Green Matters™
by Crissy Trask
Welcome to my blog where I share almost anything I think will help make greener living undeniable and simple. News, tips, insight and resources served up weekly. I also share my perspectives on others' perspectives and actions. Agree or disagree, I hope you will find them thought-provoking and a starting point for conversation.
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AUGUST 19, 2009 Simple solutions won't work alone: Comprehension is the true agent of change.
There's so much information available today on what's bad for the environment--and better for it--that a greater number of people can discern between their green and not-so-green lifestyle habits. What's more, plenty of people will admit to them. My sister, for example, admits to using paper napkins despite a general awareness that using cloth napkins would save trees. She doesn't hate trees. It's just that she believes that paper napkins better suit her needs. And I have a suspicion that she doesn't know enough about the impacts of disposable paper products to compel her to change.
Like millions of others, my sis is not yet willing to give something up that she's grown accustomed to or fond of, even though she knows it's wrong and the solution she's chosen to ignore is a simple one. I believe people fail to make even the simplest changes because being told to do something is not nearly as effective as getting all the facts so we can make fully-informed, educated decisions about our actions. In other words, we need to complicate the argument if people are going to be compelled to change.
Helping people stop doing something they've done for years requires more than introducing them to a new way…it requires an explanation of ecological and economic considerations--not to instill guilt, but reason. Usually, the habits we've fallen into aren't completed using reason--they've become an automatic behavior we no longer think about. To break a bad habit--a non-addictive one anyway--requires interrupting a mindless ritual with consciousness. Consciousness that allows us to focus on not just what we can do, but how much more advantageous a new behavior can be. The bottom line is we can accomplish a lot more when using our heads.
Take the example of my sister's paper napkin habit: I recently asked her why she prefers paper napkins. Her reasons are as follows:
1. They are easy to grab, and
easy to throw away.
2. For messy eaters, paper is better because when one gets soiled
you just grab a new one.
3. They are cheap.
I try not to give my family unsolicited advice, but when my sister agreed to answer my questions, she opened the door for me! This was my chance to give her more to think about in order to bring about that simplest of conversions from paper to cloth.
Hold-out reason no. 1: Paper
napkins are easy to grab and easy to throw away.
If you switched to cloth napkins, you would presumably keep them
in the kitchen--where you eat--and therefore, it would be no
easier to grab a paper version than a cloth version at meal time.
Paper is "easy to throw away," but it's precisely because
paper napkins are disposable that you can run out of them just
when you need 
them.
But most importantly, their disposability is what makes them
so bad for the planet. For example:
- Natural forests are being destroyed at an unsustainable pace
and tree farms that replace a small percentage of them do not
mimic a forest's critical ecological function.
- Pulp and paper mills require huge inputs of chemicals, energy
and water. They are also among the worst polluters to air, water
and land of any industry in the country.
- Rapidly discarded paper represents a huge percentage of the
waste stream, and paper napkins and towels in particular have
zero chance of getting recycled.
Hold-out reason no. 2: Paper
napkins are better for messy eaters.
Paper is better for messy eaters because you can soil one and
go right to the next…and to the next? Actually, this scenario
demonstrates how unsuitable paper napkins are for the messy eater!
If you need two or three paper napkins to get through a meal,
they are clearly inadequate for the job. One cloth napkin will
last through the messiest meal.
Hold-out reason no. 3: Paper
napkins are cheap.
Paper napkins are not cheaper than cloth. My sister's household
probably uses close to 2000 paper napkins a year at a cost of
around $30. Thirty dollars could also buy around a dozen cloth
napkins, and it would be a one-time purchase. (You could make
your own for much less.) My sister's paper napkin habit has already
cost her over $250 this decade! In her lifetime, she'll spend
thousands of dollars on paper napkins and paper towels if she
doesn't kick the habit soon.
Whatever wasteful, un-green habits you are clinging to, don't limit yourself by only considering what is better behavior. Find out why it is better--for you and the earth. The answer can be much more persuasive than the over-simplified argument of "do this, not that."
2009 BLOG INDEX
Posts by Topic
Air Quality
6/8/09, Leaf Blowers:
An Environmental Nightmare
Cleaning
4/14/09, Don’t
Be So Quick to Blame the Low-Phosphate Detergent
Energy
7/6/09, It’s Summer
Time and the Livin’ is ‘Green’!
4/7/09, Window Films Can Lower Your
Cooling Bills and Your Tax Liability
3/14/09, Bundle Your
Gadgets
Food
10/27/09, Super
Freakonomics Authors Come Down Hard on Local Food
10/22/09, Hey Foodies, What
Are You Feeding Your Pets?
Green Terms
5/26/09, A Closer Look
at the Definition of “Recycled” and Some Other “Re”
Words
Plastic, and other Trash
7/13/09, Will a
Ban on Bottled Water Lad to Bad Beverage Choices?
4/22/09, Bottled Water
Gets Reinvented
3/2/09, Inefficient Packaging
Awards (No. 1)
Perspectives
9/14/09, Gullibility
is Derailing Progress
8/24/09, Check
Your Lifestyle Before Bragging About Recycling
8/19/09, Simple
Solutions Won’t Work Alone: Comprehensive is the True Agent
of Change
2/22/09, The Unhappiest Generation
2/12/09, Inauguration
Attendees Fail to Demonstrate Change
Reduce
8/5/09, Direct
Mail Marketers Want to Force Junk Mail on Us
3/21/09, Better
Yard Sales
1/25/09, Wasting Trees:
Why I Hate Junk Mail
Reuse
10/14/09, Wrapping
with Your Butcher
5/7/09, Craigslist
Buyers are A Flakey Bunch on the Whole
Recycling
6/22/09, Not
Separating Your Recyclables from Your Trash Can Hurt
3/4/09, Recycle Your
Water Filters
Transportation
6/15/09, Avoid
Hot Car Syndrome to Reduce Emissions…and Discomfort
Water
3/27/09,
Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a
Drop…
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