I am by no means an environmental activist or tree hugging hippie but over the past year or two, I’ve become more aware of my habits and the impact they have on the environment. I made a more conscious effort at recycling, which eventually led me to an epiphany, sparking in me a bigger change than just the initiative to sort my rubbish into in the correct bin.

It all started with  one of those ‘eco friendly’ shopping bags which I kept under my desk. Into it,  I would collect all things recyclable – paper, packaging, aluminium cans and plastic water bottles -  but found myself needing to empty it  more frequently than I would have liked. Turns out these water bottles weren’t very economical with the space in that bag. It took me a while, but I finally realised what my laziness to use one refillable drink bottle meant for our environment, i.e. 492837423873ty billion empty plastic ones that no longer served a purpose.

The learning curve continues. Much to my recent frustration, I found that 3 out of the 5 pens in my room no longer worked.

What the hell was I doing with 5 of the same pen and why did only 3 of them work?
This would have been attributed to my nasty habit of replacing one empty pen with a new one.

Why hadn’t I thrown out the ones that ran out of ink, you ask?
I guess because the pen itself was still more than just fine. The barrel, grip and clicky retractor thing were all in perfect condition and the Asian in me could not simply justify throwing it out.

What I failed to realise to do, was to buy some freaking ink refills. This way I would have a bunch of pens that all worked instead of just one or two amongst a growing collection of defunct ones.

Empty pens


The solution


Hey presto!

Here I was, thinking I was doing the right thing by taking the initiative to recycle when really, my actions in the first place were where the problem was stemming from. Prevention is better than cure and while I’m disappointed it took me so long, I’m glad I did eventually come to this revelation. Yes, the things you do to correct mistakes make a difference, but it’s the things you refrain from doing that make a bigger difference. Proactivity > reactivity. I understand that this is not something that clicks for people overnight but it all starts with the first step. You’ll wonder what changes you as one person can effect but collect all the recyclable things that you would’ve otherwise thrown out and you’ll soon agree that it all definitely adds up. A social experiment, if you will.