Individuals vs corporations
The prevailing message sent about sustainability in our society is that individual actions will be enough to solve the climate crisis. We are told to recycle, take shorter showers, and take public transportation. As depressing as it is, individual actions are barely a drop in the pool when it comes to saving water.
Did you know that 80% of water in California goes to agriculture? So how much water do you actually save when you take a shorter shower? If you didn’t know this, you would probably never have guessed that it was true. Elected officials are always stressing the importance of water consumption, but instead of addressing individuals, they need to focus on telling farms.
California is an agricultural powerhouse for the United States, and for the world. Over one-third of vegetables and two-thirds of fruit and nuts for the United States are grown in California. Most agriculture in the state takes place in the San Joachin valley. Why are we growing food in a desert? Not only has the groundwater in this region been depleted, but it sucks vast quantities of water from the Colorado river as well as Northern California watersheds. California is perpetually in a drought, so leaders should be focusing on how to make water use in agricultural regions more efficient rather than telling people how they as individuals can decrease their water consumption.
Another common sustainability tip that you have probably been told 100 times is to recycle more. Most schools teach about recycling, but they don’t go as far as to properly teach people how to recycle. This is important because if you are recycling the wrong things, or not cleaning them out properly, this contaminates the rest of the batch.
Here are some recycling tips:
Take off labels
Make sure the item is clean and doesn’t have any food/liquid on it
Anything that has grease cannot be recycled
If something is made of two different materials, plastic and cardboard, for example, it cannot be recycled
It is important to remember that recycling is the third R for a reason. It is much more important to reduce consumption, and if you do use something, to reuse it. If you have already done those things, Then recycling would be the last step.
Plastic is one of the main categories of recyclables. However, only 91% of plastic actually gets recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, or as litter! This is why reducing your plastic consumption is crucial to lowering your carbon footprint.
This photo shows where the great pacific garbage patches are. They are mostly made up of plastics, which break down into tiny microplastics. Those microplastics pose a risk to marine life who mistake them for food.
image sources:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/crops-take-drugs-recycled-water
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/garbagepatch.html
ReplyDeleteI once again loved reading your post. You made several excellent points- my favorite though, is how we should be more aware of what lies corporations and politicians tell us, about what we are doing wrong when it comes to sustainability. When in reality, the actions taken by corporations and policies enacted by politicians would make 1000x more of a difference that me taking a shorter shower. You mentioned "recycling is the third R for a reason" and that resonated with me. Personally, I recycle anything I can but I also try my best to purchase products that have minimal packaging or recycled cardboard instead of plastic. That is a choice we can make as consumers to reduce our footprint in the plastic industry. If enough people gave up buying plastic, the industry would fail. Unfortunately, like you mentioned- one persons action is but a teeny tiny dent in the world of sustainability.
The current global situation when it comes to sustainability is pretty disconcerting, I agree. Water is increasingly becoming more scarce in California and we can even visibly see with how much lakes and rivers have dried up in recent media. But on the topic of recycling, prioritizing recycling is definitely important. But if I may add one important thing, only about 30% of recycling is actually recycled in the United States. Along with that, roughly 90% of plastic is not recycled. This actually genuinely concerning and I hope these numbers start improving because there is just too much waste! I applaud you for providing information on this because a lot of people aren't aware of this!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. You made excellent points on how we can help the climate crisis by just changing our own lifestyles. One point I really enjoyed was how you gave us some recycling tips on what to do before you recycle. I remember telling someone that they need to take off the wrapping on the water bottles before recycling it. They never knew that they needed to do that because they thought the whole bottle would be recycled. I like the hyperlink you gave us also about how 91% of plastic actually gets recycled. I thought the number would be a lot lower, so that is a very good number for us individuals.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that you talked about how we as a community need to address corporation, rather than only that of the individual. It really is astounding, for example, how much water is used here in California, versus other places. I come from a family that until this last generation or so, were farmers. We still own avocado orchards, and manage other peoples orchards in surrounding areas, and have spent a good amount of time working on these orchards. So I can completely understand the amount of water that is used every single day simply to provide this fruit every year.
ReplyDeleteI also liked that you mentioned the plastic consumption. I absolutely despise plastic. Everything plastic. I work in a restaurant, and it disgusts me, the amount of plastics and water that we use every single night. I understand that there is health codes, and water has to be used to clean the floors and the dishes, and that we need to use single use gloves that are changed frequently. But there is other stuff too. Like, we wrap everything that is open, in plastic wrap every single night, and unwrap it the morning after. Or, on "bug night", we have to wrap, quite literally, everything, in plastic bags so that when they spray after we close, nothing is contaminated. And you know what, every restaurant in our chain does this.
This is my first time checking out your blog and I'm really excited about it! I absolutely can't stand how wasteful humans are. The single serve food sold drives me crazy. I actually did know about the agriculture and the water waste because I've researched it a lot as a vegetarian. I'm grateful that you talk about the difference in how to recycle. I actually get confused on what is right and wrong when it comes to recycling. I agree that schools should teach students better about the topic. The picture of all the trash in our oceans is heartbreaking. As an economics major, I would love to read a book on the "Economics of agriculture in the United States" I'm curious what the details are in holding California back from being greener. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!
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