The hypocrisy of sustainability in the western world
Why is the western lifestyle based on capitalism unsustainable?
I can’t be a silent observer to this hypocrisy I see in the western world about sustainability. I had to write about it and get my opinion out. As I’m a designer by profession, I am a very good observer and I have excellent analytical skills. Over the past 3 years, I have been observing the lifestyle and living habits in Canada and have realized how the western lifestyle is unsustainable and environmentally damaging.
The ‘Green initiatives’, ‘Environment Day’ celebrations, and CSR activities mean nothing if your lifestyle is unsustainable. Every corporate organization has a ‘so called’ Green Initiative which is only good on paper, because the reality is stark opposite. All the western countries keep talking about sustainability and going green, let me give you examples of the how unsustainable these countries are as compared to the eastern older countries with deep rooted culture and sustainable lifestyles. In this article, I will give you examples and statistics on the waste generating economy.
1. E-waste
All offices in US & Canada use at least 1 extra monitor apart from the laptop screen. The fun part when people change jobs is that the offices don't bother to collect it. If they do collect it, it directly goes as scrap material. These devices are in working conditions, the parts are reusable, the device itself can get a second life if it reaches the right hands. Yes, I know some corporate offices do donate the devices to poor countries and few non profit organizations, selling them as second hand stuff but the amount of devices getting a second life is too less than those landing in scrap yards.
Apple devices - can’t be opened and can’t be repaired. Once they stop working and you take it to the service center, they simply make you buy a new device saying it’s not repairable and the product goes to e-waste and ends up in landfills. This is true for any and all devices in America and North America, they don’t have a culture of repairing things. It’s a ‘use and throw’ mentality in a capitalist economy. Just think about your iPhone. iPhones cannot be opened or repaired. Whereas most android phones until recently were repairable and we were able to replace parts such as battery, screen, keypad etc. But soon the android phones also got inspired by iPhone and now even Androids are one single product which cannot be opened and repaired. However, in India we still have a industry which replaces the screen of these phones giving it a second life.
I-pad and Mac computers are designed in a way that they cannot be opened or repaired. If it stops working even due to a minor hardware issue, just because the product is not openable it ends up in a landfill. This leads to waste of money as consumer now has to buy the latest device which is expensive and the older device has not been used for its entire product life cycle.
According to Global E-waste monitor, Canada is one of the world’s worst e-waste offenders. A report from University of British Columbia states in 2016 that Canadians generate approximately 725,000 tons of e-waste each year and only 20% is recycled properly. This data is 5 years old, imagine the e-waste as of 2022 when our consumption for electronic devices has definitely gone up due to increased online activities and all jobs being remote. Source
2. Paper Waste
Think of the everyday scenario to understand the paper waste we are generating in the west. Every small purchase leads to a printout of a huge long receipt. I have seen people taking printouts every now and then just because they have easy access to printers in offices and at homes.
The grocery flyers and offer flyers of restaurants which are distributed to every household daily. I’m sure everyone has a huge pile of junk mail in their letter box everyday.
Kitchen paper roll — why can’t the western world just use fabric / cloth towels and reuse by washing it? The research shows that, because the Americans can afford to spend on non essential items such as Kitchen towels, they are using it.
The United States of America is the largest paper towel consuming country in the world. According to research in 2017, in the U.S 13 billion pounds of paper towels are used every year with number growing steadily every year. Every day more than 3,000 tons of paper towels are wasted in the U.S alone. Source
Everyone knows the panic shopping of toilet paper by Americans & Canadians during the start of the pandemic. I don’t even have to find the statistics for this. The amount of toilet paper these countries use is insane. Is there a solution for this? What to do if there is no toilet paper? Well the eastern countries are better of using water. It is environmentally friendly and also more sustainable.
3. Furniture waste
IKEA can be a reason for psychologically increasing the need to buy furniture and household items because they look so cute and nice. The reality is that except for few good items in IKEA, majority of the furniture/items are made of low quality material without considering the strength of material, user requirement and its possible uses by the consumer, making them a short term use throw-away pieces. I am saying this as I’m a furniture designer myself and I have analyzed and studied IKEA furniture to find out how they have smartly used low quality particle boards and cheap materials to make affordable furniture which is less durable, will need to be replaced sooner and will end up in landfill. People will buy more rather than repair the broken piece.
Read the article IKEA’s sustainability controversy here.
Everyone is aware of the fact that people living in US and Canada keeping moving and changing houses every year. Expensive moving costs and legal requirement of leaving the place empty makes people throw away furniture which otherwise could have had more life.
Over 10 million tons of furniture waste ends up in landfills annually in Canada & US with exorbitant amount of environmentally harmful trash. Source
Statistics published by United States EPA states that in 2018, furniture and furnishings waste was 12.1 million tons and 80.1 % of this waste was in landfills. (1 ton = 1000 kilograms) or (1 ton=2204 pounds) Source
There are multiple IKEA stores in any given city in north America and multiple other furniture retailers. The unsold items are scrapped or thrown away every year when new range of furniture is manufactured.
4. Online Shopping
Online shopping has become a ritual for most of us across the globe. One of the biggest e-commerce giants Amazon is every American’s go to marketplace for anything and everything when it comes to shopping. When I first came across Amazon, I was surprised to see the amount of cardboard and plastic used for packing a small object. I wondered if it was really necessary or was it excessive packaging to promote the brand name?
