Tradeoffs No Excuse For Inaction

In this article in the NY Times, we hear about the rise of "green" disputes between couples. The article itself is mostly pointless, but it does highlight an interesting type of behavior.

In the article, we learn that people are feeling the stress of relationships in which they believe they need to be more "green" than the other person does. The article notes that one woman feels the stress of trying to live environmentally friendly lifestyle when she goes to visit her parents and they insist on eating off of disposable Styrofoam plates. The kicker is what reason her mother gives for insisting on using disposable, impossible-to-decompose plates instead of washable, reusable plates. The article explains:

"Her mother, who says she prefers the way food tastes when it is served on Styrofoam, notes that washing dishes has its own environmental cost."

Excuse me. She prefers the way that food tastes when it comes off a Styrofoam plate?

In a serious discussion of the problem though, this is a laughable example of a very real problem. When it comes to things we don't want to do, we are very good at finding a problem with the suggested change in behavior. Want me to serve food on reusable plates because it won't result in waste? Well, you know, I'd just be wasting water washing that reusable dish. Problem solved. Now, because the suggested alternative wasn't perfect, we can continue our normal course of behavior without disrupting our routine.

The example is absurd, but the problem is real. I think it is especially damaging in the area of sustainability, but my own bias probably informs that view. Whatever the case, the correction is simple, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. When deciding how best to approach an environmental problem, each alternative should be weighed against the others to see what the best approach is. The most destructive approach is the one that says that none of it matters at all, that all options are created equal, and who cares what any one person does or doesn't do. Take the reusable bags offered at many stores now. These are a common sense alternative to wasteful plastic bags. However, there is still a huge difference between a reusable bag that was made from virgin materials harvested specifically for the purpose of making the bag and a bag made from recycled materials and even still a bag made from leftover (waste) materials from other manufacturing processes.

So we have a hierarchy of environmental decisions. From Worst to Best* we have:

1) plastic bags

2) virgin material reusable bag

3) recycled material reusable bag

4) a bag made from the scrap material of another process

The general idea, that letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, is applicable to many other areas of life. This just happens to be a blog about sustainability. And the game of finding problems with other people's arguments is a fun one. We love to play that game. Unfortunately, we often don't know how or when to turn that critical eye back on our own actions. We are all guilty of it. But once again, communal guilt is no excuse for complete inaction.

*(Note: the line between 2 and 3 is not quite so obvious in total Life Cycle Analysis. For example, virgin material harvested in accordance with sustainability guidelines could in fact be more environmentally friendly than certain methods of recycling. Recycling is great, but not always the magic bullet for being kind to the environment.)