Not only do we feel powerless, we are pushed into buying more shit over and over even when we know it is doing the opposite of helping. Whenever there is push back, we get green washing. The climate blame is put on the everydood when all the effects and decisions are from the companies that sell you everything.
An example I always end up thinking about is the change of grocery bags. We went from paper to plastic due to the environmental impact of massive paper mills needed. Plastic was sold on the idea it can be recycled. Plastic bags can be recycled but it takes a method involving a “cold” press as the thin bags will just burn up using standard methods. No bags get recycled as there is no money in it, bags end up in landfills. Plastic bags then become seen as an environmental issue and places start banning them. Replacements are sold in stores now claiming they are being “green”, but the options range from paper (so same issue from years ago), “reusable” heavy plastic bags that are also not recycled and use the plastic of 100s of regular plastic bags, cotton bags that need to be used about 90 times to offset the production of the bag (and we don’t see use on average get to that) or plastic totes that although very durable use the plastic of 1000s of bags worth. None of these solutions make a tonne of sense but the fact that “single” use plastic bags where super efficient never even comes up, the same people who put them in landfills are still around not recycling while they sell us on solutions that don’t really do anything overall. You could have just made the single use bags biodegradable, or pushed reusable bags into not being so hyper finished (the impact of a “nice” cotton bag vs a hemp bag is like night and day) but this way you can sell branded bags to people you used to give free bags to.
The whole thing is frustrating since even my example above is just a red herring over all anyway. The plastic use overall has not gone down from the banning, its gone up. Plastic is still getting in landfills and oceans at an ever increasing rate, and although the blame is often put on the everydood its rarely them that has a say in it. We greenwash everything and then keep doing the same shit, and it has gone on long enough that we can have generational conversations on the subject.
Not to mention the cultural shift of having things that last and passing them down (or at least passing them to someone) to now cheap and low-quality things that need frequent repurchasing. The climate effects of an item that’s passed down for a century are much smaller than even “environmentally friendly” item that lasts a few years.
I have seen things thrown out because they are old by my grandparents and others of their generation. Things that work better then what you can buy new like a very nice wall mounted can opener that was installed before they even bought the place. That can opener I would kill for now, it was 70 years old when they tossed it and it opened cans better then anything I have ever had access to otherwise even after they pulled it from the wall.
Why was it not passed down? It was “old” and theirs so it could not just be given away, the very thought bothered my grandparents of some nar do well having their stuff. I remember when I was a teenager them paying me and my brother to smash all the glass from their old storm windows so that no one could go into the trash and use their stuff.
These are not bad people overall, but this is what I have seen people of that generation do. This is why we have the toss it away and get a new one mentality.
Not only do we feel powerless, we are pushed into buying more shit over and over even when we know it is doing the opposite of helping. Whenever there is push back, we get green washing. The climate blame is put on the everydood when all the effects and decisions are from the companies that sell you everything.
An example I always end up thinking about is the change of grocery bags. We went from paper to plastic due to the environmental impact of massive paper mills needed. Plastic was sold on the idea it can be recycled. Plastic bags can be recycled but it takes a method involving a “cold” press as the thin bags will just burn up using standard methods. No bags get recycled as there is no money in it, bags end up in landfills. Plastic bags then become seen as an environmental issue and places start banning them. Replacements are sold in stores now claiming they are being “green”, but the options range from paper (so same issue from years ago), “reusable” heavy plastic bags that are also not recycled and use the plastic of 100s of regular plastic bags, cotton bags that need to be used about 90 times to offset the production of the bag (and we don’t see use on average get to that) or plastic totes that although very durable use the plastic of 1000s of bags worth. None of these solutions make a tonne of sense but the fact that “single” use plastic bags where super efficient never even comes up, the same people who put them in landfills are still around not recycling while they sell us on solutions that don’t really do anything overall. You could have just made the single use bags biodegradable, or pushed reusable bags into not being so hyper finished (the impact of a “nice” cotton bag vs a hemp bag is like night and day) but this way you can sell branded bags to people you used to give free bags to.
The whole thing is frustrating since even my example above is just a red herring over all anyway. The plastic use overall has not gone down from the banning, its gone up. Plastic is still getting in landfills and oceans at an ever increasing rate, and although the blame is often put on the everydood its rarely them that has a say in it. We greenwash everything and then keep doing the same shit, and it has gone on long enough that we can have generational conversations on the subject.
Not to mention the cultural shift of having things that last and passing them down (or at least passing them to someone) to now cheap and low-quality things that need frequent repurchasing. The climate effects of an item that’s passed down for a century are much smaller than even “environmentally friendly” item that lasts a few years.
I have seen things thrown out because they are old by my grandparents and others of their generation. Things that work better then what you can buy new like a very nice wall mounted can opener that was installed before they even bought the place. That can opener I would kill for now, it was 70 years old when they tossed it and it opened cans better then anything I have ever had access to otherwise even after they pulled it from the wall.
Why was it not passed down? It was “old” and theirs so it could not just be given away, the very thought bothered my grandparents of some nar do well having their stuff. I remember when I was a teenager them paying me and my brother to smash all the glass from their old storm windows so that no one could go into the trash and use their stuff.
These are not bad people overall, but this is what I have seen people of that generation do. This is why we have the toss it away and get a new one mentality.