Author: clomel

Sustainability is probably a word you hear all the time, in every sustainable website, class, presentation, and fake corporate ad. Barring the fake corporate ads, every content producer has the right intention. But often the long term sustainable lifestyle teachings are left by the wayside to make room for habits and fun activities that make sustainability easy and empowering. The truth is, real long term sustainability requires more than just habits. It requires a conscious and intentional change of mind. Admittedly, in a more practical sense the best approach to eliminating damage to our planet is to target the big production companies, which is best done by raising awareness about our planet and the need for sustainability.

However, if we’re to really recover from where we are today and keep going, we have to actually change how we go about our lives. Recycling, for example, is a largely misunderstood process, and it could be considerably more efficient if we better understood it. Too much of the recycling we assume dissapears from our record actually ends up in landfills, and for lots of reasons. For one, “wishful recycling,” which is the habit of erring on the side of recycling when deciding where your handful goes, puts unfortunate amounts of unrecyclable material into the system, which means there have to be comprehensive ways of removing it, which is costly and lowers efficiency.

Single stream recycling is somewhat to blame. When recycling was all separated at the household level, recycling was actually very efficient and effective, though it wasn’t very widespread. Nowadays, single stream recycling has made collection and involvement skyrocket, though it as a process is embarrasingly ineffective. Non-recyclables thrown in “just in case they are” comprise about 13 percent of all recyclables. Essentially, for every 10 trucks of completely recyclable material, 1 trucks worth is competely landfill bound. Also, glass is almost entirely not recycled. It’s simply not worth it after separating it from the rest of the recyclables. The best way to fix this is to require separation of recyclables, though immediately the problem with that is that most of people recycle because it’s taboo not to, not because they genuinely believe in the necessity of it. And so if it becomes any more difficult to recycle, it just won’t happen on a large enough scale to make it effective. Another big change we need to make is in the production on greenhouse gas emissions.

Or rather, in reducing it. Like I said, a vast majority of the destruction of our environment comes from a very small minority of the biggest companies. This makes it very easy in theory to reduce emissions, because bigger companies are more eager to improve their social image, and thus are very much subject to social opinons. And yet, the problem has not been solved. The truth is, the market works on interest, and interest is a lot harder to change than intention. Companies will say anything and do anything to get you to buy, and lying works. We must be more diligent in holding big corporate empires responsible. and we must be more diligent in how we think about sustainability. It’s more than a diet, it’s a wholesome way of life.

 

 

wamu.org/story/19/02/12/does-your-recycling-actually-get-recycled-yes-maybe-it-depends/

brightly.eco/why-your-favorite-companies-arent-going-green/#:~:text=The%20two%20most%20common%20reasons,just%20don’t%20hold%20water.

Coffee is arguably one of the most prevalent drugs in america, over 150 million americans are regular coffee drinkers, and lately during the pandemic around 85% of people have at least one cup of coffee at home. I personally have a cup every morning, partly for the energy but mostly for the routine. I’ve been doing so for a few years, and as a consequence have learned a lot about what it means to know where your beans came from. Many people don’t think twice about it, likely not even once. They just take their cup and keep walking. Many, however, do care about holding accountable the hands that deliver us our joe, and that’s led to a large movement in the past few decades towards keeping those hands clean. Today, we can deliberate over wide selections of coffee, varying in roast depth, flavor notes, origin, acidity levels, even the specific process by which the beans were roasted. Along with these often is information about how sustainable the farms and roasters are, allowing consumers to make informed decisions about their java.

First, we must understand the path of a coffee bean from crop to cup. Coffee trees actually come from the same beans we roast, and they take about 3-4 years to bear crop. They’re harvested either by hand or by machine, depending on the landscape, and if by hand, they can also be harvested selectively or all at once. They’re then either dried as they are, or processed with water to remove the pulp from the cherry that surrounds the bean. If processed wet they must still be dried after. The beans are then milled to remove the parchment layer, and sorted by weight and size. Then they’re shipped off and roasted in the importing countries, at about 550 degrees fahrenheit. Then they’re either packaged whole bean or ground, bought by consumers, and brewed (if packaged whole bean the consumer will grind it themselves). So, where is there room for sustainability?

Where the coffee plant is grown, all agricultural tenets of sustainability apply, such as avoiding unsafe pesticides and herbicides, conserving water, and supporting surrounding ecosystems. Where the beans are processed, dry processing helps to conserve water, though it may take more time. After imported, most beans go to cafes or commercial roasters and grinders, and it almost goes without arguing that large scale production is usually unsustainable. Once in your hands, you can brew them however you want, and some methods such as espresso machines and french presses are less wasteful then methods that require paper filters. Yet if you do use paper filters, most filters are compostable. Either way, you should try to find a way to compost your grounds, as they are relatively rich with nutrients for your compost.

It may feel like you don’t have much control over what happens before beans end up on the shelf, but you do. Aside from choosing companies that are green certified, fair trade, or organic, you can also choose coffee companies that dedicate themselves to furthering sustainable efforts in ways that you as a consumer may not be able to. Counter Culture Coffee, for example, publishes a transparency report every year that opens the windows on everything they’re doing to put stuff in your mug that you can feel good about. Not only does this keep them accountable, but it holds a higher standard for other companies who may not be honest about how sustainable they are.

There are lots of ways to be sustainable in your life, coffee is just one way. Yet the ability of consumers to hold big companies accountable for their actions is something that the coffee community does very well. We should all do our part to maintain a focus on our future.

 

Works Cited

National Coffee Association. NCA. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.ncausa.org/about-coffee/10-steps-from-seed-to-cup.