How to eat an elephant
I’ve been sitting on my couch for the last two hours writing and subsequently deleting the first few sentences of several blog posts: a review of all the shampoo bars I’ve tried, how re-useable period products are SO much better than disposable ones, tips and tricks for low waste grocery shopping when you don’t have bulk options or farmers’ markets available… And although I have strong opinions about all of these topics and have done extensive research for my own purposes as I encountered each topic in my daily life, writing it in a blog feels odd, like the words aren’t mine, like I’m an imposter.
And that’s been one of the most interesting things for me about starting Planet B: how someone like me, who is so strong in their convictions, has done their fair share of reading, and is normally unafraid to share their opinions and educate others in real life can feel like such a fraud. There’s always that little voice in my head that tells me I don’t have the right to inform strangers on the internet (or friends and family in this very public format, for that matter) of what they can be doing to save the earth or why it’s important. I have no credentials to make me an authority on the topic, and I’m still learning every day, so what makes me think that I have any right to start a business that sells this concept to people? How could my words and products possibly hold up in the zero waste community when I’m not perfect at this yet?
Sure, I’ve switched out my plastic shampoo, conditioner, and lotion bottles for bars and homemade products. Sure, I’ve completely stopped accepting plastic bags anywhere I shop. Sure, I recycle and compost and grow my own food and share what I’ve learned with the people around me in hopes that I can influence someone, ANYONE to make small changes in their own life.
But the zero waste movement has a reputation much like that of veganism – that it’s an extremist, angry group (rightfully angry, I’ll admit… the earth is in a pretty rough spot right now…). There are individuals in this community that are so desperate for change to happen NOW that they publicly shame anyone who does not follow the strict rules and guidelines they have set for themselves. It’s disappointing because the point of activism is to convince more people to join your team when instead they are driving potential supporters away. Aggression breeds aggression. Regardless of how many facts and figures you can provide, if it’s done in a manner that puts someone on the defensive, you’ve already lost the argument. It is no one’s natural instinct to pause and reflect when they are attacked – rather, most will double down on the defensive and lose any semblance of a rational argument. And even worse, strict rules and shaming isolate the people that want to help but are too overwhelmed by the full picture to even start; that are so afraid of doing something “wrong” that they won’t even try. This is the camp I often find myself in – overthinking my words and actions so much that I remain in a state of analysis paralysis, when I could be continuing to slowly chip away at the changes I need to make as a consumer to influence the corporations that have destroyed my home; when I could be using my voice and my platform to educate others to do the same. Sometimes, it’s really really hard.
I recently saw a quote by Anne-Marie Bonneau (also known as the Zero Waste Chef) shared on social media: “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” This couldn’t be more true. Who cares if a handful of people produce the amount of trash over the course of a year to fit in a jar if the rest of us are still putting millions of pounds of plastic into landfills each year? Who cares if a handful of people stop buying products from mega corporations in hopes it will force the companies to change their terribly unsustainable practices? It’s only when we all start to shift our behavior that real change can happen. And it doesn’t have to be a big shift, and it doesn’t have to all be at once. If every American household replaced plastic bags with re-useable bags one week out of the year, we would prevent over a billion plastic bags from ever being used. That’s HUGE.
It is this attitude that reminds me that it’s ok to be imperfect, and it’s ok that zero waste, like many of the more challenging things to achieve in life, is a journey. You can’t eat a whole elephant at once. You have to go one bite at a time.