September 1, 2021

A New York Times article caught my eye last week: “The Cotton Tote Crisis” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/style/cotton-totes-climate-crisis.html

It is a good example of how we ignore the “R” that is desperately missing from the “3 R’s, Reduce Reuse Recycle. REFUSE...where is REFUSE?????

Refusing something or not acquiring is often very difficult for people to do. So tightly linked to consumerism, and often not even entering into our minds that it is better to pass on what appears to be an opportunity. As a parent, we “feel bad” for saying no to our kids when saying yes frequently is only contributing to a disastrous future. Short term happiness and gain glare brighter than future threats. And that is why we are in an environmental crisis.

The article addresses the trend of cotton totes serving as a symbol of a business eco-awakening away from plastic and towards a more sustainable, organic alternative. This substitution won’t save us, real change from both buyers and sellers is required.

The nytimes article says, “An organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall impact of production, according to a 2018 study by the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark. That equates to daily use for 54 years — for just one bag.”

“The cotton tote dilemma, said Laura Balmond, a project manager for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular campaign, is “a really good example of unintended consequences of people trying to make positive choices, and not understanding the full landscape.”

This is a type of greenwashing. The consumer convinces themselves that they don’t need to change anything about their consumption patterns or expectations, and the seller does a switcheroo from plastic to cotton, pats themselves on the back, and now can enter into the ever popular Eco-product market. But it isn’t the solution, saying no has never been more positive of an expression than it is today.

Refuse packaging, even if it is cute. Refuse “free” giveaways, they aren’t free. Refuse to buy, when you can use something you already have. I reuse as many materials in my creations as I can. Many people are still uncomfortable with the thought that the bag I am selling is not from new, virgin materials. That there may be a scratch or a crease or a fold that makes it less than perfect. If we don’t reuse materials they become pollutants. Refuse to believe that they are being recycled.

“only 15 percent of the 30 million tons of cotton produced every year actually makes its way to textile depositories. Even when a tote does make it to a treatment plant, most dyes used to print logos onto them are PVC-based and thus not recyclable; they’re “extremely difficult to break down chemically,” said Christopher Stanev, the co-founder of Evrnu, a Seattle-based textile recycling firm.”

It is too late to pretend that recycling is going to get us out of the current mess we are in, we must be more #consciousconsumers, #usewhatwehave and #buylesschoosewell.