We often litter without realizing it

Although we are bombarded every day with incentives to live ecologically, reality, as well as some of our choices, leads us to very different behaviors.

“Eco-parking” in Ergo Arena, “eco-dolina” in Łężyce, “Eco-Innovation Center” in GUT, “eco-patrol” in the municipal police, “eco-zone” at the exhibition – oh, the list can That lasted a long time.

If we were surrounded by words rather than reality, we would be living in an environmental paradise.

But that is not the case.

The first example is the most obvious: Grocery shopping. When you get home, check the amount of stale trash you brought with you. Meats, cheeses and even vegetables and fruits – all in plastic packaging, which ends up in the trash seconds after being taken out of the net. On every apple, tomato or banana – a sticker that will suffer the same fate.

A friend of mine, an automation engineer who runs production machines, was right when he said that no other industry produces as much waste as the food industry.

But it’s not just him.

Everything has been written about home appliances, and they are designed and manufactured so that it is more expensive to repair than to buy a new one. As is the case with phones or electronic devices, whose later models differ from each other only with a higher number in the name, so they must be replaced to be more modern.

But “pitfalls” can also be found in less obvious situations.

How many cards do you have in your wallet: payment cards, loyalty cards, debit cards? How many of them are duplicates? The City Card allows you to use the City Library, but the library also offers its own separate cards. The Fala system will also offer us a new card (although you can choose the app on your phone).

In addition, for some reason (possibly security), banks send us new payment cards every two or three years. Even for those who only use it by default, in the form of an application on the phone.

Some things over which we have no influence are decided by producers or service providers on our behalf. But we also have a lot going on with it, even if we don’t fully realize it.

Young people are a social group that often declares that the environment is important to them. They participate in marches, support protests, and are aware of human impact on the environment. But at the same time, their lifestyle often contradicts this.

Once that Life without electronics They cannot imagine. A few gadgets and an equal number of cables and chargers are part of their daily lives. Second: They love Electric scooters, whose declared zero emission is… that’s right: declared. (Energy sources in Poland in August 2023: hard coal 43.5%, brown coal 21.4%, wind farms 9.5%, other renewable sources 15.7%). Three: It’s pretty much theirs They are consumers of ready mealspacked in plastic containers and transported across the city to their door.

Apartment renovation – You know, sometimes you need to update something, and sometimes the changes need to be more general. But after a decade of apartment living, do we really have to rip out the kitchen and bathroom tiles just because fashions have changed a little or we like a slightly different color scheme? Many of us would decide to cut the floor sooner than to repaint or renovate it. The result: another bit of rubble in the landfill.

I regularly attend birthday parties organized by my eight-year-old son’s friends. Do you know what the landscape looks like after playing together? Firstly Several dozen disposable cups, plates and cutleryWhich accumulates in garbage, which would not exist if the fun took place at home and not in a rented game room.

Banned plastic. Check what is no longer allowed to be sold

Secondly, the birthday boy’s parents leave this fun place with a dozen or so people Decorative gift bags, brought by young guests. In the past, gifts were wrapped in paper, which not only added magic when the gift was discovered but also reduced waste. And decorative bags, which have replaced the delicate colored papers from the market, typically expire after one use — because how can you give someone a gift in an already slightly wrinkled bag?

Another issue, also related to children. We always bring candy to class birthdays. The birthday boy walks around the classroom carrying a bag and offers it to everyone, and his friends take some pieces and are happy. Unless a parent comes up with the idea of ​​packing bulk candy in small bags – for the sake of elegance or a fair distribution of sweets. And pam: 30 bags suddenly end up in the classroom trash.

So sometimes we notice the speck in someone else’s eye, but not the log in our own.