I think you must have already known that while seeking ways to lead a convenient life or in the name of development, we have, in one way or other, very conveniently become a contributing factor to a long list of environmental problems.

Many a time, people are guilty of using polystyrene, plastic bags, and do every other thing that can deteriorate the environment because of convenience; many refuse to avoid wasting resources and to lead a more eco-friendly lifestyle, because they may think that it’s very inconvenient and troublesome to do so.

Activists try very hard to convince the public to make a little effort to help. We try to let you know how serious the problem is. We try to let you know that sacrificing a little convenience is worth it for the betterment of our world.

Yet, what if things can go another way round? What if those little actions regarded as eco-friendly can become more convenient for us to practise? What if the bad habits deemed as ‘un-green’ can become so inconvenient that we naturally give them up?

Imagine. The rubbish bin nearby is just one receptacle in which all kinds of trash are thrown without being sorted into categories.

You probably won’t go an extra mile just to find a recycling bin to throw a piece of paper, if there’s even one at all. If the paper is not going to be recycled, so be it! You probably feel you have much more important things to do than to worry about the paper.

And I don’t blame you. I can, but I don’t. (But I’d find you contemptible!)

I trust that if several trash cans are laid side by side for the public to dispose rubbish according to categories, you would actually bother to put that piece of paper into the right place where it can be sent for recycling.

This simple trash sorting measure may be common in some places, but in many places, including my own country, Malaysia, it’s usually found in airports and such, and hardly seen in public parks, roadsides, or anywhere a regular resident would pass by daily.

On the other hand, many of us have the impression that Danish are eco-friendly people. Yet, from as far as I know, they don’t cycle because they make a conscious effort to reduce carbon emissions. Maybe they are aware, but it doesn’t mean they intentionally think about being green all the time.

Sometimes, they just do it because it’s the natural thing to do. If there are cycling tracks that can lead you to your destination, everyone else cycles, and cycling is convenient and cheap, why not?

Thus, though people are the ones who shape the surrounding environment, we could also create an environment that could shape people’s habits or attitude. It works both ways.
We could
1) Create an environment that makes going green more convenient for the public.
2) Create an environment that makes habits that affect our planet negatively very difficult to practise.

For example, the government should provide relevant facilities (including something as simple as the trash sorting system) available to the people. It’s good if you want to raise the price of petrol (petrol hike was quite an issue in Malaysia) to encourage carpooling and avoid using the vehicle too much, but that’s only if you make greater effort to improve the public transport system. Public transport in certain places/countries still does not get you to your workplace, inefficient and have irregular timings, or perhaps the bus/metro station is nowhere near your home.

Make people hate plastic bags because they have to pay for requesting them. If you own a boutique or supermarket, please offer shopping bags with cooler designs (you can still print your own logo on them without sacrificing aesthetic values) so that people actually happily and willingly use the shopping bags. If you’re working in the office, gather your misprinted (on one side) or unwanted sheets of paper and put them in a nice stack near the printing machine, hopefully your colleagues do the same, and you all can use rough paper to print drafts or scribble random things.

We should help one another, and also ourselves, to create an environment that is convenient for us to live life the green way.