“Plastic has become a symbol of our busy lives and our need to get a quick fix. In some ways it has enabled us to do everything at once, and that may make some aspects of life more efficient, but it certainly diminishes others in profound and lasting ways.” -Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Joanna Atherfold Finn, in Plastic Free
That quick fix, we want to tell ourselves, is simply what we need to function reasonably — convenience meals and the bags to carry them in, a straw for consuming beverages, standard stuff.
But what if the quick fix isn’t a solution to a problem, but fix in the other sense? What about when we lean into consumerism to fill a void?
I took a photo of the Balloons Blow poster while visiting the Dr. William A. Niering Natural Area Preserve in Waterford, Connecticut. Although I cannot tell how active the group responsible for the poster is, the need remains so long as people continue to celebrate thoughtlessly.
I get why we target one item (bags, straws, balloons) to try to get behaviors to change, but we really need to think wider than that. In this case, as July approaches, a question is: how can we mark occasions without leaving a negative mark?
Yesterday, firefighters in Shelton, Connecticut did a control burn for a house because someone in it had stored illegal fireworks, and just leaving them posed too much of a risk to the public.
If you dare suggest people not use fireworks — legal or illegal — they will treat you like you threatened to kill their children. Nevermind that they can trigger all kinds of health problems, including in those very same children. Nevermind that they spook animals, and harm them. Fireworks are tangled up with oversized pickup trucks, flags, and all the other trappings of American identity that are infused with a kind of violence.
It’s disappointing that people have to be told to stop engaging in behaviors that hurt others. You would think it would be obvious, yet in Hartford’s Elizabeth Park, there are now signs telling people not to litter, specifically “no confetti-gender reveal balloons.”
Here, in a rose garden that is popular because it’s gorgeous, people have to be told how to behave so that it remains so. And still, I come across confetti and other synthetic materials . . . because people think they can improve on nature through embellishments found at some dollar store.
We could think harder about what we are celebrating and let that shape how we are celebrating.
If we are celebrating independence, why would we choose to act in ways that oppress others? Because that’s what it is when the noise and pollution ends up keeping people indoors. Dogs that can spooked by fireworks run away, and while I don’t want to think of an animal as property, most people do, so — how is causing loss of someone else’s property aligned with what is marked on Independence Day?
The balloons, used for everything from birthdays and graduations to the Hallmark holidays in May and June, to store openings and closings, to being made into selfie stations — what do these really add to the day? I would extend that question to almost everything found in a party store: why?
Is there a way to mark an occasion that is more memorable? Kinder? Simpler? Genuine?
Once again, I am asking people to use their imaginations.
Often, I overhear conversations I need no part of, and recently there was one regarding what I’d describe as a friend of a friend’s wedding. As with most things in the realm of Wedding, you can expect a whole lot of unnecessary drama about stupid little things. In this case, someone was upset because the couple chose not to have an open bar. The others in this conversation were getting into expectations about alcohol at weddings (open bar, cash bar, open bar until a certain time and then “only” wine and beer, wine and beer the whole time) and I made myself not join in because I wanted to ask: why is there any expectation at all about alcohol being served?
What if people asked “why?” more often?
If a wedding is to celebrate (presumably) the love of the couple, why shift the focus away from love and to consumption?
If a birthday party exists to celebrate someone living another year, how to we capture that meaning better?
Plastic Free July approaches. It serves as an annual chance to take stock of how you are using resources, and I would add to this, a chance to ask yourself why. It’s a chance to be more intentional in behavior.
In their book Plastic Free, Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Atherfold Finn talk about flow-on effects from reducing plastic use. For example, “Avoiding plastic meant people couldn’t buy meat from a supermarket and had to go to the butcher, which often reduced their consumption of meat to maybe once a week, and many people reported moving to a more plant-based diet. For others, reducing their plastic footprint was the first step to reducing their carbon footprint.”
Reconsidering the balloon is a step toward rethinking celebration.
It’s about adding meaning by subtracting empty clutter.
As they say, “Resources are used at every stage along the chain: extracting raw materials, then manufacturing, producing, transporting, selling, using and disposing of goods. All products use resources, whether they are designed to be used once — such as a plastic bag or a compostable bag made from corn — or designed for multiple uses, such as a cotton tote bag. The big picture is that we need to get back in balance and move the Earth Overshoot date later. There is no way to do this than by reducing what we are ‘spending’, that is, what we are consuming.”
If everyone on Earth consumed like those in the United States, we would have used up the planet’s resources for the year on March 14, 2024. If everyone’s consumption habits were like those in Indonesia, Earth Overshoot Day would not occur until November 24, 2024.
At the Niering Preserve, where I saw this poster carefully attached to the inside of a bird viewing platform, I watched birds along the shore, where Goshen Cove spills into Long Island Sound.
It’s a view that’s not a cheap thrill. It’s a memory that lingers, watching oystercatchers and plovers chase each other. It’s a gift that this is happening right here, rather than in a zoo or an aquarium. You don’t get to enjoy nature existing as it is meant to if we destroy it with our balloon arches and one night booms.
So, go for Plastic Free July, or not, but my challenge to you is this: think about one occasion in your life in the next year that is celebratory, think intentionally about what would give it the depth of meaning it deserves, and how to ensure that the marking of this moment is aligned with its meaning.
