In a world where awareness of global warming is increasing, our efforts to combat it may in fact be contributing to the climate change issue. When being educated about climate change, and how to help the warming temperatures, the term sustainability is often brought up. Yet sustainability is often misinterpreted. Sustainability is not only limited to short-term solutions to protect the Earth but also methods of supporting the climate continuously over time. Two in-use methods of attempting sustainability are paper bags and veganism. Both have trade-offs that can often do more harm to our environment than help it. Instead, using multiple-use alternatives, as well as shopping locally are more sustainable solutions.
Our usage of one-time-use bags is a routine habit. Certain states have enforced a necessary payment for one-time-use bags, and many stores, in a mindset to be more environmentally conscious, have instead opted for the relatively affordable paper bag [1]. When focused on the short-term impact this will have on our environment, paper bags seem like a good solution. Plastic bags take around 1,000 years to decompose while their paper counterparts take at most, a month. By replacing paper bags with plastic bags, the possibility of having animal casualties will be greatly reduced, especially in aquatic terrains [2]. With all these reasons, it's easy to miss just why these paper alternatives could have such negative impacts.
Paper products can cause major climate issues due to their production process. Most paper alternatives to plastic, such as paper bags, actually cause up to 70% more pollution than their plastic counterparts, due to toxic chemicals used to make the paper into a useful plastic alternative. Paper materials also use up more water, and 4 times the amount of energy plastic materials take up [3]. Thus, ultimately the production process of paper bags makes this alternative damaging. Furthermore, paper bags are often inconvenient for human use because due to the nature of the material, paper bags are often weaker and less popular. Certainly, in terms of landfills, plastic bags, and plastic alternatives are extremely harmful and any downsides of paper alternatives should not imply that plastic products should be used more often. However, the best alternative will save consumers money and have the most positive impact on the environment, such as tote and canvas bags or the more weatherproof multiple-use plastic bags.
Veganism is one of the fastest-growing methods of attempting to help fight climate change. With a nearly 500% increase in vegans from 2021 to 2022, a reported 6% of people in the US are vegans. Roughly 68% of surveyed vegans stated going vegan for animal reasons, and around 17% of people stated going vegan for health reasons, but nearly 10% of vegans went vegan for environmental reasons [4]. While 85% of people who went vegan did so primarily due to factors other than environmental ones, environmental reasons still are a major contributing factor for vegans. Veganism certainly has many environmental benefits yet often other environmental factors of veganism are not considered.
The production of beef, for example, causes an immense carbon footprint due to its production process and uses up the most amount of land and water. In fact, because vegans must rely more heavily on fruits and vegetables to get proper nutrients, the transportation costs during out-of-season months have higher greenhouse gas emissions than the production of poultry meats. [5] When vegans must resort to other foods for protein sources, soy is common, both as a dairy and meat replacement. Soy specifically is a cause of deforestation [6] due to its harmful farming practices to meet the demand for meat replacement and other soy-based products. On top of the certain trade-offs of veganism, meat and dairy products are essential to many cultures and provide necessary supplements. Furthermore, the solution to helping the climate change issue is not simply considering the impact of veganism today, but seeing how sustainable it truly is in the long term. While there is a lot of merit in consuming more plants, and limiting the consumption of beef, the more realistic and more sustainable alternative is focusing on where our food is coming from and consuming ethically sourced food. Farmers' markets or shopping locally are more realistic options to try and better help our environment [7].
Sustainability is the concept of not only thinking ahead for the livelihood of future generations but also still meeting today's human needs. Paper alternatives are a great example of how despite trying to do our planet good, and meet today’s people’s needs, the trade-offs can negatively impact future generations. This is especially apparent in the long-term climate impacts of the products we use today concerning paper materials. On the other hand, veganism is neither long-term effective, nor does it truly meet modern society's needs. Even if everyone went vegan, greenhouse emissions would still occur from our feeding processes due to farming, packaging, and transportation costs. While humans gain nutrients that can be found in plants, is it considerably cheaper and easier to access nutrients through meats. In conclusion, oftentimes many proposed solutions to help better our planet must be thought through, as many alternatives can often have negative impacts.
References
[1]bagtheban.com/in-your-state/
[2]www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/plastic_bag_facts.html#:~:text=It%20takes%201%2C000%20years%20for,continue%20to%20pollute%20the%20environment.
[3]science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic1.htm vomadlife.com/blogs/news/why-people-go-vegan-2019-global-survey-results#:~:text=17.4%25%20or%202%2C225%20people%20went,and%20the%20occasional%20religious%20motivation.
[4]bbc.com/future/article/20200211-why-the-vegan-diet-is-not-always-green
[5]science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic1.htm
[6] worldwildlife.org/industries/soy
[7]farmersmarketcoalition.org/education/farmers-markets-promote-sustainability/#:~:text=Farmers%20selling%20at%20markets%20minimize,pollute%20our%20soil%20and%20water.