Hi, it's Alex!
Today I want to talk about the zero waste movement,
and I want to talk about some things that I see in it
that I sometimes don't like,
and I want to talk about a way of thinking about
how to really maximize your positive influence on the world
when it comes to reducing the total amount of waste.
So, the zero waste movement is this movement
to reduce as much as possible,
with the goal of completely eliminating,
any sort of unsustainable waste that we generate.
So for example, things that go to landfill.
And, unfortunately, most of us in modern society
are generating a lot of waste,
in ways that aren't sustainable.
Like, things aren't getting recycled,
and there are all sorts of negative environment impacts
of this waste when it gets out into the environment.
Not all of it even stays in the landfill.
There is a lot of litter.
There is a lot of stuff that blows into the ocean.
There is all sorts of problems with plastic
that is not biodegrading, and things like that.
So I think this is a really important movement
and it's an important thing to be working on.
But, sometimes the way I see it play out
among people who seem most passionate about it,
doesn't seem like it's having as big an effect
as it could, and I want to talk about why.
Different people generate
radically different amounts of waste.
Like, there is a lot of reasons for this.
And one of the reasons is the wealth disparity,
that some people in our society just have
a lot more wealth and use more resources,
and in our society,
pretty much everything we buy and do
is generating some waste,
either directly or indirectly.
And some people make better or worse decisions
or choices about what to buy, what to use, and so on.
So, there is a small portion of the people,
that is generating a disproportionate amount of waste,
and then there are other people
who are generating disproportionately less.
And, for the most part,
the people who get interested in this zero waste movement
seem to be people who already
aren't generating very much waste.
So, if you are someone who
already is generating less waste than average,
and you were somehow to reduce
the amount you generate to zero completely,
which would be awesome,
you're still not really having
the biggest effect on the environment,
because you weren't the biggest contributor
to the problem to begin with.
The biggest contribution is coming from the people
who are consuming more resources
and are less environmentally conscious.
So, if you really care about influencing the environment
in as positive a way as possible,
you need to factor in those other people,
and you need to think:
"Okay, how are my actions going to affect those people?"
So, reducing the amount of waste you generate,
it's not just about your own impact.
It's also about setting an example to others.
And, so I want to address two problems that I see.
The two problems that I see:
One is that, there can be a sort of judgey attitude
among some environmentalists.
So, for example, I love using these
reusable shopping bags.
I've been using them for years,
and over time, I've made a point of
using them more and more,
so that I'm very rarely taking a plastic bag.
I've been present in conversations
where people are talking about these things.
And one thing that I saw happen that really bothered me
is people were talking about these reusable bags,
and everyone is like:
"Oh, wow, these are great!
I started using them!"
"Hey, are you not using them yet?"
like: "You can get on this." and
"Here's where you can get some."
"I could give you some."
and I'm thinking: "Okay, this is great."
and then, another person pipes up in the conversation,
and she's like: "Yeah!
I use these almost all the time,"
"and the few times that I do get plastic bags"
"I make sure to reuse them over and over again."
"because I want to, you know I store them in my house"
"and I use them for different things."
And there was another person there
who was this sort of,
I'd characterize her as like a really
"die-hard" zero waste person,
and she was like:
"Oh, it's not okay to use plastics at all."
like
"Those could get out into the environment" and like
"We shouldn't be using them at all."
like
"Plastic, we just really need to be"
"completely beyond plastic."
and she kind of started jumping down
this other woman's throat.
And I was like: "Okay."
Everyone here has been really positive so far,
and sharing different ways to reduce their waste,
and suddenly you're now judging this woman
cause she's like not going 100% in.
And, that kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
Like, it sort of introduced this negative vibe
into the conversation.
It was kind of awkward, kind of off-putting.
And, to be honest, it made me not want to interact
with that person again, who said that.
And it made me, you know,
not want to listen to her as much.
And, that's kind of bad because
she probably had some things to teach me
and to teach this other woman
about how to reduce our environmental impact.
And I think that that negativity and that judgmentalism,
this sort of thing of like
you HAVE TO be going 100, and
if you're not going 100%, you're not good enough,
and I'm gonna judge you, I'm gonna shame you,
that approach, I found is really off-putting.
So that's one thing that I've seen
in the zero waste movement.
And, it's not just that one person.
I've seen that attitude from other people over time,
that was just, probably the worst example of it.
Okay, thankfully though, most people aren't like that.
But, there is still another problem that I see
in the zero waste movement,
which is, there is a sort of disconnect
and a social isolation.
I talked earlier about how
there are some people in society
who generate more waste than others.
And that's both a function of wealth
and total consumption of resources,
and also a function of
how environmentally conscious people are.
And, so if you want to reduce waste
as much as possible,
you really need to reach the people
who are generating the most waste.
Because if you don't address that,
you're never really going to fix the problem.
And, here is where the problem lies.
Most of the people that I see
who are the real leaders in terms of reducing their waste,
they are very disconnected from the people
who are the big consumers.
And, there, they don't live in the same communities,
they don't have friends that are in these sorts of use habits.
They don't interact with them very much.
And, specifically, they don't discuss environment issues
with these people.
And it's like, if you're isolated from those people,
how are you ever going to influence them?
Now, this is a really tough problem to tackle,
but I think it's something that you can chip away at.
And there are things that you can do.
And I also think it relates to that sort of judgey attitude,
because if you have that judgey attitude,
that's going to be off-putting to other people,
especially people who are the least environmentally sound,
because those are the people
that you're probably gonna be harshest on
in how you talk to them.
And so, I'd say the first thing,
if you want to connect with the people
who it would make the biggest difference
for you to connect with,
the people who are using the most resources,
the first thing you need to do
is let go of that judgey attitude,
and you need to instead adopt an attitude
of helping and supporting people.
And I think part of that is,
you're gonna need to adopt this sort of like
this attitude of
starting by helping people reduce their impact.
Don't say you need to go right to zero right from the start,
just help people to start moving in the right direction.
The second thing though that I think you can do
besides letting go of that judgmental attitude,
I think it helps if you can start bridging gaps socially
on other issues.
So for example,
I notice that attitudes towards waste generation
and environmental issues
often break down along political lines.
And people who are very liberal
seem more likely to care about this stuff
than people who are moderately conservative
to very conservative.
So, if you're just living in this little liberal bubble,
you're not ever going to reach some of these people.
And, I think that's a problem,
and, this is one of many reasons
that I think it's important to have friends
with a diverse range of political views.
So, again, if you're having this judgey attitude
about unrelated political issues,
not just environmental issues,
that's also gonna be sort-of
hindering your ability to get through to people.
So, basically, I've already talked about this a lot.
This is a pretty long video,
so, umm, that's what I have to say for now.
I think the zero waste movement is a great idea,
but if you really want to achieve zero waste
in society as a whole,
like we're gonna need to include everybody in it,
and that necessitates, it's absolutely necessary
to have a non-judgmental attitude towards it.
That's how I feel about this.
So, yeah, that's what I have to say.
Thank you!
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