This episode probably taught me more than it taught the other person, even though it immediately had more impact on her than on me. This is dedicated to her, my beautiful friend Pascale, who took the insight and ran with it.
We’re driving “up North” in a car Pascale had someone rent for her for the weekend. It’s Friday (I’m in love?), it was a hussle to get everything in and try to leave before traffic (impossible). I’m so thirsty, but I forgot to fill up a water bottle.
Pascale offers me the (disposable) water bottle that’s on the floor, unopened.
It’s one of those bottles you can get at a gas station, 12 for 3.99$, or whatever great deal you can imagine.
“Have it! Really!”
I’m thirsty, but I won’t have it. Because to me, it’s much more than a water bottle.
You see, I spent years working as a consultant in the environmental impact of products over their life cycle. When I see an object, I don’t see its price tag so much. I see its origin, its use, its destination. When I look at that bottle of water, I see petroleum aquired for nothing, this super rich (and highly polluting) resource we’re so rapidly depleting from the earth for the silliest purposes (think of all the Made-in-China single-use plastic junk available everywhere). I see all the energy required to refine and transform it. I am reminded of all the local environmental impacts. And that it will probably either end up in landfill somewhere or on a boat to China to hopefully get recycled (like that’s efficient). All that trouble, just so I can have a single drink of water because I was too forgetful/busy to fill one of mine with tap water. I am also well aware that a lot more water and energy was required to fill, label and cap, as well as transport that bottle, compared to the quantity of water it actually contains. It’s just so irresponsible.
And that responsibility ultimately belongs to the person drinking that bottle.
So although everyone focuses on the cost of the bottle - it’s so cheap!! - it’s actually really expensive in terms of resources versus its benefits. It weighs heavily on my shoulders. And to see it there, to not say anything… but, to say something is to spread the heaviness though isn’t it? Difficult spot to be in.
That time, I reckoned - we’ve got time to discuss this. And Pascale is a friend. And she doesn’t know much about my work experience. So let me tell her. Let me share what I know and how I feel about it.
And to my surprise, she wasn’t annoyed. She said - we don’t know this stuff (the average folk), this info isn’t out there. It’s more or less true. It’s part of the information the general public just doesn’t want to hear about, so it’s not in your face... Sure, there was that viral video about “the history of stuff” and there were a few more successful efforts of communication on the topic. But you have to search it out. To most people, objects just have a financial cost. I find that ridiculous, because the value of money is much less tangible, much more variable. The value of resources however, the footprint on the environment. That’s very real. That has permanent impact. That will not change if you cross the border (okay, the resources required to produce electricity changes, but again, it’s just as tangible).
It was funny, because a year earlier, on another weekend away, for Easter that time.. I felt annoyed, again, that Pascale and another friend were throwing away plastic easter eggs they had single-use(d) to hide candy around the cabin. “But they only cost 99 cents!” they rebutted to my insistance not to throw them out, to which I replied that it was irrelevant, that the real cost was petroleum to be extracted from the earth and refined, just for this.. so let this not be a single useless application of it.. etc.. but how moralistic right? What a buzzkill!
After our little chat in the car, during which I also explained to Pascale how all this felt so heavy on my shoulders.. how I found it so discouraging to watch people consume so carelessly.. she got into this. She started reading on the matter, and consulting with her good friend that was already well engaged in a Zero Waste initive, etc.
And it’s a really rewarding process, than to get into sustainability. To realise that there is a lot of information out there that is just waiting for you to absorb it. To start making better choices for you and your/the environment.. to become more responsible.. to become a more critical thinker. It’s empowering.
I don’t really take any credit for this, because it was really a fluke that I inspired her into this path. I however do give her all the credit for teaching me that the knowledge I have should not just bear weight. It is really everyone’s duty to share our knowledge with whomever might be willing to know more. We all have a story to tell. Let us become active listeners and teachers.
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