I am volunteering for the local rodeo this year (its my first time) and I’m pretty excited. Last night, while helping others build a fence around what will be a parking lot, someone brought us over a case of bottled water (it helped, it was almost 90 degrees). I looked over and saw a small trailer with at least 4-5 cubic feet of bottles on it (this is a big rodeo). I opened mine, sat down and started reading the label. The label pointed out some nice design changes they call “eco-shape”, which include a bottle made from lighter plastic for easy recycling, a smaller label that uses less trees to make the paper, and a smaller cap that uses less plastic as well. They tout all these as being “good for the environment”
And they are, in a sense. Yes, using less paper and plastic is a good thing for the environment. It will help our resources last longer, less pollution, blah, blah, blah. The problems that I have with this are:
- They are not getting to the root of the problem
- People are buying it
The root of the problem is…
Consumption. Plain and simple. Instead of carrying around a water bottle (to save money or for your health), they want you to buy theirs. It”s ok though, because they’ve done all they can to minimize the impact of the bottle, except ask you to get a re-fillable bottle that will end up in a landfill once every 3-5 years (just a guess) instead of after a few uses (at the most). To get people to stop thinking about the fact that you’re still wasting things, they just design/sell eco-friendly bottles that you can still throw away. Everyone wins! You get your water from a bottle and they get your money.
However, in typical american fashion, the real issue (using a crap-ton) of resources is more or less ignored, but some short and medium term issues are brought up (and resolved). For the short and medium term, it’s still ok to buy and drink the water bottle and it’s actually good for the environment because it’s made with less plastic. So instead of using a crap-ton of resources, we are now using .94 of a crap-ton of resources (which according to the ICUWOM – the International Committee for Unstandardized Weights and Odd Measures – a sister institute of the ICWM is exactly 1 butt-load), and consumption can now resume its break-neck pace unabated because we are considering the environment when buying this water — Just look at the package — it says its good!
Everyday, we (the american consumer) fall for this nonsense. We go on thinking that we are doing right by the environment as we guzzle water from 1 time use bottles that are made from thinner, more earth friendly plastic so it’s ok. It’s not. According to the Food and Water Watch we are using 47 million gallons of oil to produce this plastic, and 1.5 million tons of waste. Couple this with the fact that 2 of the largest bottled waters (Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani) are just filtered municipal water, we are putting a lot of resources into making (and moving) this bottle of water. Despite all this, we still gravitate towards the bottled water company that claims to be better for the Earth.
Unfortunately,
And this is really the rub, is that basically anything that you buy that says “we are a green product” is most likely not true. Consuming anything (the way the current system works) is inherently not green. Buying something means you are trading your resources (your time, in the form of cash) for the resources of something else. There is not really a way for this to be friendly for either party unless it is held in check. Consuming the stuff is bad for your wallet (many some go into credit card or other types of high interest debt for it) and you’re depleting the resources used to make it.
The best way to ensure that resources will be there in the future (aka sustainable) is to not use too many of them in the first place.
Getting to the root of the problem — We want our water in a bottle, but we want that bottle to be environmentally friendly. Even though arrowhead spent time/money engineering a bottle with thinner plastic and a smaller cap and are now calling it “green” it’s still not as green as buying a water bottle.
They are missing the point. You cant consume a crap-ton of stuff and still be green. You cant spend in a frivolous manner and stay out of debt. You can’t TV watch your way to good health. All of these things are common goals of mine, and a lot of others. Many times, we find our that our habits don’t line up with our goals.
They are in an inherent battle with each other. Which will you choose?
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