The teen years are a great time to built earth-friendly habits into your teen’s life that will stay with them as adults. The most important step is, of course, that you model green living yourself but there are also several great ways to teach your teen more about green living, and perhaps learn a few new things yourself.
2. Recycling. Teenagers are able to do a lot of the things that adults can do to help save the planet and its resources. Recycling is the first, most basic step and should become a rule of thumb in every household. Teach your teen to recycle paper and plastic products, either thru your landfills recycling program or in stores that accept them back. Recycling paper is not just about newspaper- you can recycle junk mail, phone books and white office paper. Glass and cans should be separated and recycled. You can also teach your teen to compost raked leaves in the fall. Your local recycling center may have a composting program you can use. Your teen will feel good that his or her hard work is going to help things grow and flourish.
4. Green Their Transportation. Encourage your teenager to walk or bicycle to school if their high school is close enough, or if they are hanging out with friends and family close by. You can teach them to save money and gas but encouraging activities that can be done close to home as well.
By teaching your teen the basics now: energy conservation, water conservation and the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), you will raise a teenager who becomes a responsible, green adult with a love and respect for their planet.
More From Crystal
My oldest is 13 and she is showing signs of wanting to “go green”. I’ll have her read this, thanks!
Following you on twitter!
This post made me smile. We are a fairly green family and recently I had to travel for business which required my mother-in-law to stay at my home with my 13yr old.
It seems Nana was making my daughter just crazy during my absence. My daughter understands that we have garbage, compost and re-cycle but 74yr old Nana doesn’t. This I have to say made my girl very distressed. She text messaged telling me that Nana put food in the garbage, as well as re-cycle items. Its seems that Nana thinks the garbage-man will just sort it out once it gets to the curb. But my daughter understands that is not how it works! And Nana’s actions made her crazy. I think when kids are taught from a very early age how to protect the earth and the resources they have, they value those lessons. She is very much into the 3r’s and I think she and her peer will make our world a better/healther place