In the last video, we learned that using reusable grocery bag isn't necessarily greener than using a plastic grocery bag, and that the decision to reuse isn't as straightforward as one may think. In the long run, reusable products are better for the environment, but only if they're actually reused. If reusable products are treated like disposal products, they actually end up being much less green because they require so many more resources to produce. It also depends on your priorities as well while considering these trade-offs. For example, I mentioned back in course 1 that we used cloth diapers when my son was little. In terms of minimizing plastic use, not taking up landfill space, and saving money, cloth diapers are an obvious best choice. However, in terms of water savings they are not the best choice. I had to wash the diapers, for example, and the textiles used to produce them, namely cotton fibers, are also very water-intensive to grow and produce. In fact, fashion is considered one of those polluting industries because cotton is so resource intensive to grow. It's worsened because the whims of fashion dictate new styles every few months. One could argue there that water is a renewable resource where landfill space is finite, and the land where we pile garbage is land that we can't use anymore for human or animal habitation. The decision to reuse also brings up social justice issues as well. So let's get back to the cloth diaper example again. Depending on what cloth diapers you buy, let's assume a quality US made product. A set of cloth diapers will cost anywhere from $100-500 depending on if you go with old school prefold diapers with a cover. So these are the more traditional cloth diapers, and then you put a waterproof cover on top so I have nice science cover here. Or if you decide to go with the fancy all on one cloth diaper, that goes on like a disposable. So let's just say it's $500 for all the diapers that you'll ever need for all of your kids. In fact, when I was researching Biology Everywhere, I talked to several families who are using their own diapers on their own children, so they're inter-generational diapers. It's $500 for the cloth diapers, estimates for disposables are $2,000-3,000 per child versus $500 for all of your kids and even your grandkids someday. We've seen this with a lot of other reusable products as well. There's much higher upfront costs, but significant cost savings down the road. So this assures a social justice one because not everyone is in a position where they can afford such a large upfront cost. So they're stuck buying a case of diapers at the store or a box of Ziploc bags, or smaller containers of shampoo because that's all they can afford. This of course gets a bigger societal issues that are beyond the scope of this course, but being able to go green is also a reflection of your socioeconomic status. Then something to think about and perhaps discuss with your peers, how do we make sustainable also affordable? Another common response to the decision to reuse is well, why can't I just recycle? I buy bottled water and I recycle the bottles, that has to be fine. Remember in the video I mentioned that when considering the interconnectedness of life, economics has to be part of that consideration as well. Economics intersects with conservation and ecology in a few ways. For one, having an area with excellent biodiversity and well-preserved ecosystems is a major attraction for tourists. But when it comes to recycling though, there needs to be a market for the raw recycled material. Although some materials like glass are endlessly recyclable, it's often cheaper to make more glass than it is to recycle the glass that we already have. In the case of plastic, there isn't always a market for raw, recycled plastic. So in spite of our best efforts to sort recyclables from the trash if there's no demand for the materials, our bottles, or pickle jars, or whatever gets sent to the landfill instead. Returning to the idea of money talks, one thing that you can do is to make purchases that create a market for these raw materials. So for example, Green Toys is a company that makes toys from recycled milk jugs. This is a picture of my son's barn playset, so trash is given new life now as a beloved toy. Making ecologically savvy decisions doesn't necessarily have to be extensive either. I ride my bike to run errands. We also buy used wherever possible, whether it's toys for my son, clothes for the families, sporting equipment, most of what we have in our house was purchased secondhand. It's not just that it's cheaper for us to buy used, but it doesn't spread the consumption of more resources, so it's more ecologically friendly as well. So the next time you go shopping, consider how you plan to get your goods at the store, what you plan to buy, and where you plan to buy it from whether you're buying something that's new or previously owned. Are you buying something that's ultimately going to end up in a landfill? So you hear this quite a bit in the cloth diapering community that buying disposable diapers is essentially buying trash. There's also the consideration of how is it produced? Is it produced in a sustainable manner? What are you seeing with your spending? So now I'm closing, we're going move on to our third chance to make an ecologically minded decision in your own life. It's another version of recycling, but the biological recycling, composting.
