The Balancing Act!
The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true — Galadriel (LOTR)
This week I was intrigued by an interesting dilemma. Given the choice bewteen a paper (bio-degradable) cup, a plastic (single-use) cup, a plastic (non-single-use) cup and a mug, what would you use to have a hot-chocolate?I guess you see where I’m going. It is matter of conservation. Do you want to save a whale from plastic-cup strangulation? but then will I waste too much water? will I destroy too many trees?
This month I moved to a new city. So, today I thought, instead of being an armchair critique, to assess:
- How many of my belongings had some form of plastic in them?
- If there was an alternative to these?
- Could I live without them?
- Can they be recycled? Or are they single use?
I was surprised! Let’s break my belongings into four groups:
Group A: Essential Items — I have no pragmatic Alternative what-so-ever!
These ranged from my laptop (which is tied heavily to my livelyhood) to antibiotic covers (I don’t want to die) to whatever transport I use.
Apart from the antibiotic covers, most of these items could be recycled.
Group B: Essential Items — With an Alternative
These ranged from household drainpipes (not that I own the house), to sanitary products (perks of being a female) to shoes!
Now, though there are alternatives, they come at a cost. Lets look at some examples. The alternatives to sanitary products are cotton ones — these can lead to embarrassing situations or plastic reusable cups, which can be recycled, but that beats the purpose. Leather shoes come at the cost of killing a couple of animals and are also not as durable.
Group C: Non Essential Items — With an Alternative
These ranged from almost every garment I possess (t-shirts, jeans, etc), to my beloved Camera, to cream bottles. I suppose I could live without these. But it won’t be a cheap, nor happy option.
Group D: Non Essential Items — With No Alternatives
Funnily, most of my medals, awards and curios had plastic! Only a few were made of metal and wood. To be honest the only thing that was of use after winning any award was a piece of paper certifying it and as proof.
Conclusion
I learnt three things from this exercise. (1) I need plastic! (2) I and regulatory authorities need to recycle! (3) I’m not sure what the right balance is :(
That is, even I were to minimize the plastic items I possess, the alternatives would require killing some animals, cutting tons of trees, using tons of water and generally living a miserable life.
My point being, like many quests (such as Frodo’s from Lord of the Rings), it is a balancing act. We need material that don’t degrade, to conserve other resources like water and forest reserves. But we also, need to recycle these non-bio-degradable materials so that we don’t end-up killing animals and ourselves in the process. And finally, we need to think of the environmental impact of creating these items in the first place.
I’m still not entirely sure how I should play my cards though — plastic cup or mug?