A lot of people don’t fully understand what sustainability looks like. There are many misconceptions. Today, I will be debunking a few so you can know more about the truth of sustainable living.
Sustainability is expensive. Sustainability can definitely have expensive effects. For example, our President thinks the previous action plan President Barack Obama laid out was much too expensive and unnecessary. Check out this blog or this video to learn more about that. Although climate change is a priority, I understand why it can seem like we would be investing so much in our planet. But most of my readers are not the president nor people in the senate. Most people can make easy personal lifestyle changes to reduce waste and therefore, their impact on the planet. If we all did our part, we could work together to show businesses that the environment needs to be everyone’s biggest, most important focus. The government would still have to play a role, but it would be smaller and less expensive.
Sustainability means you have to collect trash in jars. This is totally a myth. Sustainability is definitely not as aesthetically pleasing as some of us environmentalists try to make it. You can still put trash in trash cans, it is just important to watch how much you make. To most people, it is unreasonable to keep a year's worth of trash in your house. I think just setting limits is a much more realistic option. Also, sustainability is so much more than the trash you produce. Sustainability is also, and probably even more about, the foods you eat, the clothes you wear, the form of transportation you choose, the energy and water you use, and the beliefs you express in your day to day life. In my opinion, it is much more environmentally friendly to eat a veggie burger wrapped in plastic every day for a year rather than kill a cow and eat a hamburger every day for a year.
Sustainability is unhygienic. Again, this does not have to be the case. I will argue that unless you participate in rigorous exercise every day, it is unnecessary to shower daily. It really depends on how you feel, but consider your actions and make sure they are intentional. In most cases, water usage is the reason hygienic practices are considered unsustainable. This can be fixed in a lot of ways: take shorter showers, wash your hair less frequently, wash your clothes only when dirty and the laundry is full, don’t wash a clean shirt, and wash everything cold, air dry. Some people think reusables are also unhygienic and if you feel that way about a particular product then just focus on what you are willing to do. No one says you have to shower in the water you cooked your beans in and then drink it or use reusable toilet paper! (Even I think that’s gross!) Instead, think about what you CAN do, maybe try recycled TP or bamboo.
I have to have solar panels to be sustainable. Solar panels, like any single sustainability feature, are only a small help to such a large problem. Just like how solar panels do not automatically make something sustainable or not, you are not unsustainable if you don’t have them. In fact, sometimes that is the better choice in terms of the environment. The manufacturing process of solar panels ironically produces a lot of CO2. It is just important to be intentional with that choice, as with many others, and be educated enough to understand why you do or don’t have solar panels. My family does not have solar, but look at us, we have found many other ways to be environmentally friendly. We are part of a community solar farm, which means we still have access to plenty of clean energy. This myth is definitely a common one I find myself needing a reminder with. Solar panels do not make a person eco. I know plenty of people that only have them for the economic benefit or simply because their house came with them. Not sure if solar panels are the best choice for you? Check out my blog on solar panels to learn more. Check out this blog post and video.
All you have to do is recycle. Recycling is great for our planet and giving resources a second life. But, it is really the bare minimum of sustainable actions. Most “zero-wasters” try to avoid recycling at all costs as only 9% of materials actually get successfully recycled. And, of those that do, most materials simply get downcycled and end up in a landfill after just one extra life. Recycling is an important practice, but it is the last of many R’s. It is much more important to reduce, reuse, repair, rethink, repurpose, rot, and refuse. All of those before recycling. Recycling is a last resort.
Someone else will pick up my trash. I am talking about all of you Boomers reading my blogs. Inf act, the majority of my viewers are older people. I don’t want to hate on anyone, but this is what it seems the mindset was back in the day. No one wants to pick up someone else’s trash, let alone their own. I always think about it like if you won’t be responsible for your waste, who will? We can’t just lazily litter hoping someone else will pick it up for us. Yesterday, I spent multiple hours picking up trash. I went into the woods, down the street, and by the lake to easily find five full bags worth of litter. Unfortunately, not enough people are like me and willing to go out of their way to pick up other people's trash.
I can’t make a difference (or littering once won’t make a difference)- This is a huge myth that needs to be debunked. You can make a huge difference. Repeating bad actions multiple times can kill the environment while repeating good actions has so many benefits. Even just one Earth-friendly choice can have an impact. For example, choosing a veggie burger just once over a hamburger can be the difference of life and death for a cow and the need to reproduce another in an unethical, non-environmentally friendly way. People tend to have similar thoughts about using too much water and energy or littering. Keeping a light on overnight might not be the most harmful choice, but if you do that every night for your whole life, you will use a lot more energy than you intend. Same with showering. Showering once may only use a tiny portion of Earth’s water. But when 7.5 billion other people do this action repeatedly, it is unsustainable. Lastly, littering once isn’t all that bad. Well… it isn’t all that bad until a fish eats that piece of plastic and it ends up in our food and water. Think about your small actions just as much as your big ones.
Now you know the truth. I hope this opened your eyes. See you next time. Peace.
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