Our country is doing its collective efforts in saving the environment, particularly with the minimal usage of plastic. Did you know that as of September 2017, the Philippines is the third worst plastic polluters of oceans? These sorts of plastics range from bags, bottle labels and straws.
From encouraging consumers to bring their own eco-bags, banning plastic straws and other implementations towards a “greener” society, Lenn Tejada-Katindig is one of those citizens that set an example to exert extra effort in being more environment-friendly.
Caption’s rough translation:
Environment > Convenience
When I put my well-packed meat/fish sa counter, I always hear admiration from strangers. “I admire that lady who brought Tupperwares.” “I didn’t know bringing those things were allowed”. Sometimes they come to me and ask if the meat came with the containers.
They usually want it, but they lose to convenience. Isn’t that a sad reality?
WHEN IN MANILA has reached out to Tejada-Katindig for further details.
I posted that one for people to know we can refuse plastic in a supermarket, it can be done. Lagi lang nananalo ang convenience sa tao than to do the right thing. (Convenience always wins for others [rather than] doing the right thing.) It’s difficult to overcome that when they haven’t tried it yet. When you’re decided with your advocacy, yes, it can be difficult at times, but you will do it happily either way. I always think that what I’m doing is for the future of my daughter so that she can still enjoy the beach without pollution. Plus, my future grandkids will still have something to enjoy, too.
Tejada-Katindig shares that she and her family decided to change their lifestyle by going for zero-waste because of their love for animals.
It’s so hard for us to see their suffering because of our pollution, so we started giving up straws replacing them with the stainless steel ones. We also bring our own reusable bottles for water and coffee when we’re out. We also got ourselves spoons and forks to bring when we’re on travel. Changing a lifestyle is hard, especially when you are used to the convenience they offer us when we’re out. You can try making it as a habit first – you never know, this habit of yours will eventually develop into a lifestyle.
Photo from Lenn Tejada-Katindig
Tejada-Katindig shares that she and her family have been practicing this lifestyle for two years already.
My little habit eventually became our lifestyle. Of course, we’re not perfect – we still consume products with plastics sometimes. These unavoidable plastics? What I do is, I wash them, dry them, cut them up and put it in an eco-brick and send it to The Plastic Solution. There’s no point battling with yourself with purchases you can’t avoid. We do what we can for the environment but not to the point that we lose our sanity.
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