environmental print and budding environmentalist

I'm still not caught up on all my posts yet, but this will be the last one for today. I have explained in a previous entry the concept of environmental print: children recognizing logos and symbols. I have also posted about environmentalism and my personal views on conservation. Both of those things come into play with this story.

Since we have our blue box for all of our recyclables, Sarah has gotten extremely good at picking out the recycling symbol. She will point it out to us if Nelson or I happen to miss it (aren't you proud of her, Tara?). She usually enjoys finding the symbol and setting an item aside for recycling.

But she certainly didn't enjoy discovering it the other day. :-p A couple of years ago, Nelson and I bought Sarah a Wiggles plate, cup, and bowl. Sarah loves the Wiggles, so she was thrilled to have her own dish set decorated with their image. On Monday, she was drinking orange juice from her Wiggles cup (a common morning occurrence) when she made what was to her a horrifying discovery: the bottom of the cup sported a recycling symbol.

As an adult, of course I knew that the cup manufacturers were simply saying that once the cup was no longer usable, it could be recycled rather than tossed in the trash. But to Sarah, that symbol indicated devastating news. It dictated that she throw her beloved cup into the recycling bin. She was in tears, even as I tried to explain that the cup was still fine and I could wash it as always. "No!" she wailed in despair. "It says recycling!"

It took several minutes to convince her that we really could keep her cup, symbol or no symbol. Honestly, who would have thought that a little bitty triangle could cause so much trouble? Apparently environmentalism and environmental print don't make a good combination! :-p