Sustainable products: the world's quick fix to a deep and complex climate crisis. Sustainable products are products that reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere which in turn slows down global warming. What happens if the products that we have been investing so much money and resources in, fail to do their job? Sustainable products are deceitful to consumers, a waste of resources, and aren’t benefiting the environment. 

The current climate crisis appeared as a result of the industrial revolution when manual labor jobs were taken over by factories and machinery which use fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. When these fossil fuels burn, carbon dioxide forms and is released into the atmosphere, causing the earth to heat up. Due to this global warming, plant and animal life is dying at alarmingly fast rates. All to say that climate change is crucial and could have a monumental impact on human existence and survival. 

Sustainable products do not benefit the environment. Product solutions like paper straws are designed to (in the long run) decrease the earth’s total temperature change by reducing plastic production. Although as stated by environmentalist Liqun Yang, “the production of paper straws will consume more energy and resources than plastics”. This means that paper straws are still actively harming the environment by continuously using energy in the production process. The carbon dioxide made in these factories goes into the earth’s atmosphere. This action heats the globe and contributes to the climate issue.

The modern companies of today are deceitful to their consumers. Plant-based products are said to be good for the environment but these companies aren’t disclosing the full story of their production. Popular companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods don’t show consumers the total amount of greenhouse emissions, supply chains, or consumer waste produced by making plant-based foods. If products appeal to consumers for the mere fact that they are better for the environment, why aren’t they living up to that statement? Products should resolve the issue they are created to fix.

If the world’s resources are being depleted so quickly then why are we wasting them on products that aren’t efficient? Food waste is a huge problem with 40% of food purchased for the home being wasted. To dig deeper into this issue we have to look into inventions that we already have in place like the refrigerator. In the last year, refrigerators have become one cubic foot bigger but why is this happening if we consume the same amount of food? As sustainability strategist Leyla Acarglu argues, “the refrigerator makes it easier for people to waste food because they have the capability to store a lot more food than people eat in the time it expires”. It’s not that people consume larger amounts of food every year but that consumers are abusing the use of products. If companies were to think ahead to how consumers were to utilize their inventions then money and resources would be saved in the long run.

Some sustainable products, however, are improving the environment in some aspects but are detrimental to others. Although paper straws are an initiative campaign to lessen plastic pollution, they are thought to be recyclable when the inner plastic coating prevents this from being a reality. This causes items that cannot be recycled, in recycling bins everywhere, all because of a misconception that paper straw companies fail to mention. 

Sustainable products are doing more harm than good to the environment and climate change. As a society, we need to stop promoting products that are harmful just to cover up other harmful products. We need to stop wasting our resources on inventions and products that aren’t solving real-world problems with real-world deadlines because the future of our planet depends on them.