What would you advise??
I recently received this e-mail from a student... if you were the one to reply, how would you advise him?
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i was just looking at that installments thing and i realized i did have a question for you. you see, i recently learned that i have lot less in common with my roomate than i initially thought in that he seems to regard recyling and conservation as completely unneccessary. i can tolerate this on a large scale because it's easy to just say "people are jerks" without specifying which people. anyway, thing is, the other day he decided to take the trash out but as he did so he also took the cans out of the bin that i've told him time and again is for recycling and simply put them in the trash with the rest. i couldn't believe it. of course i got up and fixed this error but the fact remained that he had done it. when i sought to figure out why he said that he's simply "forgotten", and that "it was just five cans". aside from the fact that it's not the sort of thing one should forget i don't see how he possibly could if he had to actively move them from the correct recepticle to the wrong one. now, finally, to the point, how would those assembled convince him of the necessity of recycling and conservation without him becoming too defensive and without me seeming overly judgemental.
posted by UVM Eco-Reps Program Coordinator @ 12:21 PM
4 Comments:
I think a reponse to this student dilemma is a difficult one to come up with. If you think about, this is the kind of problem that all of us eco-reps have faced the entire year: the students' unwillingness to change their habits and be more eco-friendly. I really feel like the best way for this particular student to deal with his roommate, would be to sit down with him and just nicely explain again the consequences of not recycling. He could be very clear that he is not trying to be a jerk or judgemental, but thinks that his roommate will benefit from participating in this action not only because it's good for the environmental, but it's good for self esteem too. Participating in this special task really does make you feel good about yourself, maybe even evaluating your life in a completely different way.
Yikes. It is tough to approach someone about that without coming off as judgemental, especially when you have to live together. When someone isn't getting it after a gentle reminder to recycle, I try to give a good, tangible example..'the energy saved from recycling one can could run a TV for three hours' is my favorite. In this case, I would try something like that with the roomate, and maybe try to have a chat about why recyling is important to me and why I think people should try to recycle. Explaining that and respectfully saying that you would appreciate it if he would recycle, at least in the dorm room, wouldn't be too harsh or judgemental.
I think the best way to avoid judging people is to find out their side first. There have been many times when I have wanted to just go off on people and start lecturing them about things like that, but doing that would just make me closed minded as well. No one wants to be sat down and talked to about things they are "doing wrong". I would approach the roommate and just simply ask them- Out of curiosity, why don't you recycle? It's a simple question, and they will most likely not have an answer. Then it might be easier to throw in your point of view or some reasons why recycle matters.
Naomi
this is a tough situation... i think it might be helpful to promote environmental friendly habits not by putting down throwing stuff in the trash but subtly explaining why stuff like recycling is good... perhaps some things would benefit him as a person, not just the environment which people are always a little more able to relate to. for example, habits like turning off the lights save money, same with using a reusable mug for coffee here.
- emily
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