Hey Guys, I know I am not the only one, but sustainability and climate change are pretty much all I find myself thinking about. We are privileged enough to have control over the content, we see it becomes a bubble. I get to a point in which it feels like everyone is on the same page as me. Because all of my social media feeds and all the people I’ve chosen to surround myself with feel the same way as me.
90% of the content I see online is about why we need to make changes, what changes we can make to a point where it’s cool. If you don’t decline a plastic straw on your ‘girl’s night out, ‘you’ll be the weird one. This is fab that with so many groups of young people, you’d be only encouraged to make decisions to benefit the planet.
Look at Greta Thunberg; I feel so lucky to get to watch and learn from such an amazing woman and listen to her speeches as they go down in history.
I often see headlines that convince us we are doing fine ”Plastic use drops by 50% after Attenborough effect” which make us think it’s okay.
This is just because of the bubble I live in due to the way I have curated the content I see.
In reality, the majority of people still ‘don’t care about sustainability and so the Eco-Anxiety is back.
As you know, I live in a beautiful part of the world, Cornwall. The most un-commercialised UK seaside county. Before living here and even while I was at Falmouth uni, it felt like Cornwall is a super green place. Falmouth University has a stereotype of ”hippy art students” with their white dreads and vegan lifestyles and to an extent, yes. At uni, ethical diets and choices were everywhere, and Falmouth as a town is very much like that. The stereotype of ”Cornwall” screams sustainability, independent shops, everyone eating ethical, local food look at our biggest clothing brands like Seasalt and Finisterre, right?
Cornwall famously has the lowest recycling rate in the whole of the UK (compared to Wales, who have the best recycling rate in the world). My bubble has been burst from my little sustainable world I thought we were living in. I’ll be the first to admit ‘I’m not the most ethical person. I could sound quite hypocritical talking about this stuff, but ‘that’s what makes it all so much more shocking to me. The basic things ‘I’ve done all my life that ‘aren’t particularly ”sustainable decisions” or consuming much effort that I assumed everyone did.
Back in primary school, in the early 00s before sustainability was even a thing.
I remember being taught the three ‘R’s in geography or PHSE. Reduce, reuse, recycle we had countless colouring sheets ingraining into you the importance of that process. I remember learning about how important it was not to waste things, and to save energy. As I said, everyone does this right; this has nothing to do with the new sustainable trend. Even our grandparents did this back when everyone was stingy, and we would reuse/mend anything in the 1940s. We all know the dad joke about leaving lights on when no one is in the room ”it looks like the Blackpool illuminations in here”? Right, you don’t leave a light on if you aren’t in the room things like this have been ingrained into me since I was so young, it’s just become second nature.
Sometimes there is a lot of pressure from the media that to make a difference; you’ll have to make insane changes to your lifestyle. By cutting out every animal product, never using plastic again and never buy new clothes and its all quite daunting. How are we supposed to trust how ethical, a clothing brand is or how sustainable the new meat-free alternative will be etc. , the pressure mounts up, and it becomes hard to know what to trust. This pressure then becomes overwhelming and leads to eco-guilt because it’s impossible to know where to start.
So ‘let’s take this back to the basics from our primary school lessons all those years ago reduce, reuse and recycle. It’s about your thought process. Ask yourself questions before making a purchase or before doing some housework. ”Do I need this top, will it go with the clothes in my wardrobe, can I see myself wearing it years down the line”. If yes then you don’t need to feel eco-guilt, but if you know deep down ‘you’ll get bored of the clothes as the trend dies maybe don’t buy the Primark or Topshop version.
With housework and sustainability its amazing, because not only are you free of any eco guilt, you will save yourself so much wasted time, effort and money. Washing machines aren’t the devil, but they do need consideration. Every time you put a load on, make sure you have filled the machine don’t just wash one single random towel. Every time the washing machine washes any unnatural fabric microfibres of plastic are released into the water system. Aside from the environment, it wastes your electric, and these low-quality clothes won’t last as long. If you are trying to be sustainable with clothes, it’s no good unnecessarily washing them. It causes the colour to fade or the fabric to get bobbled much quicker. But this is why we do need to go back a step with this stuff. I recently read this fantastic article on Fast Company which articulated this well. It is saying how we ‘don’t need to wash and clean everything obsessively. Fifty years ago ‘you’d fill up the tin bath with kitchen water and one by one wash. It does make you think that we ‘don’t NEED to be washing everything after one use. It ‘won’t make us smell or a bad person. You can argue this obsession to constantly clean is part of the madmen effect. People wanted to sell more cleaning products. Therefore these advertising gods managed to convince the whole of society we had to wash everything daily with toxic chemicals in plastic bottles.
