• About recycling: ZeroWasteChef lets us in on what actually happens after garbage day. And how we can do some simple things to help address this mountainous problem. On this topic, also read the book Junkyard Planet, by Adam Minter. Also recommended: The story of stuff; and The story of bottled water, and the whole rest of the series. By Annie Leonard, on YouTube.
• About disposable plastic straws: “Did you know that each day the US uses an estimated 500 million straws — enough disposable straws to fill over 46,400 large school buses per year?” (Read more, and find out how you can help, whether as a consumer, a business, or a community: https://ecocycle.org/eco-living/refuse-and-reduce/be-straw-free/ ) “In February of 2011, Milo Cress (then nine years old) founded the Be Straw Free Campaign project to work together with members of the straw industry, restaurants and other businesses, schools, environmental groups, and concerned citizens to reduce the use and waste of disposable plastic straws.”
• About car-dependent culture: We always hear about how everybody has a car, 90% of Americans have a car, etc. But, the truth is that many people not only don’t have a car but are actually not able to drive. It’s not even an option for them. This coming week I will be tuning into a webinar by Anna Letitia Zivarts, disability advocate and the author of a book called When Driving Is Not an Option. The following quote is from the Google books page: “One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver license. Because the majority of involuntary nondrivers are disabled, lower income, unhoused, formerly incarcerated, undocumented immigrants, kids, young people, and the elderly, they are largely invisible. The consequence of this invisibility is a mobility system designed almost exclusively for drivers. This system has human-health, environmental, and quality-of-life costs for everyone, not just for those excluded from it. If we’re serious about addressing climate change and inequality, we must address our transportation system.”
• About clothing: Many of us enjoy fashion as self-expression. And there are lots of ways to do that without trashing the planet. Unfortunately, most new clothing these days is what you would call “fast fashion”: not well-made; and wears out quickly. We love the variety of constantly buying new clothes, And our social-media feeds make it easy by showing ridiculously adorable clothes, shoes, bags, etc., for ridiculously cheap. And we feel like there’s no big problem, as long as we just donate the items to a thrift shop or church or whatever after we’re tired of them. But the reality is that unbelievable quantities of unwanted clothing have ended up turning large areas of the planet into a dumping ground. African countries get huge bales of “charity donation” clothes foisted upon them, things that are so stained and damaged that we should be embarrassed to give them to anyone. And, in the desert in Chile, I hear there is a vast pile of clothing from all over the world (probably mainly the USA though) that is visible from space. If you want to watch a really good story documentary that sums this up, I highly recommend The True Cost. https://truecostmovie.com . You could even invite a bunch of friends to join you, either virtually or in person, and then have a discussion! One out of six people in the entire world is employed in the fashion industry. Leveraging our consumer habits to make structural changes in this sector is a major way to address the planetary crisis.
All of the above may be inconvenient truths, in that they nudge us to reduce consumption in areas of our lives that we may hold near and dear. But the convenient truth is, for those of us who are extremely worried and losing sleep about the state of the planet, is that making reductions in any of these areas will yield huge benefits. Not just to the Earth, but to our own selves.