Trash: Whose Responsibility Is It?
Yesterday I got a package in the mail. It was just bank stuff, so it wasn't that exciting. I opened the cardboard envelope-ish thing and pulled out a green plastic sleeve that was sealed at both ends. This is what it said.
There are multiple problems with this. First of all, what would I use an unsealable plastic sleeve that has my address on it for? And more importantly, my bank just put the responsibility of dealing with this plastic on me, the consumer.
This whole make-the-consumer-deal-with-our-waste thing is part of a bigger idea that began in the 50's with the Keep America Beautiful campaign. KAB is a non-profit organization founded in 1953 with three main goals: end littering, improve recycling, and beautify communities. Sounds great, right? It turns out KAB was created by the American Can Company and the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, the creators of the single-use bottles and cans that litter our streets (Beavan, 66). They even released this ad to blame consumers for the litter problem. The ad stresses how "community volunteers cleaned, planted, and reclaimed" an old dump. They made the dump the community's responsibility to deal with instead of the city's responsibility. The ad ends with the catchphrase "People start pollution. People can stop it". The phrase itself is a perfect representation of KAB's gross oversimplification of America's trash problem. If you put the phrase into the context of the entire country, the first "people" means companies that create plastic packaging, and the second "people" means the last hands that touched it. They might as well have said "We start pollution. You can stop it".
Today, KAB is sponsored by big companies like Nestlé. This is a great opportunity for Nestlé. They get to pretend they care about the environment by sponsoring an organization that tells people to clean up the same candy wrappers they bring into the world. KAB has been used to shift the blame of litter onto consumers instead of producers. Have you ever felt guilty about all the trash you throw away? This is why. Companies have convinced us their trash is our fault.
Around the same time KAB was pumping out videos of American Indians crying, 116 heads of state met in Rio for the Earth Summit, one of the many partially successful global environmental conferences in the last half-century. At the conference, the concept of "sustainable consumption" was introduced. The mainstream version of this idea is that consumers have the power to make the environment a higher priority by voting with their dollar. This came out of a desire to create economic growth while also protecting the environment.
This new way of thinking provided an excellent marketing opportunity for companies. They could pretend to be environmentally conscious by naming their product something ridiculous like "Greenworks" and putting a sunflower on the label, and people would buy it (I'm talking to you, Clorox). Boom. Change the label, sales increase.
Another problem with this whole consumers-save-the-world idea is that it requires people to consume. It says you have to buy the Greenworks cleaning spray to let Clorox know they're doing a good job (actually don't because they're not. that sunflower means nothing). "Sustainable Consumption" itself is an oxymoron. Sustainability means conserving our natural resources to allow future generations to enjoy their benefits. It means using less. And consumption, well, that means using more. So we cannot really consume 'sustainably'.
The good news is, we're not out of luck. Both consumers and companies can stop killing our environment. Germany introduced a policy that "contains requirements for the recovery and recycling of all types of packaging [by companies] instead of being emptied at an earlier stage" (Overview, 1). It pulls a reverse-KAB by putting the responsibility of packaging waste on the companies that create it rather than the consumers that toss it. But since not every company is doing that, we as consumers can still help. We can shop smarter by not trusting everything that's "green". It's not difficult to tell which companies are greenwashing and which actually care about the environment. And if it is, you have the answer in your back pocket. Or wherever you keep your phone. We can also think about consuming less instead of consuming "sustainably". We can buy a reusable bag once and never use plastic bags again. Or we can buy a travel mug once and never use single-use coffee cups again. Finally, we can write to companies to encourage them to introduce sustainable packaging (ahem, Bank of America).
Each individual action won't make a big difference, but it's a start. Turning your values into actions can not only make you feel better but it can also inspire others who were secretly wanting to do the same thing. In being an advocate for less single-use plastic packaging, or whatever it is you're passionate about, it's important to remember that you can't shame people into agreeing with you. The best way to lead is by example.
REFERENCES
Ad Council (2007). Make This Land Good Again | Pollution: Keep America Beautiful | Ad Council. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH0U2AsyoWU [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].
Beavan, C. (2011). No impact man. London: Piatkus Books, p.66.
Greenworkscleaners.com. (2017). Products | Cleaning Products - Natural Household Cleaners | Green Works. [online] Available at: https://www.greenworkscleaners.com/products/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].
Kab.org. (2017). Keep America Beautiful. [online] Available at: https://www.kab.org/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].
