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Why Are Eco-friendly Choices for Our Environment Important?

Earlier this year, as the Midwest was plunged into its coldest weather on record, on the other side of the planet, wildfires raged in Australia’s record-breaking heat. This is weather in the age of extremes.  It’s clear that an answer to climate change is needed at a policy level. While acts like the Green New Deal that propose economic stimulus programs aiming to address climate change are being met with the tired mantra of “we can’t afford to do it,” a louder voice is finally starting to answer in response: we can’t afford not to. Outside of politics, individuals can make small changes in their personal lives that will support a healthier planet and environment.

College News takes a look at the impact of a few industries on the environment and what we can do about it.

Fashion’s influence on the environment

Fashion’s harsh impact on our environment cannot be denied, and its negative effect is further amplified by consumers prioritizing price over ethics. When is the last time you were at a fast fashion retailer and considered what your purchase would mean to the environment?

You probably thought about the price, the trend, the places you would wear it and maybe considered the cost-per-wear.

But did you consider the amount of water used to manufacture that garment? The emissions created from transporting that garment from overseas? The chemicals and dyes used to give that garment its color How many pieces just like yours that will end up in a landfill in a matter of months?

The next time you’re indulging in some retail therapy, take a moment to consider the full life that item has lived before it found itself in your hands.

What can you do?

Participating in the second-hand clothing economy is likely the easiest way to reduce your footprint. If sifting through Goodwill bins isn’t quite your thing, there are many curated second-hand retailers where you can shop online and in person for gently used, on-trend pieces.Whatever you do, keep your clothes out of the trash.

According to the EPA over 16 million tons of textile waste were generated in the US in 2014 alone. Over 10 million tons of that ended up in landfills. If pre-loved clothing just isn’t your jam, you can become a conscious consumer of new clothing as well. Take a couple of minutes to research your favorite brands and take a look at their stance on sustainability.

Many brand are making the move towards sustainable manufacturing practices.

Technology

Technology may seem eco-friendly—it saves time, paper, energy and transportation; however, with most of us updating our gadgets as soon as they are released, more tech waste than ever is being generated.

According to The Balance Small Business, only 15 to 30 percent of tech waste is recycled. Twenty to 50 million tons of tech waste is generated worldwide every year, which amounts to over five percent of the municipal waste stream. Seventy percent of hazardous waste is deposited in landfills. And tech waste is expected to increase by eight percent each year.

What can you do?

Whenever you upgrade your technology, recycle your out-of-date tech. Many office supply stores and community centers host recycling drives for used tech. If your tech is still functional, it’s worth trying to trade in when you are buying your new tech or take to a reseller platform to sell your gadget directly to its new home.

Pollution

If you look around, you’ll see waste everywhere in the environment. According to Rubicon Global, the average household in the United States produces over four pounds per day of trash and over 56 tons per year. Forty percent of the world’s total waste is produced in the United States despite the country only making up five percent of the world’s population. Six hundred and forty pounds of solid waste is produced by the average college student annually. Ninety thousand pounds of waste will be left behind by the average American for future generations.

What can you do?

The easiest way to create a change within our environment is by creating less waste in our daily lives and responsibly disposing of the waste we do create. In addition, we can try to help clean up the waste created by others. Next time you see a piece of trash on the ground, do your part for the planet and dispose of it responsibly. Every piece of trash kept out of the environment adds up to reduce our negligent waste on this planet.

This article was originally published in the spring edition of College News.

See also: It’s World Bee Day and We’re a-Buzz

Sustainable Gems for Graduation Day

What is Zero Waste and Why Does it Have a Gender Problem?

The zero-waste movement is about eliminating all waste from your life, including cutting down on packaging, composting and recycling. If you search the #zerowaste and #zerowasteliving tags on Instagram, you’ll find yourself in the world of DIY beauty products, glass containers, non-toxic cleaning products and re-useable straws.

