Becoming a Conscious Consumer Takes Time, but The More People Who Choose Sustainability, The Better Off We Will Be

Margo Cumming

Learning how to recycle and dispose of trash correctly is difficult for everyone. It requires time, energy, and adequate resources, and a lot of people simply don’t care enough about trash production to change their behavior.

At the University of Oregon, the Zero Waste Program has included a picture in all trash areas depicting what materials (cups, cans, paper, etc.) go into which bins. Zero Waste has simplified what it means to be a conscious consumer, but people plainly refuse to take the extra three seconds to look up and choose where to put their trash. Most trash just ends up in the trash bin next to the recyclables bins.

To learn more about why people are so resistant to do the best they can for the environment, I reached out to Libby Mackin, the Waste Reduction and Reusables Coordinator in the Student Sustainability Center at the Erb Memorial Union here on the UO campus.

The Student Sustainability Center (SSC) is student-led, and works to “foster equity, environmental vitality, and economic well-being in the present and future” (emu.uoregon.edu/sustainability). The SSC works to improve broad issues like waste reduction, food insecurity, and social and cultural equity. Currently, the SSC is working to create a resource called the ROSE (Reusable Office Supply Exchange) Room which will be available to students.

The ROSE Room is essentially a closet full of old school and office supplies, so people can take what they need and leave what they do not. The goal is to decrease the cost barrier of education, and prevent materials from going straight to the trash.

Additionally, the SSC also has a program called “Bottles Up,” in which bottles found around campus are brought in, washed, and redistributed to cultivate a cleaner campus. The SSC is working on various other projects, all designed to make UO a better and more sustainable campus.

Libby Mackin lived on campus her freshman year, and experienced how unsustainable the UO dining halls have been in previous years. She brought up the idea of dining halls using compost systems, but acknowledged that most people would use them incorrectly, since UO students don’t even know how to recycle correctly.

To combat the mass amount of students who are in the dark about correct trash disposal, Mackin touched on possible fixes. “When you first start living in the UO residence halls, the University does programs on sexual assault and campus security. I think they should touch on how to be responsible trash consumers.” Encouraging the UO to focus on the environmental side of safe campus living is much needed. “New students should have to know this stuff,” said Mackin.

If people hold the knowledge to understand where to dispose of their waste, others will likely follow. Starting the conversation surrounding the correct disposal methods will result in a ripple effect, and more people will become informed. “If students see someone doing something incorrectly, feeling empowered enough to educate and correct them is one of the best things we can do,” commented Mackin. Simply counting on the select group of people who do know how to recycle is not enough. Our world has become overpopulated with landfills, and there is just too much trash being produced by humans.

In respect to the sheer amount of trash we produce, a large portion of that is plastic. In 2018, there were 27 million tons of plastic sent to landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. When plastics find their way into the ocean (14 million tons annually), they break down, and stay in the water and in animals’ bodies in the form of microplastics.

Microplastics are plastics that have been broken down from sunlight and heat, and are smaller than 5mm. The plastics are ingested by fish and, if scaled up enough, people will eat those plastics. Mackin added, "they’re inside of people now, and it’s just too early to know how that affects people.”

You might be thinking: “I always recycle and use as minimal plastic as possible! I don’t contribute to plastics in the ocean!” In the kindest way possible, you’re likely wrong. For example, Mackin informed me that when you wash polyester in your clothes, a little bit of the material washes off each time. “You have to wash your clothes, so you’re going to wash plastic into our water system regardless of what you do.” Wearing cotton, hemp, or linen clothing reduces the risk of polluting our ocean.

Unfortunately, we all play some role in the transportation of plastics into the ocean. It is nearly impossible to never pollute the environment. Most of us drive cars (releasing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere), enjoy meat (releasing methane), and don’t purchase our clothes from sustainable suppliers (excessive water use, plastic microfibers used).

Saving the environment will not be an overnight affair. It takes small lifestyle changes from each and every person to cultivate a cleaner and safer planet. Our behavior is killing animals and destroying ecosystems. “That should be enough of an incentive. This is in you! It’s in your flesh… if that doesn’t do it, I don’t know what else will. This isn’t fear-mongering, this is real.”