I’m a sucker for marketing gimmicks, especially when they involve sustainability, which is why a new line of wool garments caught my eye. Wool is making a resurgence among outdoorsy and travel-minded communities, and it aligns nicely with principles of environmental conservation. This natural fiber is lightweight, durable, insulating, and doesn’t hold onto odors the way plastic-based performance fabric alternatives do.
As we enter July, it is once again time to examine our relationship with plastic (which permeates so much of our daily lives and this blog already). While it can be difficult to find alternatives to plastic, especially in food packaging, it is important to understand how some so-called alternatives can be harmful (or not really be alternatives at all).
We’re taught that recycling is a good thing, and doing it makes us feel responsible. In reality, there are serious limitations to recycling’s benefits when it comes to certain materials, especially plastics – even begging the question if new processes, such as “chemical recycling” are even possible. Unfortunately the plastic industry is banking on our trust, including when it comes to “recycling” fabrics.
My mom’s clothes had been sitting in bags in my house for over a year, waiting for me to summon the motivation to sort through them… and do research on how to dispose of them responsibly. Clothes are such an integral part of our lives (and economies) that decisions about what to do with them once you have them are not so simple.
During our time in Japan, we had the opportunity to meet with government officials, reporters, and residents of Tokyo, all of whom are responding to climate change in different ways. Because Japan has the ability to mitigate its emissions but also must adapt to more severe weather, it was interesting to explore what has been effective (or not) from the standpoint of shifting a hard-to-shift culture.
The final leg of my Climate Lab took me to Japan. I consider Japan the site of my environmental awakening, but there was still plenty to learn on this trip about impacts from the climate crisis and how to be an effective leader while centering the priorities of those facing the worst impacts. This jam-packed week was as fun as it was challenging.
Last year a friend told me he was very excited now that he knew he could take his hard-to-recycle plastic to our local recycling company. I bit my tongue, knowing that it was probably too good to be true. At best, those plastics would end up in a landfill, but I had also heard that chemical recycling might be even worse for the environment.
Knowing the health and climate risks of chemical recycling is one thing, but knowing how to change your own behavior to reduce those risks is another entirely. The plastics “recycling” process is opaque, but so is the process that gets our waste to the facility. This Plastic Free July, I took some time to learn more about where my own plastic waste goes.
Misconceptions abound when it comes to recycling, and a new technology called “chemical recycling” is being positioned as a major win for recycling hard-to-recycle plastics. No matter their intentions for the future, most chemical recycling facilities are currently turning plastics into fuel to be burned, not recycled plastics to replace virgin plastics. Perception is everything in the court of public opinion, and information matters.
After only a week, my July has already had its share of plastic consumption, largely associated with purchases that would otherwise be considered eco-friendly. While we work to reduce the amount of plastic coming into our homes, it’s also important to understand what happens after our plastic waste once we dispose of it. In short: what do “recycling” programs actually do with all this plastic?