Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?
Sustainability takes forever and that’s the point
Willem McDonough
We decided to visit Muscat a couple of months before we relocated, sort of like a recce of the place we were going to adopt. We landed at the old airport, which had an old-world charm about it. The airport was small, the whirring Acs in the background heightened the silence, and everything was serene. When we stepped out, the heat just slapped us in the face. That first gulp of air was a gasp, the heat searing its way into our lungs. But a glance ahead revealed an awe-inspiring landscape. Pristine. Untouched. Raw. Those were the adjectives that came to mind when I had to describe this place I had landed in. The drive to the hotel took less than ten minutes and the shift from the oppressive heat outside to the crisp cooling of the AC was a welcome change. With two kids in tow and no car of my own, my options were limited. We spent the next few days driving around the city exploring the roads and malls. We visited a couple of schools and a few of the locations we were considering to live in. Five days flew by so fast.
A couple of months later, we moved into an apartment not far from the hotel we had stayed at when we had come down for a visit. While considering this opportunity we had decided to just lock up our home as is, so it would be ready to use, if and when we returned. I had a crazy chaotic tenant earlier who had done some bit of damage while they lived in our house and was not too keen on renting my home out to another chaotic tenant. So, we just locked the home down for the duration. In, Muscat, we rented out a furnished place and while most of the stuff was already available, basics like sheets and duvets were not included and had to be purchased. R had moved in a week earlier and had cleaned and started the basics of setting up the space. This meant stocking up on basics from bathroom supplies to cleaning supplies to food and groceries and dishes to hold the groceries.
I love to organize and tidy up my space. I try to create a simple system that even the kids can follow when they are in a hurry. And off to the market, we went. There was no way we would be able to set up the entire house in one shot, so we just went to pick up the absolute necessity and filled up two trolleys. The teller at the counter, a really beautiful young girl greeted us and started scanning our items. And at the other end stood a shop assistant furiously packing our items in plastic bags. As the trolley emptied at our end, the trolley was refilled with scanned and packed bags at the other end. And in less than ten minutes, we were on our way. It did not take us long to load our bags into the cab and head home. We got dropped in the basement and the kids were two extra pairs of hands that helped us carry our bags up. We walked home and landed the bags right outside the kitchen. It was one glorious collection of bags filled with everyday items that ranged from groceries to bedding and stationery. In a matter of minutes, the bags were emptied and the kids competed amongst themselves in sorting and putting away the purchases and I was left with a pile of plastic bags. At the time of shopping or when we brought the stuff up, I did not realize how many bags we had got, but once they were empty and lying there in a heap, is when it suddenly seemed like a lot to just discard in the bin. So I collected them and decided to reuse them as bin liners.
Back in our hometown, the anti-plastic campaigns had started to work and the government had banned the use of single-use plastic bags. So, we started carrying our shopping bags when we went to pick up groceries. I had even begged my older sibling to get me one of those humungous but unwieldy blue Ikea bags to pick up vegetables from the market. After numerous trips to various markets to pick up my groceries, I had a healthy collection of totes that I used for specific things. Looking at that pile of discarded plastic bags on the living room floor, I was reminded of my collection of totes sitting idly back at home. How I wish I had those here. Every visit to the market triggered my conscience, I started looking for bags or trolley bags that I could reuse for this purpose.
Pretty soon, it was time for Mum to visit. When she asked me what I wanted her to bring, I begged her to bring at least 5 big shopping totes when she came. Mum brought 3 because that’s all she had. But those were better than none. The first couple of days when I took Mum grocery shopping, I only picked enough to fill those 3 bags. Then Mum decided to go out and explore the neighborhood on her own. She went to one of the random dollar stores nearby and picked up 5 ‘I love Oman’ totes. Those bags had thick cotton ropes for handles and bit into your shoulder if you carried them. But the double lining, worked well to carry weight. The first couple of visits to the grocery store after we picked up the bags, the girl sitting at the cash counter did not comment, she just raised her eyebrows and smiled looking at the bags. But the third time, she wanted to know where I got these bags and was appreciative of this small effort I made in ensuring I used less plastic. Pretty soon, she started to greet me with a smile and a wave and the shopping assistant helping with the packing finally understood the order the bags had to be filled in. When we got back home and unpacked, I was happy to just fold the bags and put them away and not find a pile of plastic bags strewn across my living room.
Luckily, Mum visited me in time to bring a collection of totes that I could reuse. To be honest, I have been in situations where I have gone out for something else and then ended up picking up some groceries on my way back, and in those instances, not having those bags made me feel very guilty. I’ve often been told that it’s the little things that make a difference. Yes, in a landfill full of plastic bags, 50-odd bags may not make a difference. But, in the 15-odd customers billing in the store the day I make the purchases witnessing the fact that I am taking 0 plastic bags with me makes an impression. And hopefully, by the end of the day, I may have managed to trigger the interest of at least two of those shoppers to look for similar totes. That’s an ok statistic to start work with.
The 3 R’s of sustainability – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle require effort. It requires consistent effort. Not a one-off purchase that you will discard because it becomes inconvenient. Carrying totes to go shopping takes effort. Remembering to put the bags back in your boot, every time you take groceries up takes effort. Remembering to take the bags out of the boot, when you walk into a mall takes effort. Lugging an unsightly bag filled with bags while you hang out in the mall takes effort. And every time I return and empty those bags and fold and put away the totes, I am so glad I made that effort.
Recently I’ve also watched videos of customers who purchased a roll of heavy-duty bio-degradable garbage bags at the grocery store and opened and used those garbage bags to cart their groceries back home. These bags could then be reused to collect the garbage and can be discarded with the trash. While I completely support the cloth tote bags, I also understand that sometimes you are stuck outside with purchases made and not having your handy totes with you, this garbage bag trick works well in these situations. At the end of the day, sustainability for me is what can I do consistently every single time to help the effort. And I hope that my effort today, although miniscule in comparison will make a difference in the long run. Hopefully, some relative many generations later will appreciate the effort we started to reduce a few extra plastic bags at home.
Just a little more 