Few years later, I came across a video which showed the products people return on Amazon end up in landfills or are simply destroyed by crushing them in big industrial shredders. It was shocking to see huge amount of goods in mint condition being scrapped just because someone who started this company did not think of the product return logistics, and never really paid attention to the return cycle in the consumer journey. Amazon was started in 1994, its been almost 3 decades into the industry and it surprises me that this company is openly creating waste and destroying so many products without paying the fine for such behavior. Watch Amazon return video here. Source
It is only in 2022, that Amazon told CNBC in a statement that they are working towards a goal of zero product disposal. I want to know what does “working towards” mean? There is no fixed strategy or time line given. The problem started when they introduced free return. It is human nature to exploit the “free” system. When the returns are free, consumers will order multiple things even if they don’t need those, just because they can easily return it and never have to pay for any of that. This habit of free return has now become a global problem and its too late to undo the bad karma.
Here are some statistics:
An ITV investigation in UK revealed millions of unsold items are destroyed by Amazon in one of its UK warehouses every year. An ex-employee revealed that from Friday to Friday, their target was to destroy 130,000 items a week. Items being destroyed include a wide range of products from Dyson fans, hoovers, MacBook, iPad etc. 50% of items are unopened and remaining 50% are in good condition. Staff has to follow the orders and have now become numb to what they are doing. A leaked document revealed that one week in April the warehouse showed more that 124,000 items marked “destroy”. Some weeks 200,000 items could be marked as “destroy”. On the contrary only 28,000 items were labelled “donate”. Source
Next time, before you place an order for buying something online, think twice and ask your self these two questions: Do I really need this? Will I think of returning this after few days? Only order what you need and what you will use.
I also think that the e-commerce industry is somehow destroying the small scale businesses and local shops. Is this industry killing the local suppliers and manufacturers? Something to really think about and act consciously.
5. Food waste
No one can argue about the amount of food waste that happens in America and North America / Canada. If you have lived or even visited the American continent you would have noticed the enormous size of grocery stores, restaurants, fast food chains etc. Have you ever wondered how much of this food get thrown away ?
Americans discard more food than any other country, nearly 40 million tons or 30–40% of the entire US food supply. To put it in simple words, Americans waste an average of approx. 1 pound food per person per day. Source
Annually 108-billion-pound food is wasted in United states. That equals to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion in food thrown away every year. On the contrary 38 million face hunger in the United States. Source
63% of food Canadians throw away could have been eaten. For an average Canadian household that amounts to 140 kilograms of wasted food per year — $1300 per year. Source
Let me give you my real life example. I have worked in Starbucks and though I don’t have any statistics to write on the food waste, I have myself witnessed the huge amount of food and milk being thrown away and wasted due to strict policies of Starbucks. Sometimes I feel they play so much by the rules that they forget common sense and end up doing more harm than use. Every day at the closing shift, we were asked to throw away the bakery case products in the dustbins. Were the products bad? No. Had they expired? No. When I asked the manager, why don’t we just give it for free to homeless people or some food kitchens. They replied that, because Starbucks can’t control when they will eat the food and whether they will keep in properly refrigerated till they consume, they can’t ensure that the food is good and don’t want to get into any legal action against Starbucks in case anyone falls sick after eating the food. The store is airconditioned. The bakery case is closed, hygiene is at its best. Nothing has happened to the bakery products but they are thrown away. Sometimes they are collected by some non profits or some food organizations but most of the days they are thrown away. Though Starbucks had made announcement of rescuing 100% food, made a no-waste pledge, we need to see how much is really followed. Source
Fast Food Chains:
Same goes with fast food outlets like Pizza hut, McDonalds or Burger king etc. Just imagine the amount of food they must be throwing at the end of each day to avoid any probable legal action due to a very small probability of illness by consuming food. Just as a precautionary measure, they simply throw away the food which is in good condition. Why? Because throwing is easy. Why can’t they start selling the food at low price for the last few hours? Why can’t they allow the employees to take the food home? They don’t want to help people in need, they want to throw it because they can afford to throw it.
In my culture, we worship food and worship the farmers. We say a prayer before we eat food and we are trained since childhood to eat everything served in the plate and never waste a grain of food. We are taught to take small quantity in the plate, only which we are sure we can eat. Once we have taken something in the plate, even if we don’t like it, we are obliged to eat it.
I’m not saying that we don’t waste food in India, but food waste in India is mostly due to lack of storage facilities, or refrigeration systems. In general, India is a country where every family teaches their children not to waste food. Our stores and shops don’t stock excessive food. They stock what they can sell, and sell it at cheaper price or donate it to needy at end of the day. But we don’t throw away food which can be consumed, because we value food.
6. Plastic Waste
I think all of us are aware of the global plastic waste problem. I would just like to state a few examples here, to stress on the plastic waste problem in western countries.
Starbucks distributes 6 billion disposable cups and mugs worldwide annually. Since 2021 Starbucks is introducing reusable, returnable cup program, but I personally still see disposable cups even today. Imagine the other coffee brands and other fast-food chains producing similar plastic waste. Source
Canada, a country with just 38.6 million population (2022), throws away over 3 million tons of plastic waste every year. Out of that only 9% is recycled while the rest ends up in landfills, waste to energy facilities or the environment. Canada is a popular destination for immigrants, with growing population it will grow its waste and environmental impact. Source
Canada has one fourth of the world’s freshwater and longest coastline in the world. I think Canada should act more responsibly towards environment.
T his has been a long story. I haven’t even talked about the packaging waste and fashion waste yet, maybe some other time. Thank you for reading till the end. Next story will be about sustainable lifestyle of India and how we can imbibe simple habits to become sustainable and green citizens. It is our duty to keep the Earth a beautiful and clean place for our future generations and every step matters.
Copyright © 2022, Tanmaya Rao. All rights are reserved.
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