Many are taking steps to protect the planet in the wake of the climate crisis. Some slight lifestyle adjustments can make a huge environmental impact, but where should individuals focus their energy? Instead of falling for these well-known “sustainable” myths, consider truly sustainable alternatives.
Myth: Plastic straws are killing the turtles and destroying the ocean.
Activists have shouted from rooftops: “save the turtles, don’t use plastic straws!” While any plastic reduction is helpful, straws are not the biggest culprit when it comes to plastic ending up in oceans. According to this study, Americans use a little over 182 billion plastic straws annually — no small feat, but minimal compared to the five trillion plastic bags globally.
Ava Tribe, an Emerson student and active environmentalist, emphasizes the importance of reducing overall plastic waste. She’s an Eco-Ambassador for the Emerson College office of Sustainability, and president of the Emerson Green Collective. “There needs to be more of a push of using your own reusable water bottles and forks and knives. Just because a single-use item can be reused or composted, that’s not sustainable compared to using your own reusable products,” she said. That’s not to say that plastic straws aren’t an issue, but the focus should be on overall plastic use, rather than one particular item.
Myth: You should replace all single-use products with reusable items.
Sustainability is focused on extending the life of items before they end up in landfills. You might be inspired to buy a reusable grocery bag, but that’s more wasteful than reusing the plastic bags that are already laying around your home. Or, if you’re more the creative type, this tutorial explains how to crochet a reusable tote bag out of plastic bags. By finding new or different uses for the plastic that already exists, overall waste is reduced.
Myth: A company is good for the environment if they sell “green” or “eco-friendly” stuff.
“There’s a big push for greenwashing right now,” Tribe said. “Companies want to be clean and green and good for the environment, because it’s something that consumers care about more and more.”
Greenwashing is a marketing tool used by companies to sell more products. Essentially, it means brainwashing consumers into thinking that they are buying products that are good for the environment. Oftentimes, these companies are still doing significant damage to the planet, or the products aren’t actually as “green” as they seem. The Harvard Business Review states that “42% of green claims were exaggerated, false, or deceptive…”
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Not to mention, there’s very little regulation for how companies market their sustainability practices. “Eco-friendly,” “green,” “sustainable,” and “recyclable” are all subjective and loosely- used terms in the world of marketing, and there’s no standard of what qualifies a product for any of these labels. Greenwashing is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corporations’ effect on sustainability.
The same research, though, found that consumers usually see through the deception. When companies embellish their sustainability practices, it often harms them in the long run. By supporting authentically green businesses, consumers hold greenwashed companies accountable, and make sustainable living more accessible for everyone.
“We all have a voting with our dollar ability,” said Maria Vasco, who owns a sustainability shop in Boston called Uvida.
Uvida is a small business focused on making sustainable products and practices more accessible for Boston locals. They sell compostable and reusable items (without plastic packaging), and they have a refill station. Customers can buy bulk items, like soap, by weight, and use their own container. These same items, when purchased in single-use plastic containers, often end up in the garbage because of recycling limitations.
Myth: Recycling is the same no matter where you are.
Ava Tribe also mentions that recycling varies from state to state. Take plastic bottle recycling, for example. Not only do the deposit amounts and qualifications vary, but the actual types of materials that can be recycled depend on what state you’re in. A lack of national legislation means that a “recyclable” cup might be garbage in another state.
“A lot of products that market themselves as sustainable or recyclable, it’s really different from state to state, and that’s not talked about a lot,” Tribe said.
Leeann Sullivan is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in Environmental Studies at Boston College. As someone with a background in politics, she emphasizes the importance of policy change, rather than individual action, as a solution to the climate change crisis.
She quoted Paul F. Steinberg’s book Who Rules The Earth? in saying “the transition to sustainability requires transforming the rules we live by.”
Myth: You should track your carbon footprint.
Sullivan challenges the widespread notion that individuals should track their carbon footprint. According to one source, “100 energy companies have been responsible for 71% of all industrial emissions since human-driven climate change was officially recognized.” Rather than spending energy measuring their own carbon footprints, individuals can support campaigns for government-enforced carbon neutrality. That’s not to say that carbon emissions shouldn’t be reduced, but specific tracking ends up lost in translation.
“If we really want to bring about more sustainable practices, the focus of our efforts needs to be on changing, at a minimum, social norms,” she said. “But more realistically, the ways in which those social norms are embedded in laws and legal structures that limit our ability to decide for ourselves how to behave.” As a global issue, climate change requires widespread and collaborative— rather than individualized— solutions, according to Sullivan.
Sullivan also mentions that many experts are beginning to wonder if sustainability should even be the focus. At this point in the climate crisis, we as humans may not be able to maintain our lifestyle, and repairing the damage done could be the next phase of environmentalism.
This has created a sense of urgency— and sometimes even panic, for many people. Several of those I interviewed described a feeling of hopelessness. However, those concerned about the environment are focused on living greener lifestyles, and by maximizing these efforts, a greener Earth is possible.
