My director and I have different ideas of what a sustainable practice is - advice?
Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 8:39 pm
At the service I work at we have a 'sustainability folder' where every room is expected to add photos and write-ups about the sustainable practices they have in place. We had a staff meeting last night and the director mentioned that my room has contributed the least to the book and basically said I need to keep up with the other rooms when it comes to implementing sustainability in the program.
In the folder most of the examples from other rooms are using boxes for box construction, using cardboard tubes (bought from the shop, not recycled toilet rolls) to paint circles, decorating milk bottles (for no specific purpose) and so on. My gripe with this is I don't really think those activities can be classed as sustainable practices because in reality the items created out of these recyclable items are most likely going to be thrown out at the end of the day! I said this in the staff meeting and was pretty much shot down by my director who said, "It's called REUSING - taking items that would be thrown away and using them for another purpose." But to me, reusing is taking an old tyre and turning it into a seat, using an old pallet for a stand up herb garden (all of which I have done for my room) - not taking a perfectly recyclable box and covering it with sticky tape and other craft materials so it can no longer be recycled.
What is everyone's opinion on this? I am honestly started to doubt myself and what my idea of a sustainable practice is.
In the folder most of the examples from other rooms are using boxes for box construction, using cardboard tubes (bought from the shop, not recycled toilet rolls) to paint circles, decorating milk bottles (for no specific purpose) and so on. My gripe with this is I don't really think those activities can be classed as sustainable practices because in reality the items created out of these recyclable items are most likely going to be thrown out at the end of the day! I said this in the staff meeting and was pretty much shot down by my director who said, "It's called REUSING - taking items that would be thrown away and using them for another purpose." But to me, reusing is taking an old tyre and turning it into a seat, using an old pallet for a stand up herb garden (all of which I have done for my room) - not taking a perfectly recyclable box and covering it with sticky tape and other craft materials so it can no longer be recycled.
What is everyone's opinion on this? I am honestly started to doubt myself and what my idea of a sustainable practice is.
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