An excellent read and a nice narrative. I think though that in placing the blame so squarely on the shoulders of industry it lets the rest of us off the hook too easily. At the end of they day we (almost) all bought, and are still buying, what they are selling. While there are some out there who truly walk the walk of what it means to be environmentally conscious, most of us have struggled to get past the stage of talking the talk. The pain, largely imagined I expect, of doing the right thing has allowed us to rationalize pretending that we are part of the solution when even a cursory examination of our actual behaviour will reveal that we have proven largely incapable of accepting the true cost of making peace with the planet. The lengths we will go to battle cognitive dissonance are extraordinary. Our ability to mentally abdicate personal responsibility for our actions when the consequences of those actions are not immediate and direct is remarkable. I don’t have much to offer in the way of a solution other than to look ourselves in the eye in the mirror every day and challenge ourselves to be better, not for our own sake but for the sake of our kids kids kids kids…
"This is why the concept of recycling has been such a spectacular success. The industry convinced us that single-use packaging would be dealt with, so that we could happily consume without concern."
No, Lloyd, you're entirely wrong about this. It wasn't the INDUSTRY that convinced us to accept single-use packaging, it was WE AS THE CONSUMER and GOVERNMENT WHO MANDATED IT who did their dirty work for them!
It began with bottled milk—small, local dairies (Weber Dairy in central Wisconsin is the one that comes to mind) used to sell their milk in returnable, recyclable bottles with paper & wax lids—anyone of a certain age as I am remember those things? As a kid, when my mom bought it by the gallon, I watched her remove the lid and skim off the cream to be used for baking or other uses. Then one day, we were told that Weber's would be stopping sales of fuild milk because the state was requiring them to switch from returnable, recyclable bottles with paper-and-wax lids because they deemed those lids as "unsafe". Old man Weber told my parents (I was sitting in the back seat at the time) that the equipment upgrades would be far too expensive for him to financially support, so he had to shutter direct-to-consumer sales. Thus, his milk was sold to a cooperative who could get the financial backing to purchase huge quantities of milk and sell it with the new packaging requirements. That mandate by the state came from the belief—right or wrong—by the CONSUMER that centralized production of single-use packaging was (a) healthier and (b) safer. So, refillable glass bottles became paper-and-wax coated jugs, and then plastic jugs once paper prices became too expensive. Now, in the state of Wisconsin, you can't even sell raw milk as part of a closed cooperative because of the "unnecessary risk" which raw milk poses to the consumer—denying the facts that for millennia humans drank unpasteurized milk just fine, that every farm with a milking cow drank unpasteurized milk for their own consumption, and that as part of a cooperative YOU as a member are WILLING to accept any and all risks independent of state oversight. Yet, government fiat says no. So what choice is the everyday person able to have when we're regulated over every petty little decision we want to make?
So no, it's not the industry that convinced us as the consumer to do "their dirty work" of breaking closed-loop packaging, it was WE OURSELVES and our misguided, fearful, ignorant irrationality that did it with a GENEROUS dollop of governmental intrusion. Plus, economy of scale = higher profitability. Can't forget about that one, can we?
So I would ask that you amend your article to assign blame to us as the consumer, not the manufacturer, because manufacturers merely respond to consumer demand and government diktat.
An excellent read and a nice narrative. I think though that in placing the blame so squarely on the shoulders of industry it lets the rest of us off the hook too easily. At the end of they day we (almost) all bought, and are still buying, what they are selling. While there are some out there who truly walk the walk of what it means to be environmentally conscious, most of us have struggled to get past the stage of talking the talk. The pain, largely imagined I expect, of doing the right thing has allowed us to rationalize pretending that we are part of the solution when even a cursory examination of our actual behaviour will reveal that we have proven largely incapable of accepting the true cost of making peace with the planet. The lengths we will go to battle cognitive dissonance are extraordinary. Our ability to mentally abdicate personal responsibility for our actions when the consequences of those actions are not immediate and direct is remarkable. I don’t have much to offer in the way of a solution other than to look ourselves in the eye in the mirror every day and challenge ourselves to be better, not for our own sake but for the sake of our kids kids kids kids…
"This is why the concept of recycling has been such a spectacular success. The industry convinced us that single-use packaging would be dealt with, so that we could happily consume without concern."
No, Lloyd, you're entirely wrong about this. It wasn't the INDUSTRY that convinced us to accept single-use packaging, it was WE AS THE CONSUMER and GOVERNMENT WHO MANDATED IT who did their dirty work for them!
It began with bottled milk—small, local dairies (Weber Dairy in central Wisconsin is the one that comes to mind) used to sell their milk in returnable, recyclable bottles with paper & wax lids—anyone of a certain age as I am remember those things? As a kid, when my mom bought it by the gallon, I watched her remove the lid and skim off the cream to be used for baking or other uses. Then one day, we were told that Weber's would be stopping sales of fuild milk because the state was requiring them to switch from returnable, recyclable bottles with paper-and-wax lids because they deemed those lids as "unsafe". Old man Weber told my parents (I was sitting in the back seat at the time) that the equipment upgrades would be far too expensive for him to financially support, so he had to shutter direct-to-consumer sales. Thus, his milk was sold to a cooperative who could get the financial backing to purchase huge quantities of milk and sell it with the new packaging requirements. That mandate by the state came from the belief—right or wrong—by the CONSUMER that centralized production of single-use packaging was (a) healthier and (b) safer. So, refillable glass bottles became paper-and-wax coated jugs, and then plastic jugs once paper prices became too expensive. Now, in the state of Wisconsin, you can't even sell raw milk as part of a closed cooperative because of the "unnecessary risk" which raw milk poses to the consumer—denying the facts that for millennia humans drank unpasteurized milk just fine, that every farm with a milking cow drank unpasteurized milk for their own consumption, and that as part of a cooperative YOU as a member are WILLING to accept any and all risks independent of state oversight. Yet, government fiat says no. So what choice is the everyday person able to have when we're regulated over every petty little decision we want to make?
So no, it's not the industry that convinced us as the consumer to do "their dirty work" of breaking closed-loop packaging, it was WE OURSELVES and our misguided, fearful, ignorant irrationality that did it with a GENEROUS dollop of governmental intrusion. Plus, economy of scale = higher profitability. Can't forget about that one, can we?
So I would ask that you amend your article to assign blame to us as the consumer, not the manufacturer, because manufacturers merely respond to consumer demand and government diktat.
An excellent article Lloyd.
Do you mine if I share it with Dome Living FB page?