This story was published in the Chic Daily's Magazine.
Growing up, the word sustainability was never a common term in my household. My parents, like many others, focused on providing for our family, paying the bills and getting my siblings and I to school. I wasn’t exposed to the idea of being “eco-friendly” until growing up a little and learning about Earth Day at school and how to garden from my grandma.
Now, I see the word sustainability thrown around often with brands, influencers, etc. But, even more so, I see people or companies throwing the word sustainable into their marketing in order to seem more humane, but not really backing it up.
Similarly, with social media and new trends at our fingertips constantly, we’ve learned how to talk the talk and not walk the walk. We learned how to make our lives “aesthetically pleasing” for an Instagram feed, but not actually enjoy it. We’ve learned how to seem ethical but not actually live that ethical lifestyle consistently.
“Sustainability means that something can be reused, recycled, then repeated in some way because we aren’t over using resources,” fashion design major Serenity Duran said. “It also means we can preserve and use our resources wisely without exhausting goods to meet short term goals.”
Sustainability has become one of the latest trends, by thrifting and reducing the amount of fast fashion bought, going vegan, DIY-ing, advertising for more sustainable things with less plastic packaging, and much more than I’d like to keep up with.
All of these are not bad ideals to have, and I hope to see more people take them on! The problem is not the ideals however, it is the execution.
The same people who say that fast fashion is disgusting post about their Amazon clothes haul, the same people who go vegan may still be eating out and not reducing their carbon footprint and buying bottled drinks everyday.
Everything in one’s life should be done in moderation and no one is perfect. However it’s important to realize where you can genuinely be sustainable and where you are just putting up a front to seem more ethical to an audience, and whether or not that is ethical to do.
“I think sustainability trending has a good side and a bad side,” student Maja Peirce said. “The great side of it is that it’s creating more awareness around it and somebody might see something that is a sustainability post, and they might educate themselves and learn more about sustainability and how they can be sustainable. But I also think it does it a little injustice because it can create this idea that it’s okay to pretend like you’re sustainable when you’re not really doing those things. It’s all about doing what you can to help out.”
On a recent Instagram poll, it was concluded that 54% people felt they were sustainable, and 46% felt they were not sustainable, but 100% of people voted they felt they could do more to be sustainable. Answers on how to do that included, “eliminating paper towels and buying cloth washable towels”, “reusing and actually recycling”, and “Making premium gas a little more affordable because unleaded is bad for the earth and your car.. and enforcing, at least Glendale, hopefully Arizona as a whole to recycle more!”
Realizing you can do more is just one step in the journey to a sustainable and ethical lifestyle. Another crucial step is creating healthy, consistent, habits.
As I have noted, many people put up a front on social media, but what I see most often is people using tote bags as a purse or as an accessory in Instagram pictures to seem more environmentally friendly. However, when not putting the canvas bag into practice for what it was made for, it’s almost more efficient to just carry on using plastic bags and reuse those when possible.
In a study done by the UK Environment Agency in 2011, titled “Life cycle assessment of supermarket carrier bags: a review of the bags available in 2006” it explains how so much energy is used to make these bags and if not used, the bag goes to waste.
The study concluded that you would need to reuse a cotton tote bag over 380 times just to have the same environmental impact as using a plastic bag three times. For some, this statistic is inevitably, mission impossible.
In another Instagram poll, people were asked if they have a tote bag and if they actually use it. 48% of people said they have a tote bag and 52% said they don’t own one. Furthermore, 64% of people said they use their tote bag consistently, while 36% of people said they forget to use it.
“I go thrifting probably a good 5-7 times a month,” student Martha Luna said. “I don’t use a reusable bag, but now I will. I love thrifting and the rare items you’ll find there. If you walk around the mall, you won’t find anyone with what you’re wearing but if you shop at a big corporation there’s a higher chance you will.”
This is not the only aspect of sustainability that needs to be worked on. Food waste and plastic waste are both bad habits that we continually increase.
Similar to tote bags, reusable water bottles are in trend, but there is still tons of plastic waste.
Eons ago in the trending cycle, “VSCO girls” brought the trend of hydroflasks to light and they haven’t left since. According to Similar Web, Hydroflasks website traffic for February was 736.77 thousand viewers.
So why is there still so much plastic waste? Because we continue to buy plastic water bottles despite having a reusable one, because we are not consistent in our actions of sustainability. In 2016, the world generated 242 million tons of plastic, equivalent to 24 trillion tons of plastic water bottles according to The World Bank.
“I think for the most part I waste food, I’ve always been very good at what belongs in the trash and in the recycle,” Duran said. “But I have a tendency to buy food and not finish it, leaving it in the fridge for days to go bad.”
Sustainability trending has given the audience of influencers this idea that to be sustainable in all ways is a simple lifestyle, when it’s really not. But, the trendiness and aesthetic beginning to emerge from sustainable ideals are not all bad. By bringing the subject to light, more people are given the opportunity to learn more and choose to be sustainable simply by being exposed to it.
It’s critical to be authentic in your actions and not let the pretty aesthetic or pressures of retail therapy bring you away from the importance of your waste.
“I don’t think anybody is anti-sustainability, I think there are people out there who aren’t very educated on it or don’t believe in climate change so sometimes they don’t see it as a priority,” student Maja Peirce said.
“Everybody deals with this issue of consumerism being the devil on their shoulder, because it’s easier to be less sustainable...Places like fast fashion conglomerates and Amazon make it very easy and cheap to shop there, but if we can cut down where we can in regards to something you’re buying, then you’re not only supporting those companies who are making an effort but you’re also giving in less to that consumerism attitude and every little bit helps.”
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