Bust Your Balloons
“Plastic has become a symbol of our busy lives and our need to get a quick fix. In some ways it has enabled us to do everything at once, and that may make some aspects of life more efficient, but it certainly diminishes others in profound and lasting ways.” -Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Joanna Atherfold Finn, in Plastic Free
That quick fix, we want to tell ourselves, is simply what we need to function reasonably — convenience meals and the bags to carry them in, a straw for consuming beverages, standard stuff.
But what if the quick fix isn’t a solution to a problem, but fix in the other sense? What about when we lean into consumerism to fill a void?
I took a photo of the Balloons Blow poster while visiting the Dr. William A. Niering Natural Area Preserve in Waterford, Connecticut. Although I cannot tell how active the group responsible for the poster is, the need remains so long as people continue to celebrate thoughtlessly.
I get why we target one item (bags, straws, balloons) to try to get behaviors to change, but we really need to think wider than that. In this case, as July approaches, a question is: how can we mark occasions without leaving a negative mark?
Yesterday, firefighters in Shelton, Connecticut did a control burn for a house because someone in it had stored illegal fireworks, and just leaving them posed too much of a risk to the public.
If you dare suggest people not use fireworks — legal or illegal — they will treat you like you threatened to kill their children. Nevermind that they can trigger all kinds of health problems, including in those very same children. Nevermind that they spook animals, and harm them. Fireworks are tangled up with oversized pickup trucks, flags, and all the other trappings of American identity that are infused with a kind of violence.
It’s disappointing that people have to be told to stop engaging in behaviors that hurt others. You would think it would be obvious, yet in Hartford’s Elizabeth Park, there are now signs telling people not to litter, specifically “no confetti-gender reveal balloons.”
Here, in a rose garden that is popular because it’s gorgeous, people have to be told how to behave so that it remains so. And still, I come across confetti and other synthetic materials . . . because people think they can improve on nature through embellishments found at some dollar store.
We could think harder about what we are celebrating and let that shape how we are celebrating.
If we are celebrating independence, why would we choose to act in ways that oppress others? Because that’s what it is when the noise and pollution ends up keeping people indoors. Dogs that can spooked by fireworks run away, and while I don’t want to think of an animal as property, most people do, so — how is causing loss of someone else’s property aligned with what is marked on Independence Day?
The balloons, used for everything from birthdays and graduations to the Hallmark holidays in May and June, to store openings and closings, to being made into selfie stations — what do these really add to the day? I would extend that question to almost everything found in a party store: why?
Is there a way to mark an occasion that is more memorable? Kinder? Simpler? Genuine?
Once again, I am asking people to use their imaginations.
Often, I overhear conversations I need no part of, and recently there was one regarding what I’d describe as a friend of a friend’s wedding. As with most things in the realm of Wedding, you can expect a whole lot of unnecessary drama about stupid little things. In this case, someone was upset because the couple chose not to have an open bar. The others in this conversation were getting into expectations about alcohol at weddings (open bar, cash bar, open bar until a certain time and then “only” wine and beer, wine and beer the whole time) and I made myself not join in because I wanted to ask: why is there any expectation at all about alcohol being served?
What if people asked “why?” more often?
If a wedding is to celebrate (presumably) the love of the couple, why shift the focus away from love and to consumption?
If a birthday party exists to celebrate someone living another year, how to we capture that meaning better?
Plastic Free July approaches. It serves as an annual chance to take stock of how you are using resources, and I would add to this, a chance to ask yourself why. It’s a chance to be more intentional in behavior.
In their book Plastic Free, Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Atherfold Finn talk about flow-on effects from reducing plastic use. For example, “Avoiding plastic meant people couldn’t buy meat from a supermarket and had to go to the butcher, which often reduced their consumption of meat to maybe once a week, and many people reported moving to a more plant-based diet. For others, reducing their plastic footprint was the first step to reducing their carbon footprint.”
Reconsidering the balloon is a step toward rethinking celebration.
It’s about adding meaning by subtracting empty clutter.
As they say, “Resources are used at every stage along the chain: extracting raw materials, then manufacturing, producing, transporting, selling, using and disposing of goods. All products use resources, whether they are designed to be used once — such as a plastic bag or a compostable bag made from corn — or designed for multiple uses, such as a cotton tote bag. The big picture is that we need to get back in balance and move the Earth Overshoot date later. There is no way to do this than by reducing what we are ‘spending’, that is, what we are consuming.”
If everyone on Earth consumed like those in the United States, we would have used up the planet’s resources for the year on March 14, 2024. If everyone’s consumption habits were like those in Indonesia, Earth Overshoot Day would not occur until November 24, 2024.
At the Niering Preserve, where I saw this poster carefully attached to the inside of a bird viewing platform, I watched birds along the shore, where Goshen Cove spills into Long Island Sound.
It’s a view that’s not a cheap thrill. It’s a memory that lingers, watching oystercatchers and plovers chase each other. It’s a gift that this is happening right here, rather than in a zoo or an aquarium. You don’t get to enjoy nature existing as it is meant to if we destroy it with our balloon arches and one night booms.
So, go for Plastic Free July, or not, but my challenge to you is this: think about one occasion in your life in the next year that is celebratory, think intentionally about what would give it the depth of meaning it deserves, and how to ensure that the marking of this moment is aligned with its meaning.
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