables and fruit they want to grow and eat. Make tending to the garden a family affair – and make sure your child is there for the harvest.
You’ll be cultivating an appreciation for what the soil can yield, and teaching your little ones to reduce the carbon footprint at the same time.
- Landscaping and Trees
Apartment dwellers don’t worry much about maintaining a lawn, but sustainable landscaping ideas can teach your kids about how native plants, rock gardens (instead of lawns), and flowers that attract bees make the world a better place.
You can bring some of these ideas to an indoor garden, or a container garden on the patio if you don’t have a yard.
Trees also play an important role in sustainability and livability. The city is in the process of procuring trees for planting and a community greening on the Lower East Side this year – a project that has been delayed by COVID. The project offers you the opportunity to explain to your kids the benefits of trees – they combat air pollution, lower stress levels, and promote social ties.
- Reduce Waste
Reducing waste is one of the biggest ways the next generation can learn about sustainability. It’s easy to teach your young ones how to decide what trash is for the landfill, for the composting pile, and for the recycling bin, and how to separate waste into the right containers.
The next step is teaching your kids how to reduce what goes in landfills. If you don’t already, let your child pick out his or her own reusable lunch bag. Bring reusable shopping bags with you when you buy groceries – to cut down on single-use plastic that ends up as trash blowing down the street, or filling up landfills.
Plastic bags are banned in New York State, and while you can still get paper bags, reusable cloth ones cut down on that paper waste. Cut down further on paper by going digital with your bank statements.
You can even steer your children away from using plastic straws when you take them out to eat. Metal or paper straws are easier on the environment, or forgo straws altogether, and get your kids used to sipping straight from a cup.
- Reuse and Recycle
New York City is aiming to be zero waste by 2030, and that means the Big Apple wants to send nothing to the landfill in just a few years. That’s why teaching your kids to reuse and recycle is so important. Here are a few ideas to get started:
- Teach your youngsters what the recycle symbol looks like, so they can identify items that are recyclable or are made of recycled materials.
- Show your children how to separate paper, plastic and glass and what is and isn’t recyclable.
- Reuse used or discarded packaging, like milk cartons and popsicle sticks, for arts and crafts activities
- Composting Basics
Food waste can’t be recycled, but much of it can be composted – and that’s a great opportunity to show your kids an example of sustainability in the city. The Lower East Side Ecology Center has community composting sites all over the city. Teach your kids how to save food scraps and to drop off this waste at one of the composting sites, or buy affordable compost.
You also can give your kids a hands-on approach to learning about composting. Indoor composting is a thing, and it’s a convenient way to dispose of your kitchen waste while creating fertilizer for your houseplants or balcony garden.
You don’t even need that much space – just a place to put the container for indoor composting. Indoor composting makes it super easy for your kids to dispose of food waste, and gives them the chance to see how compost is created.
- Conserve Water
This may be the easiest sustainability lesson of all to teach. Kids are obviously not in charge of installing low-flow toilets and shower heads, but it is easy to teach them to turn off the faucet if they’re not actively using water, and to keep toilet flushes to a minimum – and why.
Kids like to feel like they are helping, and if you explain to your little ones that water is a precious resource that must be conserved, they’ll be more eager to be a part of the effort.
Start Teaching Sustainability Lessons Early
Sustainability is a lesson kids can learn from the time they are able to walk and talk. From putting glass bottles in the recycle bin, to planting tomatoes in the community garden, and turning off the water, even the little New Yorkers can learn to help save the planet.
These tips are just the start – as your kids get older, you’ll be helping them develop lifelong habits that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.
Larry Jergins has worked in his county waste management division for 20 years and recently became certified as a recycling specialist. His favorite project is turning Christmas trees and yard waste into mulch for the community.
