Packaging is the bane of my attempts to live sustainably. Most of the time, it's strictly single use, not recyclable (think of those bubble packs hanging in a phone store), petroleum-based, and then you get all that packaging placed in a shopping bag that you might---but more likely won't---reuse. <heavy sigh>
Last year, I dove deep into the "Reduce" arm of The Three R's and vowed to discern between things I wanted and things I needed. Then---and for those who know me and my Clothes Horse ways, this will come as a surprise to you---I took it one step further and vowed not to buy any new clothing that I needed unless it had a sustainability element in its production and/or packaging. This effectively put a screeching halt on my rather frequent online purchase habits and forays into retail therapy. My UPS delivery guy noticed he was making fewer stops at our door and I went to the mall a mile from our house all of four times in the last year---twice to get stuff for my daughter and the other two times at Christmas; and even then, I brought my own reusable shopping bag, so yip-f*cking-pee for me.
So what did I buy last year? Not much. I got a pair of Simple O.S. sneakers that I wear a lot. Yeah, they're suede (I said "sustainable," not "vegan"). When I bought them, I thought they were constructed sustainably (recycled rubber outsoles, hemp uppers, assembled by workers earning a decent wage and toiling in reasonable comfort with Radiohead piped onto the assembly line, etc.), but it turns out they're not--which I find odd given that they come from Simple.
However, the packaging is sustainably produced. The foot form inserts are made of post-consumer recylced paper, and the packaging/shoebox is made of post-consumer recycled paper and natural latex and starch-based glue. Even the soy-based printing ink on the box tells you to re-use the box---and I seriously considered re-using it, but my wife will kill me if I store yet another cardboard box in the garage. I'm not expecting a medal for accidentally finding an element of sustainability to justify my shoe purchase. I just think we should think of a product we buy as two products: the item itself, and the packaging. And in this consideration, the packaging is the heinous offender of our consumer existence as it's a mostly one-time-use item and thus finds its way to the landfill before the product it contained does.
So, to you, Simple, I say "Nice Package!" Now if you could help me out with all that unrecyclable, non-compostable food packaging waste in my kitchen trash can.
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