A generation raised on Disney may well believe in a Neverland – a faraway place where dreams are realized.
In such a world, growth would be sustainable, packaging compostable and garbage, if any, would fuel cities. As much as these possibilities are marketed, none appear to be a present day reality in their truest sense.
Any economy that depends on exponential growth is destined to implode. While the planet is rich in resources that humanity has happily gorged on for the past century, the all-you-can-eat feast is about to time out. Any system that doesn’t feed back into itself is inherently linear and unsustainable. Some obvious examples are the current agricultural model and fast fashion.
It is past time for us to hit the brakes and turn our great capacity as a species toward circular economies. Mimicking the natural world, agriculture would avoid monocrops and instead diversify plantings.
Beneficial plant pairings would be the norm, reducing land needed as well as fertilizer and pesticides. Permaculture and biodynamic gardening methods would be the go-to.
Similar shifts might occur in the world of fashion, where fibres would be reused, consumption reduced overall and thrift stores take the place of retail outlets. Kudos to all you out there who are leading the charge by embodying these kinds of positive changes.
Compostable packaging arrived like a classic hero on scene awhile back, and like many fairy tales, we didn’t see what happened after it rode off into the sunset. While well-intentioned, compostable plastics often miss the mark because the systems for waste are not designed to receive them.
Often looking identical to regular plastics, compostable plastics pollute regular recycling streams. When sent to a composting facility, staff often can’t distinguish them from regular plastics, resulting in plastic pollution of the finished compost and our gardens.
Even when compostable plastics make it to a facility, many take several cycles through their system before they break down, leading to inefficiencies. Consumer and shopkeeper confusion around this topic leads to many debates around the dinner table or at the checkout.
Overall, the real white horse for us to ride off on is reusable containers – either your own or from one of the programs in place in some cities. Participating outlets offer reusable containers for a deposit fee and upon returning them users receive a sanitized replacement for their next take-out.
Burning garbage is appealing when advertised as a source of clean energy. Incineration, however, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Once a town invests in the costly facility it is garbage dependent and no longer motivated to reduce its waste. Pollutants are still released in the form of nanoparticles and are concentrated in the ash entombed into fallible tombs in the earth.
We are suckers for happily ever afters and villains are not always obvious. When something sounds too good to be true, it is likely the stuff of fantasy.
Becoming the hero of the earth’s story means getting informed about greenwashing so we can put our energy where true and lasting change occurs.
Let’s Talk Trash is qathet Regional District’s waste reduction education program. For more information, email [email protected] or go to LetsTalkTrash.ca.