Overview of the German Packaging Ordinance. (2017). Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, p.1.
There are multiple problems with this. First of all, what would I use an unsealable plastic sleeve that has my address on it for? And more importantly, my bank just put the responsibility of dealing with this plastic on me, the consumer.
This whole make-the-consumer-deal-with-our-waste thing is part of a bigger idea that began in the 50's with the Keep America Beautiful campaign. KAB is a non-profit organization founded in 1953 with three main goals: end littering, improve recycling, and beautify communities. Sounds great, right? It turns out KAB was created by the American Can Company and the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, the creators of the single-use bottles and cans that litter our streets (Beavan, 66). They even released this ad to blame consumers for the litter problem. The ad stresses how "community volunteers cleaned, planted, and reclaimed" an old dump. They made the dump the community's responsibility to deal with instead of the city's responsibility. The ad ends with the catchphrase "People start pollution. People can stop it". The phrase itself is a perfect representation of KAB's gross oversimplification of America's trash problem. If you put the phrase into the context of the entire country, the first "people" means companies that create plastic packaging, and the second "people" means the last hands that touched it. They might as well have said "We start pollution. You can stop it".
Today, KAB is sponsored by big companies like Nestlé. This is a great opportunity for Nestlé. They get to pretend they care about the environment by sponsoring an organization that tells people to clean up the same candy wrappers they bring into the world. KAB has been used to shift the blame of litter onto consumers instead of producers. Have you ever felt guilty about all the trash you throw away? This is why. Companies have convinced us their trash is our fault.
____
Around the same time KAB was pumping out videos of American Indians crying, 116 heads of state met in Rio for the Earth Summit, one of the many partially successful global environmental conferences in the last half-century. At the conference, the concept of "sustainable consumption" was introduced. The mainstream version of this idea is that consumers have the power to make the environment a higher priority by voting with their dollar. This came out of a desire to create economic growth while also protecting the environment.
This new way of thinking provided an excellent marketing opportunity for companies. They could pretend to be environmentally conscious by naming their product something ridiculous like "Greenworks" and putting a sunflower on the label, and people would buy it (I'm talking to you, Clorox). Boom. Change the label, sales increase.
Another problem with this whole consumers-save-the-world idea is that it requires people to consume. It says you have to buy the Greenworks cleaning spray to let Clorox know they're doing a good job (actually don't because they're not. that sunflower means nothing). "Sustainable Consumption" itself is an oxymoron. Sustainability means conserving our natural resources to allow future generations to enjoy their benefits. It means using less. And consumption, well, that means using more. So we cannot really consume 'sustainably'.
____
The good news is, we're not out of luck. Both consumers and companies can stop killing our environment. Germany introduced a policy that "contains requirements for the recovery and recycling of all types of packaging [by companies] instead of being emptied at an earlier stage" (Overview, 1). It pulls a reverse-KAB by putting the responsibility of packaging waste on the companies that create it rather than the consumers that toss it. But since not every company is doing that, we as consumers can still help. We can shop smarter by not trusting everything that's "green". It's not difficult to tell which companies are greenwashing and which actually care about the environment. And if it is, you have the answer in your back pocket. Or wherever you keep your phone. We can also think about consuming less instead of consuming "sustainably". We can buy a reusable bag once and never use plastic bags again. Or we can buy a travel mug once and never use single-use coffee cups again. Finally, we can write to companies to encourage them to introduce sustainable packaging (ahem, Bank of America).
Each individual action won't make a big difference, but it's a start. Turning your values into actions can not only make you feel better but it can also inspire others who were secretly wanting to do the same thing. In being an advocate for less single-use plastic packaging, or whatever it is you're passionate about, it's important to remember that you can't shame people into agreeing with you. The best way to lead is by example.
____
REFERENCES
Ad Council (2007). Make This Land Good Again | Pollution: Keep America Beautiful | Ad Council. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH0U2AsyoWU [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].
Beavan, C. (2011). No impact man. London: Piatkus Books, p.66.
Greenworkscleaners.com. (2017). Products | Cleaning Products - Natural Household Cleaners | Green Works. [online] Available at: https://www.greenworkscleaners.com/products/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].
Kab.org. (2017). Keep America Beautiful. [online] Available at: https://www.kab.org/ [Accessed 1 Jul. 2017].
Overview of the German Packaging Ordinance. (2017). Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, p.1.
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