What I've found, especially in my area, is that the zero-waste/environmentally friendly lifestyle really hasn't taken off and isn't viewed as positive. It seems that we're still stuck in this mindset that convenient = better, which we all know is how single-use plastics came to be. I have two pretty good stories that happened just in the last two days.
1. I was at dinner last night with my parents and my grandmother and I decided to talk about how buying in bulk had really taken a toll on my Tupperware and mason jars. I was asking if they had any extra jars or if they wouldn't mind saving their glass jars and I could reuse them! If they couldn't I would just hit up an estate sale or Goodwill to try and find some. My grandmother was astonished. "You know mason jars aren't that expensive. You can just go down to the store and buy some". I then tried to explain to her how I was trying to curb my consumerism and I was trying to buy more second hand items if possible, and mason jars are definitely an item I could do this with. You would have thought I was speaking in tongues. My mother, who is very supportive of my journey and has even implemented some changes into her life, very politely changed the subject before I could get chastised anymore. Some people truly don't understand this way of life or thinking and only assume I'm buying second-hand because I can't afford to buy them new!
2. At work I have officially been labeled the environmentalist freak. I always go through people's trash cans and take out the aluminum cans or soda bottles that are on top to recycle and I always bring my own utensils and napkins which tends to get a lot of stares. But today I did the worst thing, I suggested we replace the single-use coffee cups with reusable mugs. Now let me give you a little background, I noticed that about a month ago the company had multiple dishwashers installed into the kitchens. To this day, they have yet to be used. I simply mentioned that now that we have dishwashers we could easily switch to reusable mugs for coffee. Yeah, that did not go over well. People began questioning my motives, asking how much energy goes into making a mug vs. a coffee cup, how long it would take to recoup the money spent on the mugs, and someone even said to me "we have to save the landfills" (and not in the good way as in save them from more use [yes I made that mistake and he quickly corrected me]). It just blew my mind that a simple suggestion could make everyone so upset.
People around here clearly don't understand the point of zero-waste, or just trying to live environmentally friendly. I guess that's what I'm here for then, to try and help!
1. I was at dinner last night with my parents and my grandmother and I decided to talk about how buying in bulk had really taken a toll on my Tupperware and mason jars. I was asking if they had any extra jars or if they wouldn't mind saving their glass jars and I could reuse them! If they couldn't I would just hit up an estate sale or Goodwill to try and find some. My grandmother was astonished. "You know mason jars aren't that expensive. You can just go down to the store and buy some". I then tried to explain to her how I was trying to curb my consumerism and I was trying to buy more second hand items if possible, and mason jars are definitely an item I could do this with. You would have thought I was speaking in tongues. My mother, who is very supportive of my journey and has even implemented some changes into her life, very politely changed the subject before I could get chastised anymore. Some people truly don't understand this way of life or thinking and only assume I'm buying second-hand because I can't afford to buy them new!
2. At work I have officially been labeled the environmentalist freak. I always go through people's trash cans and take out the aluminum cans or soda bottles that are on top to recycle and I always bring my own utensils and napkins which tends to get a lot of stares. But today I did the worst thing, I suggested we replace the single-use coffee cups with reusable mugs. Now let me give you a little background, I noticed that about a month ago the company had multiple dishwashers installed into the kitchens. To this day, they have yet to be used. I simply mentioned that now that we have dishwashers we could easily switch to reusable mugs for coffee. Yeah, that did not go over well. People began questioning my motives, asking how much energy goes into making a mug vs. a coffee cup, how long it would take to recoup the money spent on the mugs, and someone even said to me "we have to save the landfills" (and not in the good way as in save them from more use [yes I made that mistake and he quickly corrected me]). It just blew my mind that a simple suggestion could make everyone so upset.
People around here clearly don't understand the point of zero-waste, or just trying to live environmentally friendly. I guess that's what I'm here for then, to try and help!
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