Zero waste aligns quite nicely with other millennial trends, like minimalist design and socially conscious consuming. But it isn’t only in the realm of influencers, it’s a movement whose practitioners share the serious goal of sending as little to landfill as possible.

For those who are trying to live a zero-waste life, avoiding plastic packaging, disposable coffee cups and paper towels is common place. They are experts in reusing and recycling, composting and DIY-ing. Many say it is their goal to accumulate about one-quart of trash over the span of an entire year.

Remaining conscious of our consumerist habits is a good thing, we stand behind that statement with certainty. But in looking at the faces leading the movement to save mother earth—it strikes us that most are women, which begs the question: why are eco-initiatives so feminized?

Across the board, when it comes to taking initiatives to make our personal lives greener, women are leading the charge. “A vexing question,” asked The Guardian recently, “Why do men recycle less than women?”

Zero-waste and wives

For married women who are already doing the grocery shopping and household cleaning, bringing zero-waste habits into practice seemed like a logical leap. Many wives and mothers have found that—even if the goal of living a more environmentally conscious life was a shared one—the day-to-day work of actually figuring out how to live that way fall to them.

Zero waste, it seems, falls under the umbrella of “second-shift” work—a term used to describe the cleaning and childcare work women do after coming home from their full-time job. Work, researchers have found, that is not equally shared. In fact, married mothers shoulder so much second-shift work, that a recent study has found that they spend more time on housework than single moms. (A good graphic was created by the French artist Emma that easily explains household-work inequalities.)

The pattern of enthusiastic zero-waste woman and her long-suffering male partner is uncomfortably common, reported Vox, once you know to ask about it. It’s essentially another layer to “having it all”: a career, a family, a picture-perfect life that’s now holding itself to even-greater idealistic standards.

The problem with coding behaviors as feminine

While the work of going zero waste falls into the category of responsibilities usually handled by women, this lifestyle faces another gender hurdle: eco-friendly choices are often coded as feminine behaviour.

Take, for example, a responsible zero waster who will carry around reusable utensils, a reusable straw, a mason jar, a water bottle or reusable mug (or both!), a cloth handkerchief and a metal or glass container for snacks or leftovers. Women are used to having a purse or tote of stuff with them—and what’s a few more, if it saves the planet? But a “phone-keys-wallet” guy is unlikely to hop on board with suddenly quintupling his daily essentials.

Zero waste comes with an added component of emotional labor too. Adherents spend their days politely refusing straws, declining gifts from family members and gently explaining their lifestyle in a non-judgemental way to strangers.

Emotional labor is a zeitgeisty, feminist word that describes the invisible, extra steps women do to make their way through the world every day. Already living with its weight on their shoulders, it can feel like less of a reach for women to commit to not-always-comfortable explanations of their habits to prying friends and colleagues; for men, who it is generally agreed, do less of this work, taking on this aspect of zero waste can feel like a steeper mountain to climb.

Do your very best, but…

Saving the planet is often talked about as an individual aim. You need to use fewer plastic bags. You need to ride your bike instead of driving your car. You need to re-think your life so that after one year, your total garbage output fits into a mason jar.

And while habits of individual have had an impact on business practices (following consumer practices, Trader Joe’s announced it would be decreasing its plastic use, among other examples), the current environmental crisis is not going to be solved by bringing your own coffee cup.

In the last decade, the fossil fuel industry has poured $180 billion into new plastics manufacturing facilities, and experts say global plastic production will jump by 40 percent as a result.

And for all the women who are running earth-happy homes? They’re not represented in positions of leadership that have influence on keeping plastic out of the oceans. According to a 2017 analysis, the global oil and gas industry has fewer women in leadership positions than in other industries and given that only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women that’s already a low bar.

But perhaps this explains why women focus on their family’s waste. Locked out of the rooms where the most impactful decisions are being made but terrified for their children’s future, they obsess over the plastic output that is within their domain.

See also: Five Books About Climate Change You Need to Read Now