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Sorry: ‘The greenest products are the ones you don't buy’
Posted
at
10:59 am
by Sarah Jackson
Eco Geeks, today I bring you the sad, horrible truth about our quest save the Earth.
Buying stuff isn’t the answer.
Washington Post staff writer Monica Hesse explained it perfectly in her recent opinion piece, “Greed in the Name of Green,” addressing the free pass many of us, including me, have felt compelled to play when it comes to consumption.
If it’s green, it’s OK. It’s worth it. It’s better. Hell, the planet NEEDS me to buy this, right?
“Congregation of the Church of the Holy Organic, let us buy,” Hesse writes, bemoaning the ever-expanding culture of consumption the green movement has spawned:
The privileged eco-friendly American realized long ago that SUVs were Death Stars; now we see that our gas-only Lexus is one, too. Best replace it with a 2008 LS 600 hybrid for $104,000 (it actually gets fewer miles per gallon than some traditional makes, but, see, it is a hybrid). Accessorize the interior with an organic Sherpa car seat cover for only $119.99.
Polyester = bad. Solution? Throw out the old wardrobe and replace with natural fibers!
Linoleum = bad. Solution? Rip up the old floor and replace with cork!
Out with the old, in with the green.
The culture of obsolescence has become so deeply ingrained that it's practically reflexive. Holey sweaters get pitched, not mended. Laptops and cell phones get slimmer and shinier and smaller. We trade up every six months, and to make up for that, we buy and buy and hope we're buying the right other things, though sometimes we're not sure: When the Hartman Group, a market research firm, asked a group of devout green consumers what the USDA "organic" seal meant when placed on a product, 43 percent did not know. (The seal means that the product is at least 95 percent organic -- no pesticides, no synthetic hormones, no sewage sludge, no irradiation, no cloning.)
I love to buy things, especially in the name of green or even in the name of “natural,” but if I really stop and think about buying certain things, I try to push myself to at least use the things I have until they’ve truly enjoyed a full life – because, as Hesse put it – “the greenest products are the ones you don't buy.”
Don’t believe me? Revisit The Story of Stuff, a fact-filled, 20-minute video that explores the underside of industrial production and consumption.
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