What do you think, do you get eco-guilt? Are you trying to embrace sustainability? Just think more before you buy, clean or eat more is what ‘I’m trying to do.
Love Charlotte xxx
I just love your playsuit!
I find alot of people on social media judge someone for not doing everything to help the environment for example; if they are a vegan but have a photograph of them with a plastic cup from a coffee shop they get some nasty comments. I think if we all do a bit & when we can it’s better than not doing anything to help our World.
I try to buy as little as possible, apart from groceries. I hate “fast fashion” and would much rather own a few good quality pieces than have a wardrobe overflowing with tat.
I try to do as much as I can but don’t always succeed in being eco. But every little bit helps.
I try to do what i can, ive just started to take my own containers in to my supermarket to try not to use so much plastic, food waste is something we are working on at the moment
Little by little I’m learning.
I’m more likely to buy conscious clothing, these days.
Reuse plastic containers and bags.
I pretty much always use public transport or walk too Just, a personal house but does help cut that carbon footprint down.
we all could do alot more to protect the environment
A candid and interesting post. Thank you.
Yes, our mothers and grandmothers mended and reused. I was taught to darn socks and make my own handkerchiefs by handrolling the edges. A friend of mine who is older was taught how to turn shirt collars. My mother used to preserve seasonal fruit and vegetables that we grew in the garden so we had a lot of our own food year round.
Although we live differently now, we can still all move towards a much more sustainable lifestyle.
We try has a family that we recycle everything that is possible
Great article, thank you. The greatest pressure has to be on companies and politicians, but it can help – both the environment, and the mental health of the eco-anxiety-prone – to make these smaller changes too.
I do whatever I can and every little helps!
I do what I can and I’m always looking for ways to do more. I never feel guilty though, I’m doing my best.
I personally blame supermarkets for a lot of the issues with sustainability. For example, why do all ready meals need to be in plastic packaging? Much of the fruit and veg doesn’t need to be in plastic and there are less and less counters that sell meats, cheeses, etc. without the plastic. I wish they would make it easier to purchase everyday things without the worry of single use plastic
I do as much as I can to be eco -but I am sure I could still do more. It’s important that everyone does what they can – it really does all add up.
Love Eco friendly & I do everything I can to help out environment
“Every time the washing machine washes any unnatural fabric microfibres of plastic are released into the water system” – I didn’t know this! I’m pretty embarrassed to have not known. I’m going to change the way I shop in future and switch to natural fibres. Thank you for such an informative post.
I’m trying to stop buying single use plastics
Yes I do suffer from eco-guilt – bought microfibre cloths to clean with years ago so I wasn’t sticking loads of chemicals in the house and now I’m worried about the micro-plastics!
You are so awsome and interesting, the world would be a better place if more people were like you!!
All looks good
I try to be more conscious of these things but I know I need to work more at it
I hate wasting things and always recycle as much as possible as it’s so satisfying x
We are always looking for ideas on how to improve
We don’t need to be getting it 100% right 100% of the time. We just need everyone to do SOMETHING in their own little way! I stopped eating meat and dairy products, but I still buy food with lots of plastic packaging because it is more convenient! I know I need to make more of an effort and seeing other people making changes really fills me with hope and desire to be better. I am really trying and I know every change I make is a good thing and we should just support each other
It’s easy to feel guilty about not doing enough but every little change you make is a step in the right direction ?
I pretty much always use public transport and walk/cycle eacg day to work.
Little changes are key!! Always reuse plastic containers and bags. I’m more likely to buy conscious clothing nowadays!!
I am suffering more and more eco-guilt by the day it seems. I feel like I really don’t know enough and should gain more knowledge on how to get better at it. I am trying hard with the elimination of plastics