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| Waste in Accra, Ghana |
There has been a lot of
attention lately about living zero waste lifestyles or the promotion of
reducing waste through minimised packaging, consumption and ultimately
consumerism. I have been chastising myself for every bit of plastic I use and
anything I consume trying to achieve this very goal. As a rule I generally aim
to use as little as possible, I bring containers, I buy used clothing and try
not to accumulate much, the overall objectives of the green living we all need to
adopt to reduce our environmental impact and reduce the effects of climate change. Yet, I can't help looking at my
garbage bin at the end of each month and seeing my failure in its contents.
When I came to West
Africa I had this idea that because people lived in poverty and with fewer
means they would waste less and reuse everything. I imagined a world of a
hundred years ago where living simply meant living with little impact, which is
not the reality I have encountered. The naivety of this idea now astounds
me; countries in the developing world have totally embraced the disposable
life. People here use plastic bags like they are going out of style; I am even
laughed at when I bring reusable bags to the grocery store. This leads me to
the truth behind the trend of zero waste; it is a privileged and western
concept.
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| Recycled Art: Ghana |
Extremes are not helpful
in increasing participating in a green economy. When we put the extreme labels
of zero-waste and total minimalism we are setting a rather unachievable
standard that at best perpetuates the divisions in class and at worst, deters
environmental behaviour. A friend told me, "we are just worried about the
bread and butter, I can not even begin to consider sustainability until our
basic needs are met." A disconnect exists in the environmental movement
between making greener choices without considering accessibility to the broader
human spectrum.
When we examine the
trend that is environmentalism and the niche of zero-waste what I can’t help
but see the pressure we put on each other to achieve a sort of eco-perfection. As
if we needed anymore stress in our already chaotic post Trump lives we must
further be bombarded with messaging about being the greenest, the minimalist
and aiming to achieve the impossible.
This all or nothing attitude serves to dissuade those who may have been
interested in greener choices but is then scared off from fear of failure. Effects of climate
change on mental health cause a sort of eco-anxiety as we worry about our impacts, our outputs, our futures. But how can we take these fears and use them to fuel our action towards lower impact lifestyles?
If total Zero waste
seems just a little out of reach for you, try following these principles as an
expanded version of the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle):
Reject- Speak up against the capitalist model that
perpetuates our over consumptive lives!
Refuse- Just say no to things, decline non-reusable
materials.
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| Support companies that offer repairs like Patagonia |
Reduce- Buy less, simple
enough.
Reuse- Reuse plastic bags, water bottles, food
containers etc.
Repair- Fix things instead of disposing or replacing
them.
Repurpose- Up-cycle
something old to something new, like a dress to a pillowcase.
Recycle- If you have
facilities to do this, use them! In Ghana we don't even have recycling and it
pains me.
Let us allow the
imperfections in life that make us all human. Sometimes you will use a water
bottle, sometimes we will eat fast food but as long as we ensure that the principles
that guide our every day choices are the least impactful we can still affect change. Maybe together we can
build each other up instead of deterring our further progress and make an accessible movement that all people can be apart of. So let's stop trying to be perfect and just make better choices, ok?
Cheers,
Melanie XX
"The only thing you can't recycle is wasted time" - Unknown
